According to Japan’s ispace, the UAE’s Rashid rover’s spacecraft likely crashed when it attempted to touch down on the Moon on Tuesday. Just before scheduled touchdown, Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander lost contact with mission control in Tokyo. Ispace stated that its engineers were still looking into what had transpired early on Wednesday.
The Hakuto-R Mission Control Centre in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical posture as it made its final approach to the lunar surface based on the data currently available, it added.
“Shortly after the anticipated landing time, no data indicating a touchdown was received.” According to the business, the spacecraft’s remaining propellant was running out during the landing attempt, and shortly after that, the drop speed quickly picked up.
This may indicate that during the attempted touchdown, the spacecraft ran out of fuel, resulting in the engines shutting off and the lander colliding with the Moon’s surface.
“The loss of communication followed that. This has led to the conclusion that there is a strong likelihood that the lander will eventually make a hard landing on the Moon’s surface, according to Ispace.
I feel like we’ve already succeeded, you know, regardless of what happens, I think, because we established a very strong team — a team that can build missions that can operate on the lunar surface,” he remarked.
“It’s not just about engineering when you build a mission like that. It involves every aspect of science, operations, command and control, and other related topics. We were able to develop a rover here in the UAE and produce those in-house.
The mission’s creator, Takeshi Hakamada, stated, “Although we do not anticipate finishing the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully completed the purpose of this mission, having collected a tremendous amount of data and experience by being able to conduct the landing phase.
