Lunar Lander Resilience from Japan Experiences Loss of Connection with Earth
Losing Contact: Ispace's Lunar Lander Misfire
In an unexpected turn of events, Japanese space tech firm Ispace is grappling with communication issues, following the moon landing of its Resilience lunar lander. The ground control team is persistently attempting to re-establish contact, approximately 15 minutes post the scheduled landing. If the lander remains intact, Ispace would make history as the first Japanese private company to accomplish a lunar landing successfully.
The ambitious Resilience lander aimed to touch down in Mare Frigoris, the moon's high northern region. Initial reports suggested that Resilience had safely departed its lunar orbit. However, during the one-hour descent towards the moon, contact was lost.
The planned mission objetives included sending images back to Earth and deploying a rover on the lunar surface. The rover, equipped with a shovel for gathering lunar dust and a whimsical red toy house by a Swedish artist, were meant to be part of the lunar terrain.
Lunar Landings: A Roller Coaster Ride
Historically, lunar landings have proven to be quite the challenge due to the moon's lack of a dense atmosphere. Without any air resistance, spacecraft must dramatically reduce their speed before descending—a task that's often fraught with complications. Approximately half of all lunar landing attempts have ended in failure.
Remembering Ispace's prior lunar mission in April 2023, contact was also lost just before landing. Fast forward to January 2024, Japan, this time through its state space agency JAXA, successfully landed on the moon for the first time. In February 2024, the US company Intuitive Machines managed to pull off the first commercial lunar landing in history.
The Private Lunar Lander's Success Story
Since 2019, private companies have gradually ventured into lunar landing missions, with varying degrees of success. For instance, SpaceIL, an Israeli company, attempted a lunar landing in 2019 but unfortunately, their Beresheet mission ended in a crash on the moon's surface.
More recently, some private companies have managed to encounter success. Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost mission on the moon in March 2025, marking the first clean and safe landing by a private entity. Intuitive Machines has also made lunar landings, though not without technical issues.
So, as Ispace waits anxiously for news from Resilience, the once-achieved success rate remains relatively low, with only a few private companies registering successes in lunar landings. The challenges faced by these companies include technical issues during flight and landing, among other factors.
Sources:[1] Spaceflight Now. (n.d.). SpaceIL. Spaceflight Now. https://spaceflightnow.com/spaceil/[2] Intuitive Machines. (n.d.). Intuitive Machines. Intuitive Machines. https://www.intuitivemachines.com/[3] Firefly Aerospace. (n.d.). Firefly Aerospace. Firefly Aerospace. https://www.firefly.space/[4] Astrobotic Technologies. (n.d.). Astrobotic Technologies. Astrobotic Technologies. https://astrobotic.com/
- In the context of space-and-astronomy, the loss of contact with Ispace's Resilience lunar lander highlights once again the complexities of science and technology involved in private lunar landings, given the historically challenging nature of these missions.
- Despite the setback, Ispace's ambitious mission to send a rover equipped with a shovel and a Swedish artist's toy house to the moon's surface underscores the next chapter in the advancement of science and technology, especially in the realm of space-and-astronomy.
