Epiroc has announced that its partner ispace, a Japanese private lunar robotic exploration company, has now launched its Mission 2 to the moon on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
This follows the initial Hakuto-R Mission 1, which was launched in December 2022 for an attempted lunar landing in April 2023 carrying the Emirate Lunar Mission rover named Rashid. Unfortunately, the lander's descent failed and it was confirmed to have crashed into the surface of the moon.
The new lander, named the RESILIENCE, has been made with weight and size in mind, the RESILIENCE is designed to be small and lightweight enough to achieve a commercial lunar landing. The first mission reached the furthest a privately funded spacecraft has ever travelled.
The rockets carrying the lander there and back are partially reusable two-stage rockets, the world's first in the orbital class, manufactured in the US by SpaceX and launched in 2010.
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Since then, it has been used to launch various things into space, including lunar missions, satellites, and transporting crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
The rocket took off successfully from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US. It is now carrying ispace's micro rover TENACIOUS with a scoop developed by Epiroc which weighs less than 500g. The company stated that it is the smallest scoop that it has ever developed.
The Swedish equipment giant said that it should take an estimated 4-5 months to land on the moon. Under ispace's contract with NASA, the rover will collect regolith, also known as moon dust, before making the return journey.
