The United Arab Emirates’ first lunar rover and a toylike Japanese robot built to roll around in the gray dust on the moon were launched on Sunday aboard a SpaceX rocket by a Tokyo firm with their own private lander.
In order to reduce costs and maximize cargo space, ispace’s ships require less fuel than competitors’ designs. As a result, it will travel 1,000,000 kilometers away from Earth before turning around and crossing the moon at the end of April. In contrast, it only took NASA’s Orion crew capsule and two dummy astronauts five days to travel to the moon last month. On Sunday, the lunar flyby mission will come to a close with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Atlas crater, located in the northeastern portion of the near side of the moon, is the target for the ispace lander. It is more than 50 miles broad and little over 1 mile deep. When all four legs are extended, the lander reaches a height of over 2 meters. The United Arab Emirates plans to send a science satellite to orbit the moon in addition to Mars. Like the rest of the equipment on the mission, the Rashid rover weighs only 22 pounds and will spend its whole time working on the surface.
Companion robot
In addition, the Japanese Space Agency has sent a sphere the size of an orange that, once it reaches the moon, will convert into a wheeled robot. Toronto-based 360-degree cameras and a flight computer equipped with artificial intelligence to identify geological elements spotted by the UAE rover are also on board. The Japanese spark plug manufacturer provided the solid-state battery.
A small NASA laser study hitched a ride on the rocket and will go to the moon independently to search for ice in the continuously shadowed craters near the lunar south pole. The Japanese name for white rabbit, Hakuto, was chosen for the ispace mission. White rabbits are associated with the moon in Asian mythology. The private business hopes to arrive on the moon again in 2024 and again in 2025.
Established in 2010, ispace competed for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, which called for a manned lunar landing to take place by 2018. Ispace’s moon rover was abandoned before it could be sent into space.
