The actual loss of Ispace’s unmanned rover Mission 1 to the lunar surface on Tuesday would not only be a blow to Japanese private space companies, it would also provide some valuable information to customers trying to reach the lunar surface. Payload will be completely lost. Month.
Two nations, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, will lose their first robotic rovers in lunar service.
JAXA, Japan’s space agency, intended to test two-wheeled transformable lunar robot, a small sphere with a camera for surface observation. Data from the device would have been used in the design of a manned pressurized rover that would allow transportation on the moon during future astronaut missions.
Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, part of the United Arab Emirates’ increasingly active space programme, Rashid, a small rover that was supposed to explore the landing site. The rover was set to “study lunar soil properties, lunar geology, dust movement, and surface plasma environment.” According to NASA.
It was the first Arab-made lunar spacecraft to launch into space and contained materials that make it “the first European technology to make contact with the lunar surface,” the European Space Agency said in a news release. .
Other payloads included an all-solid-state battery test module from Japan’s NGK Spark Plug Company, an artificial intelligence flight computer, and a 360-degree camera from Canadian aerospace contractor Canadensys Aerospace.
