Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of Hakuto-R. Finally going now. So many delays
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Hakuto-R
Written: November 12, 2022 - Edit: December 11, 2022
I’m reaching for the Moon too
SpaceX is set to launch a couple of space vehicles to the Moon, Hakuto-R is a privately funded Japanese M1 Lunar Lander with an United Arab Emirate’s Lunar Rover ‘Rashid’.
Hakuto-R will be launched from SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40, at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, USA.
Following deployment from the second stage, the Hakuto-R will spend the coming months reaching the Moon and inserting itself into an operational orbit. First then will contemplate its mission target of landing on the Moon
It will launch Saturday, December 11, 2022 at 02:38 EST, from SLC-40. Hakuto-R first stage booster B1073-5 will retain propellant enough to perform a return to launch site at LZ-2 before stage separation.
NOTice to AirMen about falling debris from the Hakuto R mission. Fairing recovery at the green dot
SpaceX will also recover both fairing halves in the Atlantic Ocean with the recovery vessel Bob, named after Demo-2 Astronaut Bob Behnken.
B1073-5 will have made its fifth flight after launching its latest mission:
B1073-5 didn’t perform a static fire test after refurbishment while waiting for an east coast launch out of Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has omitted this safety precaution many times so far. It isn’t required to perform a static fire test on inhouse missions like Starlink as to save time. Only a few other missions have omitted the static fire test.
SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy drogue chutes and later a parafoil to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
Falcon fairings halfs have been recovered and reused since 2019. Improved design changes and overall refurbishment procedures have decreased the effects of water landings and led to an increased recovery rate of fairings.
The fairings are a used pair each from three and four previous missions with no known joint mission. Both fairings are expected to survive the landing. Active fairings are equipped with four pushrods to separate the two fairing halfs.
Fairings have evenly spaced venting ports that have been redesigned a number of times by having first ten, then eight and now having their venting ports built as close pairs along the fairing edge. This prevents saltwater from the ocean from flooding and sinking the fairing, and makes refurbishment toward the next flight easier.
The Hakuto-R Payload
This is a mission that has been more than a decade in the making. The company behind the mission, ispace, began in Japan as a competitor in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The goal of this particular XPRIZE was to become the first private lunar exploration mission. Ispace decided to call the mission HAKUTO, which means “white rabbit” in Japanese.
Failing to catch a ride with another rocket, they missed the Google $500000 XPrice. Fast forward to 2018, and the mission was revived as HAKUTO-R, the “R” standing for “reboot.” It will consist of a series of missions to the lunar surface.
Along with the launch date and milestones, ispace announced its primary landing site, the Atlas Crater, located at 47.5°N, 44.4°E, on the southeastern outer edge of Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”), chosen to maintain flexibility during operations.
The primary landing site was chosen along with multiple contingencies, which may be used depending on variables that occur during transit. The site meets the technical specifications of the lander technology demonstration mission, the scientific exploration objectives for the MBRSC mission, as well as the mission requirements of our other customers.
Careful consideration of the target site criteria included continuous sun-illumination duration and communication visibility from the Earth. Alternative landing targets include Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum, among others. Landing is currently expected to take place around the end of April 2023.
M1 will be operated from the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center (MCC) located in Tokyo’s central business district, Nihonbashi. The MCC will monitor the lander’s attitude, temperature, and other conditions, send commands and data to the lander, and receive images and video data during transit to the Moon as well as from the lunar surface.
M1 will utilize a ground station network of the European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA’s Tracking Station Network (ESTRACK) is operated from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.
M1 will use five of the ESTRACK network’s antennas across three continents, located in Kourou (French Guiana), New Norcia (Western Australia), Cebreros (Spain), Malargüe (Argentina) and Goonhilly (UK).
Hakuto-R M1 operational goals to be achieved prior to lunar landing - Credit: ispace source
With its legs extended, the HAKUTO-R lander stands at 2.3 m (7.5 ft) tall and 2.6 m (8.5 ft) wide, and it weighs about 340 kg (750 lbs.) dry mass—more compact and with a lower center of gravity than the Preliminary Design revealed in September 2018. In order to minimize propellant consumption, the lander will take a 3-month low-energy trajectory to the Moon. As such, the size of the fuel tank was also reduced in size. The target payload capacity of 30kg[2] remained unchanged in the final design.
In addition to supporting the assembly of the lander, ArianeGroup GmbH is supplying the two independent propulsion systems: the main propulsion system (equipped with an apogee engine and bi-propellant thrusters) and a Reaction Control System (RCS) consisting of Hydrazine thrusters. Both propulsion systems are equipped with ArianeGroup components such as valves, pipes and fittings.
Another exploration program underway at MBRSC is the Emirates Lunar Mission, featuring a rover called Rashid. The 15-kilogram rover will be on a commercial lunar lander being built by Japanese company ispace and scheduled for launch in October 2022. The rover will carry a suite of cameras and other instruments, including payloads provided by the French space agency CNES.
In addition to the Falcon 9 carrying these two payloads also carried a 6U CubeSat bound for the moon. The secondary payload developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory named “Lunar Flashlight” will enter a highly elliptical lunar orbit which will have it pass approximately 15 kilometers over the moon’s south pole.
Lunar Flashlight is a 6U 'Shoebox sized’ CubeSat meant to fly on Artemis, but it missed its ride
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