ispace

This article is about a Japanese space company. For the Chinese space company of the same name, see iSpace .

ispace, inc.
legal form	Kabushiki-gaisha
founding	2010
Seat	Minato , Tokyo , Japan
management	Takeshi Hakamada
Branch	unmanned space travel
Website	ispace-inc.com

ispace is a Japanese start-up companies , the moon landing device developed. It emerged from the originally Dutch team White Label Space ( ホ ワ イ ト レ ー ベ ル ス ペ ー ス ) - later Hakuto ( Japanese ハ ク ト ) - which was founded in 2008 to participate in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition . Hakuto was named after the hare in the moon , which played a role in East Asian mythology.

organization

Ispace is headquartered in the Minato district of Tokyo . In addition, offices in Luxembourg and at the Ames Research Center of NASA in California . The company had around 100 employees in August 2019.

Scheduled missions

Two separate moon landings are planned under the project name Hakuto-R - short for Hakuto-Reboot -: Mission M1 in 2021 and M2 in 2023 , the latter with a rover . They should each launch as a secondary payload with a Falcon 9 rocket. Ispace is also involved in the Russian-European Luna-27 mission planned for 2024 at the earliest .

Projects

Google Lunar X-Prize (2008-2018)

The Hakuto team was founded in 2008 under the name White Label Space by a group of "experienced space professionals" in the Netherlands. The team then named nine partner organizations:

• Advanced Operations and Engineering Services (AOES Group BV) - An international engineering service provider and consultancy that provided specialist support with design and analysis tasks related to the structures, thermal and propulsion subsystems on the landing equipment and rover.
• Swiss Propulsion Laboratory - Responsible for developing a low-cost engine for the landing stage. The laboratory owns or has had its own rocket motor test stand.
• Tohoku University Space Robotics Laboratory - The institute should develop the lunar rover for the mission.
• Airborne Composites BV - A developer of composite products and technologies for the aerospace and other industries. The company wanted to provide lightweight, high-performance composite structures for the mission.
• Emxys - A developer and manufacturer of embedded electronic systems for instrumentation and control for science and industry.
• Space Technology Group of the Technical University of Munich .
• LunarNumbat - A team of Australians and New Zealanders who wanted to develop open source hardware and software for the mission.
• Wroclaw University of Technology - developer of communications equipment for the aerospace industry.
• JAQAR Space Engineering - partner for orbital design and mission analysis .

In 2009 the team registered for the Google Lunar X-Prize competition. On September 10, 2010, the team established White Label Space Japan LLC , a registered limited company in Japan . On June 11, 2012 it was decided to name the prototype of the second unit, the rover (PM-2) "White Rabbit" (は く と). The team funded its lunar mission from advertising budgets from large global companies.

On January 30, 2013 there was a radical change in the structure of the team: The European team members left, but the members based in Japan continued their work. This was followed by a name change to Hakuto, as did the parent company, which was renamed from White Label Space Japan LLC to ispace Inc. This was accompanied by a change in leadership: Co-founder Steve Allen left and Takeshi Hakamada succeeded him, who now managed the business in Japan. On December 4, 2013, the team successfully completed the development and financing of the prototype of the third unit, the second rover (PM-3). On February 19, 2014, Hakuto was one of five teams to receive a prize, the so-called Milestone Prize , which was awarded for the successful development of a mobile subsystem.

In December 2016, Hakuto decided some of the costs incurred by the competitor, the T eam Indus, together to share and her two Rover with a carrier rocket of the type PSLV of ISRO to launch. The start was originally planned for December 28, 2017, but was postponed for a few months at short notice and then canceled in early 2018. The rover was now called Sorato .

Hakuto Lunar Lander and Rover Models (2019)

On January 23, 2018, Peter Diamandis , founder and chairman of the X-Prize competition , stated : “After intensive coordination with our five finalists over the past few months, we have come to the conclusion that no team will attempt to launch the moon within the deadline set by March 31, 2018. In addition, the Google Lunar XPRIZE in the amount of 30 million US dollars will not be used. ”The Hakuto team was then dissolved.

Most recently (as of March 2018) it was planned that a Hakuto rover would take part in the first mission of the lunar lander Peregrine of the Astrobotic company . This was planned for 2020 and was later postponed to 2021.

