Europe Faces Setback in Lunar Ambitions as ‘Tenacious’ Rover Mission Encounters Landing Anomaly
Europe’s aspirations to make a significant mark in the burgeoning commercial lunar exploration landscape have potentially suffered a setback. The ‘Tenacious’ rover, poised to become the first European-made rover to land on the moon, was aboard a lander that experienced a loss of contact during its landing attempt, strongly suggesting a mission anomaly. This news casts a shadow over Europe’s ambition to tap into lunar resources.
The mission, part of the HAKUTO-R commercial lunar exploration program, now faces its second potential failure, following a previous crash two years prior. This incident hits Japan particularly hard, as ispace, the company behind HAKUTO-R and the ‘Resilience’ lander carrying Tenacious, is a publicly listed Japanese entity. However, the impact reverberates across Europe as well.
The European Space Agency (ESA) had provided support for the mission, and the rover itself was conceived, assembled, rigorously tested, and manufactured by ispace-EUROPE, operating out of Luxembourg. Luxembourg’s strategic backing of space resource utilization, exemplified by its pioneering SpaceResources.lu initiative, played a key role in the mission’s origins.
The ‘Tenacious’ rover, operated from Luxembourg, was designed to capture video, gather critical data, and collect lunar soil, known as regolith. This collection was part of a significant contract with NASA, to whom the samples were to be transferred.
Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace-EUROPE, emphasized the broader implications of the mission, stating, “I think this will be very helpful to nail down what it means to commercialize space resources and how to do this on a larger scale, both in terms of volume and of global participation and coordination.” Winning a contract from NASA marked a milestone for a European company, showcasing the capabilities of a compact, multinational team of 50 professionals from 30 countries.
Despite the potential setback, Lamamy highlights the collaborative ethos of ispace. The regolith-collecting scoop, for example, was developed by Epiroc, a Swedish mining equipment provider, showcasing the integration of terrestrial industries into space exploration.
Luxembourg’s commitment to the space sector is evident through the establishment of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) in 2018 and its proactive support for companies in the sector. This has fostered a vibrant ecosystem, as noted by Lamamy, with the emergence of companies downstream of ispace, such as Magna Petra, partnering on lunar resource projects like Helium-3 mining.
According to Lex Delles, Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, “Our ambition is to develop a space sector that is highly integrated with our industries on earth and opens up new market opportunities, both in space and on Earth.”
The development of ‘Tenacious’ was co-funded by the LSA through an ESA contract within the Luxembourg National Space Program, LuxIMPULSE. This illustrates the financial backing and incentives available to both startups and multinational corporations within Luxembourg’s space industry.
The rover, small and lightweight at approximately five kilograms, carried an unusual payload: ‘The Moonhouse,’ a miniature red cottage intended to symbolize humanity’s connection to home as it gazes back at Earth. The team had prepared to photograph and place The Moonhouse in a good spot on the Moon’s surface.
Lamamy sees this as part of a paradigm shift: “Yes, we’re going to the moon to improve our knowledge of the moon from a scientific and commercial perspective, but we are also there to open access to artists, entrepreneurs, educators, and that’s also a very exciting element to the mission.”
While the current situation presents a challenge, the broader vision of European involvement in lunar exploration and resource utilization remains. The incident underscores the inherent risks and complexities of space missions and the tenacity required to achieve breakthroughs in this field.
