Japan's ispace Completes Miniature Lunar Rover, Plans for Moon Mission
TapTechNews July 31st news, the Luxembourg subsidiary of the Japanese space exploration company ispace has completed the construction of a miniature lunar rover and plans to send it to the moon.
This newly assembled lunar rover is about to be transported to Japan and integrated into ispace's Yutu-R lander. The entire assembly plans to hitch a ride on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and launch from Florida's Space Coast later this year.
According to TapTechNews, this is ispace's second attempt at a soft landing on the moon, and the first attempt in April 2023 ended in failure.
This miniature lunar rover named Tenacious will descend to the moon's surface from the lunar lander named Resilience. The rover is equipped with a front high-definition camera for capturing images of the moon's surface. The Tenacious rover will communicate with the ground station on Earth and receive instructions through the lander.
The rover is small in size, 26 centimeters high, 31.5 centimeters wide, 54 centimeters long, and weighs about 5 kilograms, which is comparable in size to the Chinese miniature lunar rover that recently went to the far side of the moon with the Chang'e-6 mission.
Tenacious was developed by ispace Europe, and part of the funds came from contracts provided by the Luxembourg Space Agency through the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Resilience lander will also transport commercial and scientific equipment to the moon's surface. According to ispace, the entire mission is expected to contribute to the Artemis program led by NASA.
Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace Europe, said: 'Tenacious' perfectly embodies the spirit of this small lunar rover, which is about to create a breakthrough milestone. It is the first lunar rover built in Europe and will send European customers to the moon's surface for the first time and collect space resources according to Luxembourg's Space Resources Law of 2017.
This company headquartered in Japan is also developing a third mission, which will use the APEX1.0 lunar lander currently under development for the first time. This mission is expected to be launched in 2026.