月面げつめん着陸ちゃくりく失敗しっぱい “原因げんいんは高度こうど測定そくていセンサー” 「ispace」

In June, Tokyo-based startup ispace, which attempted Japans first private lunar landing but failed, held a press conference on the 24th and revealed that the cause of the failure was that the sensor measuring the altitude of the lunar lander did not function as expected, resulting in insufficient deceleration for landing.

The lunar lander developed by Tokyo-based venture company ispace failed to land on the moon on June 6. On the 24th, the company held a press conference in Tokyo to explain the cause of the failure.

According to this, analysis of the data sent from the lunar lander revealed that a sensor called a laser range finder, which measures altitude, did not function as expected, resulting in insufficient deceleration for landing.

The sensor was planned to start measurements at an altitude of about 3 kilometers, but in reality, it began measuring only after approaching to less than 1 kilometer above the lunar surface. Although it decelerated rapidly at that point, it was not in time and ended up crashing into the lunar surface.

Regarding the reasons for the delay in measurement, several possibilities have been raised, such as the sensors performance being lower than expected. Going forward, with technical support from organizations like JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, they plan to review the criteria for selecting sensors and methods for confirming their performance.

The company plans to launch a new lunar lander with a significantly increased payload capacity in 2027, two years from now, and says there are currently no changes to this plan.

Takashi Hakamada, CEO of ispace, said, I dont want to let this end as just a failure—I want to make the company stronger.

The location where the lunar lander crashed: NASA releases image NASA the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has released an image of the site where the lunar lander of Tokyo-based venture company ispace is believed to have crashed after failing to land on the moon.

The image was taken by a NASA satellite orbiting the Moon, and when compared with images of the same location taken in the past, it can be seen that a part that looks like a dark shadow and a surrounding area that appears white have newly appeared.

NASA analyzes that these are traces of lunar dust stirred up when the lunar lander crashed.