Our HAKUTO-R Series 1 Lander has entered a low-energy orbit and is currently expected to land on the Moon in April 2023. This fuel-saving transfer method uses the gravity of the Sun, which helps save propellant and maximize customer payload space.#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
Our Ops Team has successfully carried out the second orbital control maneuver of our HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander operations plan!Since its launch on Dec. 11th, 2022, our lander has maintained stable navigation. (1/3)#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
As of today, the lander has traveled approximately 1.24 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20. (2/3)Read more here:
ispace Successfully Carries Out Second Orbital Control Maneuver2 Jan, 2023TOKYO—January 2, 2023—ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully carried out its second orbital control maneuver in accordance with its mission operations plan.The maneuver was carried out shortly after midnight on Jan. 2, 2023 (Japan Standard Time) and operations were managed from ispace’s mission control center located in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. This orbital control maneuver is the second maneuver to occur while the lander has been traveling to the moon. The first orbital control maneuver was completed on December 15, 2022.The second maneuver was carried out at a greater distance from Earth and lasted for a longer period than the first maneuver, verifying the company’s capability to carry out orbital maneuvers under various conditions.As of Jan. 2, 2023, the lander has traveled approximately 1.24 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20, 2023. Once the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status.Since its launch on Dec. 11, 2022, the lander has maintained stable navigation in accordance with the mission plan. Once the lander has navigated deep space for one month, it will have achieved Mission 1 Milestone Success 5, at which an announcement is expected to be made.Further updates about the status of the lander continue to be made on social media.
When the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status. Once it has navigated deep space for one month, Mission Milestone Success 5 will have been achieved. Stay tuned for more updates! (3/3)
New blog post: Decoding #hakuto_r M1. Here I decode the X-band telemetry of the @ispace_inc lunar lander using some recordings by @amsatdl. The signal is 16kbaud PCM/PSK/PM with 128kHz subcarrier and 1115 byte k=1/2 Turbo coded AOS frames. (1/2)
I reverse engineer the ADCS telemetry, showing how having the gyroscope and quaternion data together helps us a lot by giving us the format of the quaternions (here scalar-last, body to inertial) and the units of the gyroscopes (deg/s).Read more: https://destevez.net/2023/01/decoding-hakuto-r-m1/ (2/2)
Mission Milestone 5 ✅!Our HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully completed a month-long stable navigation and nominal cruise in deep space! As of today, it is currently approx. 1.34 million km from Earth. (1/3)Read more: ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4247#ispace #lunarquest
ispace Completes Success 5 of Mission 1 Milestones11 Jan, 2023HAKUTO-R M1 Lunar Lander Navigates in Deep Space for One MonthTOKYO—January 11, 2023—ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully completed Success 5 of its Mission 1 Milestones by completing a month-long stable navigation and nominal cruise in deep space.The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander, which was successfully launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 11, 2022, completed its first orbit control maneuver on Dec. 15, 2022, followed by a second orbital control maneuver on Jan. 2, 2023. The completion of these operations as part of the mission plan, including multiple orbital control maneuvers, over a period of one month is considered highly significant because it increases confidence in future Mission 1 flight operations and provides crucial data that will be incorporated into plans for Mission 2 and Mission 3.As of Jan. 11, 2023, the lander has traveled approximately 1.34 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20, 2023. Once the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status.Since its launch on Dec. 11, 2022, the lander has maintained stable navigation in accordance with the mission plan. During the next stage of navigation, the M1 lander will utilize gravitational forces to complete all deep space control maneuvers and prepare for an orbital insertion. The completion of these maneuvers, currently projected for late March, will signify the achievement of Mission Milestone 6, at which point an announcement is expected to be made. Subsequently, Success 7 of the Mission Milestones, the lunar orbit injection, is scheduled to take place soon thereafter.While we do not expect an official milestone announcement for some time, further updates about the status of the lander continue to be made on social media.@ispace_inc (https://twitter.com/ispace_inc)
The above diagram approximates the position of the M1 lander and is for visualization purposes only.Actual position, distances and scale of spacecraft and stellar bodies may differ.
As of the evening of January 20 (JST), our HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has traveled about 1.4 million km, reaching its maximum distance from Earth on its journey to the Moon!
Despite this great distance, the lander has maintained a steady operational state and has remained in contact with our Mission Control Center (MCC) in Tokyo, Japan.
