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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese start-up moon exploration company Ispace has announced its launch on Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets in 2020 and 2021, its first step towards offering services such as water research on water. Moon.
PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off at the Cape Canaveral Air Base during the launcher's first mission since the June failure in Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 21, 2015. REUTERS / Joe Skipper / File Photo
By reaching space in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, Ispace plans to orbit its lunar landing gear around the moon and, in its second mission, will land on the moon's surface with two rovers, opening the way for other expeditions.
Ispace hopes to provide services to both government and private clients, including transporting payloads to the moon and exploring resources such as the search for water as the moon settles closer.
Last week, SpaceX announced that it would carry Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon in the upcoming Big Falcon Rocket as part of a mission tentatively scheduled for 2023.
Ispace, one of five teams that took part in a Google award to land on the moon, raised $ 90 million from investors, including a public fund, telecommunications company KDDI Corp and the advertising agency Dentsu Inc.
Another participant in the Google competition, SpaceIL Israel, plans to launch with SpaceX and land his spacecraft on the moon next February.
Report by Sam Nussey, edited by Michael Perry
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