TOKYO. A Japanese private lunar lander is set to touch down on the moon’s far northern region on Friday, carrying a mini rover and an artistic payload in a bold attempt by the Tokyo-based company ispace.
The mission, dubbed Resilience, marks ispace’s second moonshot after its first attempt ended in a crash landing two years ago. It is part of the growing commercial lunar race that has seen private companies aiming for the moon since 2019.
Resilience, launched in January aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida, entered lunar orbit last month. It is targeting a flat, crater-filled area called Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, a region with ancient lava flows on the moon’s northern near side.
Once on the lunar surface, the 2.3-meter lander will deploy a small European-built rover named Tenacious. Weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), the carbon fiber-reinforced rover will carry a high-definition camera and a shovel to scoop up lunar dirt for NASA experiments.
Adding an artistic flair to the mission, the rover will also deliver a tiny red Swedish-style house, dubbed the Moonhouse by artist Mikael Genberg, as a symbolic gesture on the dusty lunar surface.
Takeshi Hakamada, ispace’s CEO, described the mission as a “stepping stone” to bigger plans, including a larger lander slated for 2027 with NASA’s involvement. “We’re not trying to corner the market. We’re trying to build the market,” said Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s U.S. branch, noting the significant economic potential in lunar exploration.
The mission underscores the increasing role of private companies in lunar exploration, a domain long dominated by government space programs. While the U.S., Russia, China, India, and Japan have all succeeded in robotic moon landings, only the U.S. has put astronauts on the moon so far. NASA aims to send astronauts around the moon next year and land a crew on the lunar surface in the coming years, while China plans to land its own astronauts by 2030.
The stakes remain high for private efforts. Two other U.S. companies, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology, are also eyeing lunar landings this year, with the latter’s first lander missing the moon entirely and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere in 2024.
For ispace, this mission is a chance to show resilience and contribute to an emerging lunar economy, opening new frontiers on the moon’s surface.
Edgaroo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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