The lander will continue to perform gravitationally assisted deep space control maneuvers and prepare for an orbital insertion in this stage of navigation. Stay tuned for more M1 updates!#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
We are excited to introduce a whole new way to follow along with our HAKUTO-R Mission 1! Using our M1 Lander Tracker, you can see our lander’s approximate location as it makes its way to the Moon. This image shows the lander’s estimated location as of Jan 27.
Keep an eye out for more updates on our ispace Twitter account! You can also check out the tracker on our website here: https://ispace-inc.com/m1 #ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
Yesterday our Ops Team successfully carried out the 3rd orbital control maneuver of our HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander operations plan! The lander is currently traveling about 1.3 million km from Earth. (1/3)
In preparation for the most recent maneuver, engineers at our Mission Control Center in Tokyo ran practice simulations. The team continues to check the status of the lander daily and have reported that the lander has maintained stable navigation since launch on Dec. 11th. (2/3)
Stay tuned for more M1 updates! (3/3)📷: The lander's approximate navigation point as of Feb. 3rd#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
"Making its way closer after reaching its furthest point in January, our HAKUTO-R M1 lander is now approximately 1.2 million km away from Earth." - Angel Milagro: Lead Spaceflight Operations Engineer#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
Our Mission Control Center (MCC) in Tokyo has received another image from our HAKUTO-R M1 lander-mounted camera! (1/4)
This image was taken about 4 minutes after separation from the @SpaceX launch vehicle at an altitude of about 1,800 km. In this picture, you can see the Earth on the left, and the pinkish hue in the corner is a reflection from the multi-layer insulation (MLI). (2/4)
The farther the lander is from Earth, the longer it takes to receive high-resolution pictures. In addition to daily operations, our Ops Team works to balance schedules to allow time to acquire images while communicating with the lander. (3/4)
We plan to capture images of the Moon on our approach, so please watch for more as we get closer! (4/4)#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest
The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander is currently traveling at a speed of 520 meters per second. This is about the same speed as a person standing near the Earth's equator would rotate on his or her own axis, and about the same speed as a supersonic aircraft at Mach 1.5! - Samuel Richards (Spaceflight Operations Engineer)
"We're getting closer to the Moon! As of today, our HAKUTO-R M1 lander is about 800,000 km from Earth. With this shrinking distance, we're able to use higher data rates and download more data for the mission and our customers." - Ryoji Mizuniwa: Mission Operations Engineer
Japanese lunar company ispace says its Mission 1 lander is scheduled to land on the moon at the end of April.It's traveled ~1.376 million km, "becoming the farthest privately funded, commercially operating spacecraft to travel into space."
ispace also announces that manufacturing the Structural Thermal Model for the Mission 2 lander began earlier this month in Japan, with testing next. Flight model assembly is expected in Germany in April, with integration and further assembly after in Japan.
We are pleased to announce that our #HAKUTO_R Mission 1 lander has entered the second phase of its mission! The lander is now on a trajectory to the Moon with a scheduled landing for the end of April 2023. Read here for more: https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4362#ispace #lunarquest
ispace Releases Interim Success Report for HAKUTO-R Mission 128 Feb, 2023Mission 1 Lunar Lander Enters Second Phase of Transit,Becomes Farthest Commercial Operating Spacecraft to Travel into Deep SpaceTOKYO—February 28, 2023—ispace, inc., (“ispace”) a global lunar exploration company, released an interim success report and announced that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has entered the second phase of its mission, having traveled to its farthest point from Earth into deep space. The lander is now on a trajectory to the Moon with a scheduled landing for the end of April 2023.The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander was launched Dec. 11, 2022, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Since being deployed from the rocket, the lander has traveled approximately 1.376 million kilometers into deep space becoming the farthest privately funded, commercially operating spacecraft to travel into space.As the cruise continues, ispace’s flight team is expecting to complete all deep space orbital maneuvers before Lunar Orbital Insertion to occur around mid-March 2023 (“Success 6”), followed by a Lunar Orbital Insertion maneuver to occur around late March 2023 (“Success 7”). More details will be released once the exact date and timing have been determined.The announcement was made by Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace, and Ryo Ujiie, CTO of ispace along with other executives at a press conference hosted today in Tokyo.This press release contains forward-looking statements. They are based on certain assumptions and forecasts of when this press release was prepared, on the basis of information available to us at the time such statements were made. These statements and assumptions may not be objectively correct or may not be realized in the future.The interim success report consists of an overview of the lander’s subsystems and operations during the first phase of flight while traveling on the low-energy transfer orbit to the