A private Japanese spacecraft entered lunar orbit and is preparing to land

Japan may soon join a very limited club of countries that have landed on the moon. March 21, her private lunar lander Hakuto-R Mission 1 came out into the satellite orbit after the completion of the controlled activation of the main engine. At the end of April, he will attempt a landing.

Developed and operated by lunar resources company ispace, Hakuto-R was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on December 11, 2022. It is a privately owned lunar lander that also carries payloads for the Japanese government and international partners.

On board is a 10-kilogram Rashid rover from the United Arab Emirates and a transformable lunar robot SORA-Q. The latter fits in the palm of your hand. It is designed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and toy company Tomy.

The Hakuto-R is also equipped with an artificial intelligence computer from the Canadian company Mission Control Space Services. It will classify the details of the lunar terrain in the rover's images.

Due to the relatively low power of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the Hakuto-R made a slow three-month journey, using a series of orbital maneuvers to give it enough acceleration to reach Moon. During this time, mission engineers were able to test the operational capabilities of the craft, which would be used on subsequent missions.

The last maneuver with the inclusion of the main engine and orientation thrusters was 7 of the 10 stages of the mission. Each includes a thorough assessment and analysis of the results before giving the green light to the next step. If all stages go according to plan, a decision on the date of landing on the moon will be made in the coming weeks.

Japan is trying conquer the moon since 1990, but all four missions ended in failure. The ships crashed on the surface of the satellite while trying to land.