Japan “Altitude measurement problem”… re-challenge next year
India prepares for launch of Chandriyan-3
South Korea aims to launch lunar module in 2032
The 3rd launch of the Korean launch vehicle ‘Nuriho (KSLV-II)’ has been successfully completed, and attention is focused on the next step, ‘lunar landing’. So far, only three countries have successfully landed on the moon: Russia, the United States, and China. Which country will be the 4th country to land on the moon?
Japan, which was the most likely candidate, failed to land on the moon last month with the lunar lander ‘Hakuto-R M1 (Mission 1)’ of the private space company iSpace. As a result of data analysis, iSpace announced on the 26th that the software’s altitude measurement error was the biggest cause.
The Hakuto-R M1 succeeded in descending slowly at less than 1 m per second from an altitude of 100 km, but at an altitude of 5 km, the lander’s software incorrectly estimated the altitude as 0 km. Eventually, it ran out of fuel before reaching the lunar surface and crashed into the lunar surface. iSpace said the lunar lander’s software appeared to have caused an error when it encountered unexpected terrain near the landing site. Since there is no problem with the hardware, ispace is in the position that ‘Mission 2’ and ‘Mission 3’ scheduled for 2024 and 2025 will proceed as scheduled.
As Japan failed to land on the moon, the possibility of India becoming the fourth country to successfully land on the moon has increased. The New York Times reported on the 26th (local time) that India’s Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) could launch the lunar lander ‘Chandrian 3’ on July 12 at the earliest. According to this, Chandriyan-3 is currently being assembled at the UR Lao Satellite Center (URSC) in Bengaluru, India, and is expected to be launched from the Sri Harikota Space Center in Andhra Pradesh. The launch vehicle to carry the Chandriyan 3 is the ‘GSLV-Mark 3 (Mk Ⅲ)’ developed by ISRO.
South Korea’s goal is to send a lunar lander on a ‘next-generation launch vehicle (KSLV-Ⅲ)’ in 2032. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to invest 2.132 trillion won over 10 years from this year to 2032. Meanwhile, the next-generation small satellite No. 2, which was loaded onto the Nuri on the 25th, succeeded in two-way communication on the day of launch, and succeeded in deploying a small image radar (SAR), a key component, at 6:30 pm on the 26th.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.