Hakuto-R1 lands on Moon but ceases communications at touchdown
Hakuto-R1’s planned landing site is in Atlas Crater.
According to the Hakuto-R1 engineering team, the lander provided full data and maintained communications right up until touchdown, but at that point they lost contact with the spacecraft.
The loss of data at landing suggests something went wrong at touchdown. That they were able to maintain contact until then, and the data appeared correct, suggests that the spacecraft descended properly into Atlas Crater, but then touched down on some rough ground that either caused it to topple, or damaged it on contact.
This remains speculation however. We will have to wait for a full update from Ispace.
This was a engineering mission to test the company’s spacecraft design and its ability to operate a lunar mission. The failure at landing means it achieved about 8 to 9 of its 10 milestones. How this final failure will effect its next mission as well as its contract with NASA remains unclear.
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Hakuto-R1’s planned landing site is in Atlas Crater.
According to the Hakuto-R1 engineering team, the lander provided full data and maintained communications right up until touchdown, but at that point they lost contact with the spacecraft.
The loss of data at landing suggests something went wrong at touchdown. That they were able to maintain contact until then, and the data appeared correct, suggests that the spacecraft descended properly into Atlas Crater, but then touched down on some rough ground that either caused it to topple, or damaged it on contact.
This remains speculation however. We will have to wait for a full update from Ispace.
This was a engineering mission to test the company’s spacecraft design and its ability to operate a lunar mission. The failure at landing means it achieved about 8 to 9 of its 10 milestones. How this final failure will effect its next mission as well as its contract with NASA remains unclear.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Is the landing site at a location where they can get an image?
The Koreans and Scots may have improved the landing-problem on airless worlds, generally. Unfortunately they solved the problem today. A bit late.
I heard no reference in the introductory briefing to any prior attempt to survey or otherwise evaluate the surface at the target landing area. Nor did I hear any mention of any onboard radar or photo sensors to avoid landing in rough terrain.
In light of this, it is reasonable to conclude that the landing was essentially “blind”. Thus Hakuto could have simply dropped onto a boulder or other form of extremely uneven surface, and tumbled over.
The above question about whether the site could now be photographed after the landing raises the obvious question: could it or should it have been photographed beforehand?!
Interesting discussion of the loss of signal was five minutes after the planned touchdown .
Looking at the AMSAT-DL signal from Bochum Observatory, was the descent path wrong or did they plan the wrong time?
I don’t know if I trust the telemetry. 1 kph = .27777 meter/sec so I think it came in hot and bounced or spatted. I would be helpful if someone with the skill to simulate this reentry using the their telemetry for a sanity check.
Cameras images of the decent would have permitted mission control to send steering commands up to 5 seconds before touchdown to avoid boulders since it only takes 1.22 seconds for radio signals to reach the moon 1 way. Better luck next time.
Release I just read from iSpace says they monitored cessation of burn, followed by rapid increase in descent rate, followed by end of signal. Not a good look.
Ray Van Dune: Can you provide the link?
iSpace statement on Hakuto landing attempt:
https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/ispace-statement-on-the-hakuto-r-lunar-landing-attempt/
Did it run out of gas?
“Based on the currently available data, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach to the lunar surface. Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown. ispace engineers monitored the estimated remaining propellant reached at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased. After that, the communication loss happened. Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface.”