Moon. The lander has proven its flight worthiness, having been integrated into the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, deployed following launch and then undertaken multiple orbital control maneuvers while on a stable course to the Moon. The ispace Mission Control Center staff have also proven their expertise while managing the lander’s operations to the Moon. Lander’s Subsystem Status UpdateStructure: The lander was designed and tested to show compatibility with Falcon 9 launch environments and compliance with U.S. Range Safety requirements. During the first phase of its transit, ispace engineers confirmed that the lander’s structural design was able to withstand the harsh mechanical environment of both the launch and deployment phases without sustaining damage to any element of the lander, corresponding to Success 2 of Mission 1 milestones. Even after being subjected to such high structural stress phases, the lander’s legs were also successfully deployed.Thermal: The thermal condition after the launch was hotter than planned, but since the temperature range was within the flight team’s expectation, its impact has been closely managed and controlled.Currently, the flight team is carefully analyzing any impact to the lunar surface operation as well as ongoing space cruise. A positive side effect has been saving heater power consumption during the flight. Closely controlled power management at Low Lunar Orbit is expected to to allow more flexibility in the operation.Communication: During the initial phase of launch, an unexpected communication instability occurred immediately following deployment from the launch vehicle. ispace engineers were able to quickly identify and resolve the issue and establish a communication link. Since that point, communication uplinks and downlinks between the lander and ground have been stabilized. The link performance has been as expected and all necessary data for the flight operation has been downloaded in a timely manner. Moreover, in order to maximize the downlink and uplink rates to efficiently download and upload data, the flight team has evaluated the lander’s trajectory and ground station parameters (e.g. antenna size and minimum elevation angle of antenna) for each communication path, and successfully optimized transponder parameters.Power: The power generation performance is higher than expected based on solar panel performance, resulting in positive performance during the flight, including more flexible attitude management plan at each attitude change operation and may result in possible relaxed power management plan at the Low Lunar Orbit in the future. In addition, there has been no unexpected power consumption to date. During the flight, the flight team has carefully evaluated the battery charging level and determined it to be normal.Propulsion: Both the main propulsion system and Reaction Control System (RCS) have shown expected performance. A main propulsion tank’s temperature is hotter than expected, as described in the thermal section, but no major impact has been identified during this stage of the cruise. To prepare for longer burns around the Moon, the impact is being analyzed in detail now. RCS thrusters on one side of the lander were determined to be hotter than planned due to continuous sun illumination, but the flight team has confirmed it remains within the acceptable range. To avoid any potential damage, a proper offset was added on the lander’s attitude, and the temperature has returned to the expected range.Onboard Computer All nine onboard computers are working. The cadence of 1 bit memory error detection is higher than expected, but it remains within the manageable range. Although one computer has rebooted multiple times, there has been no significant impact on the operation due to redundancy in the lander’s design. All autonomous sequences have worked as expected and the daily parameter update has been steadily carried out.Guidance, Navigation, and ControlDespite brief periods of unstable attitude performance during separation from the launch vehicle, due to an unexpected sensor performance influenced by the Earth, Sun, and lander positions, the attitude control has been stable. Even with the instability, the flight team recovered the proper attitude and took adequate countermeasures to avoid the same issue by tuning parameters. Because the RCS propellant was additionally consumed at each transition, the flight team updated GNC parameters and has successfully saved propellant. On the one hand, the orbital control maneuver algorithm has shown expected performance, and no trouble has been detected even through each critical Orbital Control Maneuver operation.PayloadThe communication between all customer payloads and lander was successfully confirmed, and all checkouts were also completed without any issue, corresponding to Success 3 of Mission1 milestones. Each customer has subsequently confirmed their payload status. In addition, customers have confirmed receipt of data during the flight. Following checkout processes, one of the payloads encountered an issue, however the customer and ispace engineers jointly worked to successfully recover the payload functionality. Our internal payload, ispace’s camera, took several photos and videos of the Earth, with quality meeting expectations. Of note, the flight team carried out a once pointing operation for one of the shots, and the Earth was successfully captured by the camera due to the proper pointing operation. Flight Status UpdateLEOPLaunch and Early Operation (LEOP), corresponding to Success 3 of Mission 1 milestones, was successfully completed. The flight team required longer duration to complete the operation due to an unstable communication (see Communication section) and a sensor anomaly (see GNC section), but the lander was