A major construction firm is scoping out robotic equipment needed for building purposes on the Moon.
Announced today, ispace has signed a consulting agreement with Komatsu Ltd. to design equipment for the lunar surface.
Heavy lifting, light-duty
Komatsu is a global manufacturer and distributor of construction and mining equipment, utility (light-duty) equipment, forestry equipment, and industrial machinery.
Ispace is a public Japanese company specializing in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. The group has business entities in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States.
The agreement is part of the “STARDUST Programs” managed by the Japanese government.
Autonomous equipment
“Together, we can challenge and accelerate the space exploration by applying our extensive knowledge and experience from the previous mission to the latest research and development of the autonomous construction equipment needed for the lunar construction,” said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and chief executive officer of ispace in a statement.
Over the last few years, Komatsu has been engaged in the “Project for Promoting the Development of Innovative Technology for Unmanned Outer Space Construction.”
That undertaking is managed by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Upcoming launch
According to the agreement, ispace will provide Komatsu with consulting services based on ispace’s expertise in designing space test equipment and selecting space-proven components and materials.
The ispace Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched in December 2022. But communication with the Moon lander was lost during the final moments of descent to the lunar surface in April 2023.
A Hakuto-R Mission 2 is slated for launch later this year, according to the ispace website.
Resilience and Tenacious
In July the company reported that the flight model of its HAKUTO-R Mission 2 RESILIENCE lunar lander is currently in the final stages of its development and is completing important test milestones to prepare for a winter 2024 liftoff.
Also in July, ispace stated that an assembled lunar micro rover, TENACIOUS, has been completed and is being prepared for delivery to Japan for integration into the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lunar lander.
The lunar micro rover was designed, manufactured, and assembled with co-funding from the Luxembourg Space Agency through a European Space Agency contract with the Luxembourg National Space Program, LuxIMPULSE.
Ispace explains that from Mission 3 and beyond, “we will increase the frequency of lunar landings and rover expeditions to transport customer payloads to the Moon.”
Ispace landers are projected to deploy swarms of rovers to the lunar surface to “pioneer the discovery and development of lunar resources, enabling the steady development of lunar industry and human presence on the Moon.”