No longer interested in being the fourth nation to set foot on the moon, Japan has abandoned the project.
In the same launch last week that propelled NASA’s Orion spacecraft toward the moon in the Artemis I mission, Japan also placed into orbit its Omotenashi CubeSat.
However, once the Omotenashi CubeSat separated from the SLS rocket, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was unable to contact it, hence no effort was made to settle on the moon.
According to Kyodo News, mission chief Tatsuaki Hashimoto called the outcome “very unfortunate.”
JAXA conceded on Tuesday that they had been unable to make contact with the CubeSat after many days of attempting, and they promised to investigate the cause of the failure. We do know that Omotenashi’s solar cells stopped working after it separated from the rocket.
The Omotenashi CubeSat measures 37 cm on its longest side and weighs 27.8 pounds. The purpose of the $5.6 million mission was to prove that landing on and exploring the Moon could be done for a reasonable price. The CubeSat’s mission is to collect data on the radiation environment on and around the moon.
A cold gas thruster was used to place the CubeSat into a lunar-impact orbit, and a solid rocket motor was used to slow it down for the landing. If everything had gone according to plan during the landing phase, the lander would have dropped its rocket and fallen around 100 meters. The lander would have released a little airbag right before it crashed onto the moon’s surface, softening the blow.
Even though Omotenashi won’t be landing on the moon any more, mission controllers may be able to make contact with the CubeSat in 2019 if its solar panels are oriented toward the sun. The group will be able to get radiation readings taken throughout their space mission.
The United States, Russia, and China are the only countries to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. Japan will have to wait a bit longer before it can join the club.