successfully guided to a stable condition by the team. In general, LEOP is always one of the most difficult moments in spacecraft operation, and this proved to be the case for ispace’s maiden voyage. Despite the longer than expected duration of the operation and maiden flight concerns, the flight team quickly identified issues during the operation and took proper action under pressure.OCMThe flight team has already successfully completed three Orbital Control Maneuver (OCM) operations in total, since first Orbital Control Maneuver, corresponding to Success 4 of Mission 1 milestones. Each OCM is a critical operation, and significant preparation is required before each execution. For each maneuver, the flight team analyzed the lander’s trajectory at the time, planned an OCM to guide the lander into an ideal trajectory, uploaded a parameter set to realize the maneuver, carried it out as planned, and finally evaluated the performance. All OCMs were executed precisely and within expectation, and the achievements have proven the lander system performs as designed and the flight team is capable of carrying out critical operation properly.Daily CruiseThe flight team has planned and executed daily house-keeping operations effectively, and flexibly performed payload operations during cruise. Even during cruise, any previously mentioned anomalies that have been identified were immediately shared with the team and the solutions have always been prepared and executed within a timely manner. Before each solution execution, the flight team also carried out a flight simulation to verify and validate that the solution won’t cause any extra issue and will work as expected. This effort results in our current stable operation, and it gives us more confidence in the incoming future operations.To this point, each subsystem has been verified in each phase from LEOP, OCM and daily cruise. During the second phase of Mission 1, further verification of each subsystem function is planned during both the lunar orbit injection and lunar landing phases.Valuable feedback such as data and operational experience obtained to this point has already been incorporated into Mission 2 and Mission 3, which will contribute to NASA’s Artemis Program. These two missions will further improve the maturity of ispace’s technology and business model. Development of the landers and customer payload acquisition for Mission 2, planned for 2024, and Mission 3, planned for 2025, are already in progress. Further details are announced in “ispace Releases Updates on Progress of Mission 2 and Mission 3.”
ispace Releases Updates on Progress of Mission 2 and Mission 328 Feb, 2023Leveraging Mission 1 Interim Success, Full-Scale Development for Mission 2 and Mission 3 Under WayTOKYO—February 28, 2023—ispace, inc., (ispace) a global lunar exploration company, released significant updates on the progress of its Mission 2, planned for 2024, and Mission 3, planned for 2025.Valuable feedback such as data and operational experience obtained to this point has already been incorporated into Mission 2 and Mission 3. These two missions, which will contribute to NASA’s Artemis Program, will further improve the maturity of ispace’s technology and business model. Development of the landers and customer payload acquisition for Mission 2, planned for 2024, and Mission 3, planned for 2025, are already in progress.This press release contains forward-looking statements. They are based on certain assumptions and forecasts of when this press release was prepared, on the basis of information available to us at the time such statements were made. These statements and assumptions may not be objectively correct or may not be realized in the future.Mission 2 UpdateMission 2, part of the HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program, will serve as the company’s second technological demonstration with the objective of further validating the lander’s design and technology, as well as ispace’s business model to provide reliable lunar transportation and data services, based on lessons learned from Mission 1.In addition, Mission 2 will serve as an initial test of its resource exploration activity, a set of core measurements to drive the company’s mid-to-long term vision to develop the cislunar ecosystem. The M2 lander will carry commercial payloads as well as ispace’s own micro rover, in furtherance of the company’s data service. Mission 2 will involve collection of lunar data from both the lander and micro rover that will be applied to tools and applications, which will be provided as a service to potential customers for future mission planning and lunar surface development. The tools are planned to be developed utilizing data that will be collected from Mission 1 and synthesized with publicly available data from government space agencies as a basis for the future database platform.The micro rover is planned to be equipped with a collection device to capture lunar regolith, with the expectation of fulfilling the company’s second lunar regolith contract with NASA. The contract awarded in December 2020, to ispace EU, calls for the collection of lunar regolith to complete an “in-place” transfer ownership to the U.S. space agency.ispace today announced that manufacturing of the Structural Thermal Model (STM) for the Mission 2 lander began earlier this month at a Japan Airlines (JAL) facility at Narita International Airport in Japan. ispace’s Series 1 lander, similar to the Mission 1 design, will be used for Mission 2. A manifest of its commercial payload customers for its second mission was also released. Once the STM of the Mission 2 lander is completed and undergoes testing, ispace expects to begin a portion of flight model assembly in Germany in April. Further integration and assembly is planned to occur in Japan.Photos of the