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Another Moon lander has failed. Companies building lunar missions need to expand their testing regime by collaborating not competing
ispace Japan’s second Moon lander RESILIENCE launched in January with the aim of a Moon landing. But just like its predecessor Hakuto-R’s fate about two years ago, RESILIENCE crashed into the Moon during its landing attempt on June 6. It was a moment of heartbreak for several lunar communities and space enthusiasts around the world. It’s also a moment to reconsider resilience in lunar exploration through expansive and collaborative lunar lander testing for private missions.
While ispace’s first lunar lander ultimately failed due to its navigation software rejecting correct altitude readings from the Moon provided by the laser rangefinder onboard, RESILIENCE failed differently. The latter’s rangefinder readings were correct only later in the descent around 1.5 kilometers above the surface. The lander thus hadn’t slowed down enough by the time it approached the Moon’s surface, crashing into it rather than gently landing. ispace Japan’s CTO Ryo Ujiie noted during the post-landing-attempt media briefing that RESILIENCE used a different rangefinder than on the first mission (M1) because the vendor had discontinued the earlier model.