Captured by NASA! The lunar lander "Resilience" from the Japanese company ispace has its crash site captured by a "lunar orbiter."

Captured by NASA! The lunar lander "Resilience" from the Japanese company ispace has its crash site captured by a "lunar orbiter."

2025年06月22日 14:15

1. Images of the Crash Site Taken by NASA

The images taken by NASA's lunar orbiter LRO on June 11 and officially released on June 20 clearly show a dark smudge and halo in the northern lunar region of "Mare Frigoris," indicating the crash traces of Resilience. This image release by NASA has been reported internationally by organizations such as IEEE and AP News houstonchronicle.com+5phys.org+5apnews.com+5.


2. What is Resilience? Its Purpose and Composition

  • Development Company: Tokyo-based ispace

  • Onboard Equipment: Luxembourg-made rover "Tenacious," scientific payloads from Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, worth approximately $16 million

  • Mission Goals:

    1. Collect lunar samples for commercial provision to NASA (world's first)

    2. Demonstration of ispace's lunar transportation technology

    3. Laying the groundwork for lunar habitation and colony construction in the 2040s.


3. Circumstances of the Landing Failure

In January 2025, Resilience was launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 and entered lunar orbit a few months later. However, during its descent for landing from above the polar region at the end of May, it was judged to have made a "hard landing" due to a misjudgment of the expected altitude (or a software altitude evaluation error). Since communication was lost at the time of landing on May 5, ispace has failed to re-establish contact and officially declared the mission a failure.


4. Position in Japan's Lunar Development Competition

  • ispace's Challenge: Although no results were achieved with the second failure, they aim to learn from past experiences and improve technology

  • Comparison with Competitors: In the world, U.S. companies Intuitive Machines and Firefly have succeeded. ispace aimed to be the first non-U.S. company to succeed reuters.com+1apnews.com+1


  • National Level Movements: In 2024, JAXA's SLIM will achieve its first success near the lunar south pole.Furthermore, manned and commercial developments are being pursued through Japan-US cooperation, including Toyota's "Lunar Camper Van" project apnews.com+3thetimes.co.uk+3reuters.com+3.


5. Future Prospects and Significance

  1. ispace's Next Plans: Multiple lander missions planned by the late 2020s. Seven units to be deployed from 2024 to 2029, continuing contracts with NASA and building private transport infrastructure reuters.com

  2. Strengthening Collaboration with NASA: As part of the Artemis program, the presence of Japanese companies is increasing, and the Japanese government is expanding financial support for space ventures

  3. The Dawn of International Commercial Lunar Utilization: Private-led lunar resource utilization becomes a reality through sample transactions.Expectations for Pioneering Resource Development Beyond Earth


6. Current State of the Moon as Revealed by Captured Images

  • Dust stirred by impacts spreads in a halo, confirming surface geological changes

  • Further exploration of the mechanisms of micro-impacts and geological formation is possible through high-resolution image analysis by LRO

  • Even impacts by private spacecraft could lead to the collection of scientifically valuable data


7. Impact on Japan and the World

  • Domestic: Activation of the space development ecosystem, including ventures, and a thriving domestic investment and stock market

  • International: Following the US, Europe, China, and India, Japan's private lunar lander could become a source of global trust and attention

  • Technological Innovation: Evolution and ripple effects of related technologies such as measurement, AI control, and autonomous landing are expected


Conclusion

  • NASA's LRO releases images of the ispace "Resilience" landing failure site

  • As a privately-led lunar mission, Japan is positioned at the forefront of global trends

  • Technical failures serve as a foundation for the next challenge.Expectations are rising for the progress in lunar resource utilization and manned missions through collaborations between Japanese companies and public organizations


List of Reference Articles

Reference Articles

NASA's lunar orbiter captures crash site of Japanese lunar lander
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-06-nasa-spacecraft-moon-site-japanese.html

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