Two companies jointly launch missions to the moon: will they go down in history?

Not one, but two private companies launched spacecraft to the moon today — a sign of increasing interest from companies in lunar exploration, risky enterprise long dominated by government agencies.

Companies involved — ispace of Tokyo and Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas — are already celebrating. But every private mission to the moon has gone awry so far, and scientists won’t rest until the probes’ research equipment is up and running. In some cases it won’t be for weeks or months.

“It was a fantastic launch,” said Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington, DC. “We learn with every mission we do.”

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This is the second time Ispace will go to the moon: 2023. ispace lander crashed into the moon’s surface. The Firefly launch is the company’s first trip to the moon, but it’s the third mission sponsored by NASA’s program that pays companies to fly agency payloads to the moon. The first spacecraft of the program, which launched in January 2024. out of control in space. A month later, the other must have touched the ground on the moon before it turns over on its side.

The latest missions launched with a single rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida; it is the first time that two private lunar spacecraft have been launched together. Both mainly aim to demonstrate the technologies needed to land on the moon. But they also carry a number of scientific payloads, including instruments to measure cosmic radiation and study Earth’s magnetic environment.

Try, try again

The Ispace lander, named Resilience, is headed for the plain of the Mare Frigoris, or Sea of ​​Cold, at a latitude of about 60º north on the near side of the moon. It will take several months to get there, but if it lands successfully, it will launch a small rover to the surface. The rover is meant to roll around and take a sample of lunar dirt using a shovel-like attachment. A small model of a red house should also be placed on the surface of the moon, symbolizing people spreading their lives into space.

Other payloads include commercial experiments investigating how to develop water and food production on the moon, as well as an instrument to measure radiation levels. The latter is Taiwan’s first attempt to fly a payload into deep space, “and thus a very significant advance” in Taiwan’s space capabilities, says Loren Chang, a space scientist at National Central University in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, who is leading the project. The instrument is expected to turn on shortly after launch and collect radiation data as the lander flies toward the Moon. The information it collects can help protect you the health of future astronauts.

Moon dust and dirt

Meanwhile, the Firefly lander, dubbed Ghost Riders in the Sky, is heading toward a lunar plain known as Mare Crisium, or Sea of ​​Crisis, closer to the equator than ispace’s target. It will take about 45 days to arrive. The landing site was chosen to avoid magnetic anomalies on the moon’s surface that could interfere with observations, said Ryan Watkins, a program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington.