Almost as if it wanted to make a relay with the largest and most complex Artemis-1 lunar mission, last December 11, while the Orion spacecraft was landing in the Pacific, one of the tested Space X Falcon 9 rockets departed from Cape Canaveral (which 4 days space a “swarm” of 114 micro-satellites), to send the Japanese Hakuto-R M-1 mission created by ispace to the Moon. Which is itself part of the Artemis Program, led by NASA but with the cooperation of Europe, Canada and, of course, the Japanese space agency. It is a probe still on its way, and it travels a very long way: with missions without astronauts on board, on the other hand, it is not a priority to shorten mission times as much as possible. It is a journey that first takes it to a great distance from the Earth, to then return to the Earth-Moon system: it is now 1.3 million km from our planet, but it will not yet be its maximum distance, which will be 1.4 million km on January 20th.
The Hakuto-R “lander” with the UAE mini-rover of the M-1 mission
A white rabbit for the moon
Historically, there has always been a feeling between the Moon and the flag of the Rising Sun: Japan was the third nation in the world to send its own satellite to the surface of the sea, and after the former Soviet Union and the United States, in March 1990 sent the Hiten spacecraft to the lunar surface. In truth, the probe crashed (there was no certainty of the success of the landing): the fact is that Hiten was “physically” the third man-made object to have touched the lunar surface. And now we aim for a record. The lunar landing of a privately made probe. The spacecraft is part of a program called “Hakuto,” which is named after Japanese mythology.
In fact, according to a myth, a white rabbit lives on the moon, called Hakuto. And now he is traveling in space, after a course correction carried out on January 2nd and another one on the 20th, waiting for the moon landing scheduled for April. It consists of a “lander”, ie the landing module, built by ispace and called Lander Series 1, and a mini satellite from NASA to study the lunar South Pole. The lander is part of the Hakuto-R program, which includes this mission, called M1, and the subsequent M2. M1’s journey will last about 5 months, following a trajectory that will allow the lander to save fuel. And the European Space Agency is also involved, which provides support for communicating with the lander throughout the duration of the mission.
The profile of the mission that will last 5 months (Photo JAXA)
And an Italian in the team
The moon landing of the M1 mission could soon become the first managed and financed by a private company, together with the United Arab Emirates, since the small rover called Rashid, which is on board the Japanese lander, is their construction. The objective of space agencies and scientists, in view of the next moon landings also with astronauts, are the regions close to the poles, since it is from these areas that the presence of ice in the subsoil has been confirmed for some time now. With its landing legs deployed, the M-1 Hakuto lander reaches a height of 2.3 meters, with an empty mass of 340 kg. When fully loaded, it is estimated that its mass reaches about one ton. For the various maneuvers in orbit and the subsequent moon landing, Hakuto-R will use its propulsion system created by the European ArianeGroup.
An area located in the northern part of the visible lunar hemisphere was chosen as the landing site. In this way the luminosity will be prolonged, communications more stable and easier and the lander will be able to exploit the Sun to power the on-board instruments, thanks to its solar panels. In the team of this ambitious lunar mission there is also a young Italian researcher. His name is Federico Giusto, he is an engineer born in 1994 and he was contacted by another young Italian stationed in Tokyo, Davide Lizzani, popularizer and planetarist. Federico takes care of a rover that will be sent to the Moon with the M-2 mission, scheduled for 2025. But Federico also follows the current mission from the ground, as Spacecraft Operator for the lander that will have to land on the Moon.
The Emirates rover and a ball-shaped robot
The Rashid rover is a small concentrate of advanced technology weighing about 10 kg. Its task will be to study the lunar terrain (regolith) through two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic one for small details and a thermal one. Also on board the Japanese lander is a small spherical robot, developed by the Japanese agency JAXA with contributions from Sony and the toy company Tomy. Even the small spherical robot called “robot transformer”, weighing 250 grams, will have the task of studying the lunar soil. Its very particular design will allow it to almost “roll” on the lunar soil to analyze it, and its sphere will open in two, with the two hemispheres acting as wheels.
The NASA-developed Lunar Flashlight mini-satellite was supposed to launch aboard SLS, but the development team failed to make it within the deadline for its integration into the vector. With a mass of about 14 kg, it will follow an orbit that will take it above the lunar South Pole. In fact, its task will be to study and detect the presence of ice.