Hakuto-R (since 2018)

In the second half of 2018, ispace resumed the project under the name Hakuto-R and announced the launch contract with SpaceX for two moon flights. The first was planned for mid-2020 with an orbiter, the second for mid-2021 with a lander and several rovers. In August 2018, a new mission plan was announced: The orbiter flight is canceled; landing in 2021 is now expected to be without a rover, and a second rover landing is planned for 2023 .

Artemis-7 (since 2018)

To market its lunar lander technology to NASA , ispace joined forces with US companies Draper and General Atomics . Draper was already involved in the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer and is also participating in NASA's new CLPS program for commercial lunar landers . The CLPS lander developed by ispace bears the designation Artemis-7 and was not manufactured by ispace itself - like the Hakuto lander - but by General Atomics. Draper is responsible for the overall management of the project.

Luna 27 (since 2019)

ispace is involved in the "Prospect" lunar exploration project of the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA's “Prospect” devices are to be brought to the South Pole Aitken Basin by the Russian lunar lander Luna 27 at the earliest in 2024 and detect the suspected water ice deposits there. The ESA cooperation was announced in July 2019, shortly after the bankruptcy of the German PTScientists GmbH , which was also planning moon landings and was supported by ESA.

Web links

• Ispace website (English / Japanese)
• Old Hakuto website (English)
• Website of the White Label Space (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Japanese lunar lander company ispace on schedule for 2021 first mission . Spacenews, October 24, 2019.
2. ↑ About Us on ispace-inc.com, accessed August 23, 2019.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hakuto-R on ispace-inc.com, accessed on August 22, 2019.
4. ↑ Japanese Startup ispace to Launch Moon Lander Missions on SpaceX Rockets . space.com, September 26, 2018
5. ↑ White Label Space Official Partners Page , 2008-01-01.
6. ↑ Emxys - New Partner for Electronic Systems , 27 November 2009
7. ↑ ^{a b c} History ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Team Hakuto, 2014
8. ↑ WLS Japanese Office Open for Business , September 9, 2010
9. ↑ White Label Space - About Us ( Memento from February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Announcement: New Team Name is "HAKUTO" ( memento from October 30, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Google Lunar X PRIZE, July 15, 2013
11. ^ The Japanese Space Bots That Could Build Moon Valley . Sarah Scoles, Wired . May 14, 2018
12. ↑ White Label Space Moves Full Operations to Japan team White Label Space
13. ↑ チ ー ム 体制 変 更 の お 知 ら せ ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Team Hakuto, January 30, 2013
14. ↑ Japan's Hakuto was selected for Milestone Prizes finalists! ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Google Lunar X PRIZE, February 28, 2014
15. ↑ 15 Air and Space Missions We're Excited for In 2018 , Popular Mechanics, January 6, 2017
16. ↑ ^{a b} Japanese team competing in lunar probe contest to delay launch . Japan Times . November 8, 2017
17. ↑ Team Indus and Isro call off Their GLXP launch contract . The Ken, January 9, 2018.
18. ↑ What is meant is the main prize.
19. ↑ Mike Wall: Ex-Prize: Google's $ 30 Million Moon Race Ends with No Winner. space.com, January 23, 2018, accessed February 20, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Michael Coli: Astrobiotic Ready to Become Delivery Service to the Moon . Spaceflight Insider . 19th March 2018
21. ↑ Hakuto-R. In: ispace-inc.com. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019 ; accessed on August 22, 2019 . 
22. ↑ ^{a b} Mission Timeline Adjustment for the HAKUTO-R Program. iSpace, August 22, 2019, accessed August 22, 2019 . 
23. ↑ Loren Grush: Japanese startup ispace is tapping Apollo-era expertise to build lunar landers for NASA. October 10, 2018, accessed August 23, 2019 . 
24. ↑ ispace Selected by European Space Agency to Support Lunar mission. In: Spacewatch. July 2019, accessed August 23, 2019 . 
25. ^ Prospecting on the Moon: Russia, Europe to Hunt for Lunar Ice. In: space.com. August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 25, 2019 . 
26. ↑ ESA supports startup on moon mission. ESA, April 3, 2019, accessed August 25, 2019 .