Cause Of April’s iSpace Hakuto-R Lunar Crash? Faulty Altitude Readings…

The data -- beamed back from the moon, before loss of signal -- points to a series of mistaken altitude readings as Hakuto-R glided toward the lunar surface.

The Japanese team's automated guidance systems mistook a crater's lip as flat plain-land, and assumed Hakuto-R was three miles nearer to touchdown than it was.

Consequently, the lander spent all its fuel well before final touchdown, and had nothing left to drop the gravitational acceleration / falling rate, for a soft kiss touch-down. Thus the hard landing caused loss of signal, and subsequent NASA photos from orbit indicate a shattering of the larger Hakuto-R components. Here's that report:

. . .Hakuto-R, the brainchild of the Japanese space company ispace, was set to become the first private lunar lander to successfully touch down on the moon, but it unexpectedly lost communication with ground control during its final descent. After several failed attempts to reestablish communication, ispace's team concluded that the spacecraft had suffered a "hard landing," impacting the moon rather than landing gently.

The next day, April 26, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) passed over Hakuto-R's landing site, snapping 10 images. Scientists compared these images with previous photos of the region in hopes of pinpointing the Japanese lander's final resting place. . . .

Now you know. Indeed, as we've said. . . essentially forever, space really is hard. Onward, just the same. We press. . . on.

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