ispace EUROPE S.A., the Luxembourg-based subsidiary of ispace, inc. ( Tokyo) announced that the flight model of its European designed, manufactured, and assembled lunar micro rover has been completed and is being prepared for delivery to Japan for integration into the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 RESILIENCE 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 Programme, LuxIMPULSE.
This is a significant step for the Luxembourg government that is actively promoting the industrialization of space resources.
The lunar micro rover, intended to be lowered to the lunar surface from the RESILIENCE lunar lander and conduct exploration of the area around the landing site, is named TENACIOUS. The name embodies both the human characteristics of the small-in-stature, yet unrelenting enterprise of the rover as well as the ispace-EUROPE team that has been developing it based on the ispace heritage of rover design and manufacturing.
Tenacious perfectly captures the spirit of this small rover, poised to achieve groundbreaking milestones.
ispace was one of the very first companies to set up in Luxembourg as part of the SpaceResources.lu initiative and ispace’s vision has always been very much in line with the one of Luxembourg.
“Tenacious perfectly captures the spirit of this small rover, poised to achieve groundbreaking milestones. It is the first lunar rover built in Europe and will be the first to transport European customers to the Moon’s surface and collect space resources under Luxembourg’s 2017 Space Resources Law,” said Julien Lamamy, CEO of ispace-EUROPE.
“As the world’s interest in lunar exploration grows, we are very pleased to contribute, through our European subsidiary, to the development of the European Space Agency and the Luxembourg Space Agency for the future utilization of lunar resources,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace.
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 – Minister of the Economy Lex Delles.
Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, commented: “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. We are continuously increasing our efforts to establish fruitful collaborations with companies in the sector as well as with our international partners. And ispace is a concrete example of this excellent collaboration. ”
Press release: https://ispace-inc.com/news
Photo: ispace