Japanese startup ispace inc has confirmed its failed Hakuto-R Moon landing mission was caused by an altitude miscalculation that meant the spacecraft ran out of fuel.
The Tokyo-based company lost connection with the unmanned spacecraft when it attempted what would have been the world's first commercial soft-landing on the Moon's surface last month.
An investigation showed that after the vehicle passed over a large lunar cliff, a sensor software glitch caused a discrepancy between its actual and expected altitude.
The spacecraft's fuel then ran out, and it plummeted the last 5 kilometres to the Moon's surface.
Ryo Ujiie, ispace's chief technology officer, said he partially blamed ispace's mission parameters and other settings for the software glitch, which was provided by US space software developer Draper.
The company had also changed the location of the landing about seven months before the touchdown attempt, forgoing a flatter terrain selected in 2021.
Mr Ujiie told Reuters the choice was made to "maximise the benefit of the mission".
"That landing site change impacted this issue," Mr Ujiie said.
"We might have (had) a chance to successfully land on the Moon if we didn't change that landing site, but it's just a hypothesis."
In December 2022, the spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX rocket.
The lander was supposed to reach a landing site at the edge of Mare Frigoris, in the Moon's northern hemisphere.
From there, it would have deployed a two-wheeled, baseball-sized Japanese rover, as well as a four-wheeled rover from the United Arab Emirates.
The crash was the latest setback in Japan's space programme.
The national space agency in March had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket after it reached space, and its solid-fuel Epsilon rocket failed after launch in October.
A second ispace mission is scheduled in 2024, with another M1 lander due to carry the company's own rover.
From 2025, the company is set to work with Draper to bring NASA payloads to the Moon, aiming to build a permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040.
The company's chief executive said improvements would be made for the next two missions.
"Through these two missions, it is very important for us to increase our knowledge as much as possible to achieve stable commercialisation in the future," Takeshi Hakamada said.
Reuters/ ABC