structural thermal model of the HAKUTO-R M2 lunar lander being assembled at a Japan Airlines Facility in Narita Airport.Mission 2 Payloads UpdateThe payloads represent ispace’s ability to attract a diverse group of customers interested in business development on the lunar surface. In addition to the ispace’s own micro rover, the payloads include multiple scientific experiments involving an attempt to conduct the first-ever water-splitting operation on the Moon, an experiment to test for radiation in deep space, and a proof-of-concept demonstration involving the world’s first food production experiment.Payloads to be delivered to the lunar surface include:● Takasago Thermal Engineering Co. Ltd.Takasago Thermal Engineering Co. Ltd., Japan’s largest company specializing in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), will transport equipment, now in development, to the lunar surface to attempt to conduct the first-ever water-splitting based on the company’s proprietary technology.Takasago, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, has served as a corporate partner of ispace’s HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program since 2019.● Euglena, Co. Ltd.Euglena Co. Ltd., a bio-venture company based in Tokyo, succeeded in 2005 in establishing the world’s first outdoor mass cultivation technology of the micro-algae Euglena for food production. Now, the company is planning to transport a self-contained module equipped with observation functions to the Moon to conduct the world’s first food production experiment on the lunar surface. The module will be used to cultivate micro-algae and conduct experiments for future food production in space.● National Central University, Taiwan: Deep Space Radiation ProbeThe Department of Space Science and Engineering at Taiwan’s National Central University is developing a Deep Space Radiation Probe to autonomously measure radiation doses and radiation induced bit errors during the mission. The experimental unit will be integrated onto the lander’s top panel as a payload and will be able to send data to mission control for future scientific studies of the space environment and its effects on electronics and biological organisms.Mission 3 UpdateCurrently, ispace US is conducting the remaining Series 2 lander development and qualifications. To support communications on the far side of the Moon, the Mission 3 lander will deploy two communications relay satellites, which are designed to remain in lunar orbit for multiple years. Propulsion testing for the Series 2 lander has begun and further announcements are expected in the near future.While the Series 2 lander leverages lessons learned from the company’s Series 1 lander, it is an evolved platform representing ispace’s next generation lander series with increased payload capacity, enhanced capabilities and featuring a modular design to accommodate orbital, landed, or rover payloads.Mission 3 Payloads UpdateIn July 2022, Team Draper was awarded a NASA CLPS payload contract worth $73 million USD to carry scientific missions to the lunar surface. ispace technologies, U.S. (ispace U.S.), serving as Team Draper’s design agent and subcontractor, has been in the full-scale design phase of the Series 2 lander to be utilized for the mission.In addition to the NASA scientific payloads, ispace is currently seeking commercial payload customers and is currently negotiating final payload service agreements[1] with the following company:● AstronetX PBCAstronetX and ispace are currently negotiating a payload agreement to fly the first AstronetX Lunar-based Camera (L-CAM) to the lunar surface in 2025. L-CAM is a wide-field survey camera that will enable precise photometry and astrometry of transient sources, as well as measurements of the lunar exosphere background emission. The data gathered by L-CAM would provide valuable insights into the Moon’s uniqueness as an observing platform, advancing research in astronomy and solar system science, monitoring the lunar environment, and helping to ensure safety of flight for missions in cislunar space.In addition to the payload customer mentioned above, as of Feb 2023, ispace has reached several interim payload service agreements1 with the following three companies:● ArkEdge Space, Inc.ArkEdge Space, a company that promotes a wide range of missions from low earth orbit constellations to deep space exploration using nano-satellites with headquarters in Tokyo, and ispace have agreed to an interim payload service agreement in February 2023 to deliver a 15 kg payload to the lunar orbit.● Aviv Labs, LLCAviv Labs, an Israeli-American team headquartered in Silicon Valley, and ispace U.S. have agreed on an interim payload service agreement in December 2022 to deliver a first of its kind miniaturized greenhouse payload to the lunar surface, and attempt to grow edible plants on the Moon for the first time.● CesiumAstro, Inc.CesiumAstro, Inc., an industry leader in active phased array communications payloads for space and airborne systems based in Austin, Texas, and ispace US have reached an interim payload service agreement to carry its innovative active phased array antenna and software-defined communications technology to the lunar surface and lunar orbit.[1] The negotiations and interim payload service agreements indicated above are non-binding, and there is no assurance that ispace will enter into binding agreements. Even if binding agreements are reached, the payload masses under such agreements may differ from the masses or descriptions indicated above.
"Our HAKUTO-R M1 lander is now in the 2nd phase of transit, at approx. 610,000 km from Earth. To achieve lunar orbit, this phase will require the use of longer maneuvers, which our Ops Team has been working hard to prepare for." - Krishna Soni: Spaceflight Operations Engineer
