A JAPANESE STARTUP’S spacecraft was launched to the Moon this morning in the country’s first-ever lunar mission and the first of its kind by a private company.
The launch was carried out by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida after two postponements for additional pre-flight checks.
The spacecraft, produced by Tokyo-based startup ispace, blasted off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 2:38 am (07:38 Irish time), live footage of the launch showed.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/FEenmAJmOz
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 11, 2022
“Our first mission will lay the groundwork for unleashing the moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system,” the startup’s CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said in a statement.
So far only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface.
The ispace mission is the first of a program called Hakuto-R, which means “white rabbit” in Japanese.
Deployment of ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 confirmed pic.twitter.com/9R3Uw2qceS
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 11, 2022
The company said its lunar lander was expected to touch down on the visible side of the Moon in April 2023 — the year of the rabbit in Japan.
Measuring just over 2 by 2.5 meters, the spacecraft has a payload that includes a 10-kilogram rover built by the United Arab Emirates.
The Gulf country is a newcomer to the space race but recently sent a probe into Mars’ orbit last year. If the rover, named Rashid, successfully lands, it will be the Arab world’s first Moon mission.
The mission is also carrying polymer and metal samples created in a DCU lab to the moon.
The samples were produced in the university’s School of Chemical Sciences and affixed to the wheel of the Rashid Lunar Rover.
They will be the first Irish samples to reach the moon since the 1970s.
Speaking to The Journal last month, Dr Susan Kelleher, an Assistant Professor of Polymer Chemistry at DCU who led the preparation of the samples, confirmed that they are still aboard the vessel and will be used to study how moon dust adheres to different surfaces.
“Moon dust is very sticky and gets everywhere,” she said. “It’s abrasive and can damage seals on instruments or interfere with electronics.”
“It’s been named as one of NASA’s top ten challenges in getting to the moon and further still, understanding how to stop [its dust] from sticking things is a big question.”
Eight sample surfaces, a combination of polymer and metal samples with micro- and nano-scale patterns on their surface as well as unpatterned control samples, were prepared for the lunar rover last year with the help of funding from both Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council.
The United Arab Emirates Space Centre and the European Space Agency worked alongside Dr Kelleher and her team throughout the project.
- Additional reporting Sarah McGuinness
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