The Japanese company ispace, inc, has announced new, strategic partnerships and plans to alter its mission schedule for the HAKUTO-R program, designed to provide responsive commercial lunar exploration services to various customers.
As part of this plan, ispace is scrapping its lunar demonstration mission next year in favor of a direct moon landing in 2021 followed by the deployment of a rover for surface exploration in 2023.
The decision to scrap the lunar pathfinder mission, which had been slated to launch as a secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next year, comes as part of ispace’s adjustment to the rapidly changing arena of lunar exploration programs and needs.
While China and India have steadily and progressively moved forward with their lunar exploration initiatives, the world of commercial lunar exploration took a gigantic leap forward last year when NASA announced its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The CLPS selected nine companies to split a total competitive award of $2.6 billion USD over 10 years with a goal of carrying scientific equipment, instrumentation, and other payload and cargo elements to the lunar surface.
ispace is part of the CLPS because Draper, an American not-for-profit which received one of the nine competitive contracts, partnered with ispace to have the Japanese company serve as the design agent and manager for landing mission operations.
Prior to and after the partnership began, ispace was planning to launch a lunar demonstration mission in 2020 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with subsequent missions to land on the moon and then deploy a rover.
According to ispace, this demonstration mission was one of the primary reasons Draper and ispace combined forces to support NASA’s CLPS.
However, “to increase competitiveness and guarantee [our] ability to support NASA’s needs, as well as to meet the several other market demands developing worldwide, [we] decided to shift resources to realize a successful landing mission in 2021,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
Elimination of the orbiter demonstration mission carries its own risks that now need to be addressed, such as ensuring the system’s reliability to enter lunar orbit and conduct a landing just two years from now.
The lander itself also carries its own challenges, having to be small and lightweight, with ispace noting that the lander has “various hurdles and [optimization of] structural and propulsion systems” obstacles to overcome.
Lightweight landing gear also have to be developed as well as securing a contract for ground stations for the operation of the lunar lander and subsequent rover.
A mission control center also needs to be constructed in addition to the creation of operational plans and training of personnel.
But as ispace notes, “In order to maintain a leading role as a lunar development company, swift adaption to market growth and new business opportunities is required.”
To follow through on this timeline and meet the challenges posed, ispace announced yesterday a new partnership with Suzuki motors, a prime Japanese automaker, that will contribute “expertise and structural analysis” related to the design of the lunar lander’s legs and associated shock-absorption systems.
As related by ispace, “The HAKUTO-R spacecraft must be small and lightweight to decrease the launch cost. However, when reducing size and weight, several measures are required to maintain sufficient strength in the structural design.
“Leveraging Suzuki’s specialty in the manufacturing of small and lightweight, yet safe and reliable vehicles, the automaker is well equipped to support the structural development of HAKUTO-R’s lunar lander.”
Also announced yesterday was another partnership with Citizen Watch, a 100-year-old Japanese watchmaker and manufacturer.
We also announced an updated mission schedule for the HAKUTO-R Program. We will perform a lunar landing in 2021 and a lunar landing and rover deployment in 2023. https://t.co/jGaZ3eqRRE
— HAKUTO-R (@HAKUTO_Reboot_e) August 22, 2019
As part of this partnership, Citizen Watch will offer its expertise and its trademark Super Titanium material to the titanium components that will be used as part of the HAKUTO-R lunar lander and rover.
Founded in 2010, ispace is centered in Japan, with offices in the United States and the European Union as well. The company was one of five finalists for the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition with their HAKUTO lander program.
The HAKUTO-R program follows and builds upon the success the program had for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, which saw ispace complete a flight-ready lunar rover and deliver it to its launch site in 2017.
However, because ispace partnered with another organization that would have provided the launch vehicle and lunar lander, an organization that did not fulfill its side of the partnership, HAKUTO never launched to the moon.
The Google Lunar XPRIZE ended in March 2018 without a winner.
But with NASA’s CLPS now in operation, HAKUTO has received an opportunity at a second life, with ispace renaming the program HAKUTO-R – the “R” standing for “Reboot.”
In Japanese, Hakuto means “white rabbit” and is a nod to Japanese folklore of the white rabbit that lived on the moon.
With HAKUTO-R, ispace aims to become the first private Japanese company to perform a lunar landing.
Both of the organization’s planned missions in 2021 for a lunar landing and 2023 for a lunar landing complete with a deployable rover will launch as secondary payloads aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
These lunar rideshare missions mark the second such agreements for SpaceX, which earlier this year launched the Israeli lunar lander Beresheet as a secondary payload to the Nusantara Satu telecommunications satellite from Florida in February.
Per the current schedule, HAKUTO-R’s lunar lander mission will occur in October 2021, followed in March 2023 with the lunar lander and rover mission.