Japanese Spacecraft Shares Stunning Fresh Image Of The Moon

Hakutu-R, the lunar lander built by private Japanese space technology firm Ispace shared a stunning fresh image of the moon. The Japanese spacecraft captured the image of a sunlit section of the moon. The new image was taken from the lunar orbit.

The image shows a close-up of the moon, showing brightly lit craters on the moon. The image also shows partially shadowed craters on the lunar limb.

Hello from lunar orbit! 🌔

After last week's successful lunar orbital insertion maneuver, this image of the Moon was captured by our lander-mounted camera during HAKUTO-R Mission 1.

More stunning views to come!
#ispace #hakuto_r #lunarquest #moon #space pic.twitter.com/h2WHW7YPrp

— ispace (@ispace_inc) March 27, 2023

The lander would touch down around April 2023 on the visible side of the Moon, in the Atlas crater, according to a company statement.

Measuring just over 2 by 2.5 meters, it carries on board a 10-kilogram rover named Rashid, built by the United Arab Emirates. The oil-rich country is a newcomer to the space race but counts recent successes including a Mars probe in 2020. If it succeeds, Rashid will be the Arab world's first Moon mission, AFP reported.

"We have achieved so much in the six short years since we first began conceptualizing this project in 2016," said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada.

Mr Hakamada told Reuters, "The privately built Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander, which launched from Florida in December, had encountered "several" mission hiccups during its trek toward the moon, but many of them were fixable during flight and none jeopardized the craft's anticipated landing in late April."