LUNAR LAMPOLDSHAUSEN: WORKING WITH JAPANESE COMPANY ISPACE, REACHING FOR THE MOON IS BECOMING A REALITY

This exciting Japanese company is using our German expertise to launch its Moon mission

Pioneering Japanese space tech start-up ispace is a Tokyo-based company which is really going places – all the way to the Moon, propelled by propulsion technology from ArianeGroup.

ispace is the genius behind a mission to send a lander to the Moon, planned for first launch in 2022, which aims to bring the Moon closer to home and open up a new chapter in the fabulous adventure of space.

L’atterrisseur lunaire prend forme dans les locaux The lunar lander is taking shape at ArianeGroup in Germany

A lunar spacecraft needs power and precision to get up to the Moon: the propulsion system. Following a rigorous international selection process, ispace chose ArianeGroup for the mission’s propulsion system. Because this is such an important and integral part of the spacecraft’s structure it was a practical engineering decision to build the lander at the same location as its propulsion system – the unique facilities of our site at Lampoldshausen, European center of excellence for space propulsion

It will be the first craft powered by European technology to set foot on the Moon.

A crew of assembly specialists from ispace has already set up in our Lampoldshausen site, and activities are underway.

The ispace lander is part of the company’s commercial lunar program – the first of its kind in the world – known as HAKUTO-R. With its legs deployed, it stands 2.3 m (7.5 ft) high and 2.6 m (8.5 ft) wide, and weighs about 340 kg (dry mass) with a target payload capacity of 30 kg.

International involvement

The program has already attracted attention around the world: government and commercial customers from Japan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates have signed up for rides on the first ispace lunar mission.

Stay tuned for more on this story…