The Japanese lunar lander Hakuto-R stopped communicating after trying to land on the lunar surface. On board the module are the Rashid lunar rover, created in the United Arab Emirates, and a two-wheeled robot developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The landing was broadcast live on YouTube. Japanese engineers continue to investigate what happened.
HAKUTO-R Mission 1 was to be the first commercial mission to land on the moon. The Rashid, 50 cm long and weighing 10 kg, is equipped with solar panels, it has cameras, a thermal imager, as well as a microscope and a Langmuir probe. According to the plan, the lunar rover was supposed to reach a previously unexplored area – the Atlas crater, located on the edge of the Sea of Cold, and during one lunar day explore the lunar regolith and the environment near the surface of a celestial body.
Hakuto-R, developed by Japanese company ispace, was launched last December from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The module successfully entered lunar orbit on March 21st. The considerable duration of the flight made it possible to spend a minimum of fuel.
Until now, landing on the moon has been possible only within the framework of state missions of the USA, the USSR and China.