Ispace Inc

Ispace Inc, a company based in Tokyo, Japan, is engaged in robotics focusing on lunar exploration and aerospace. The company is involved in mapping the lunar surface in order to utilize the moon's water resources and develop them to spearhead a space-based economy. Apart from its headquarters, the company has offices in the US and Luxembourg.

Hakuto, a team managed by Ispace in 2018 was among the finalists in Google Lunar X Prize, which provided the foundations for its current commercial lunar exploration program–Hakuto-R. The company launched the Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) in December 2022, which after achieving 8 out the 10 mission milestones, encountered an issue during the landing procedure to the lunar surface resulting in the failure of the mission .

By leveraging Japanese expertise in miniaturization, the company’s lunar rovers and robotic lunar landers are built to fit the small form factor, which the company claims provides low cost and high frequency payload transportation. The company predicted that the moon will be inhabited by 1,000 people, with around 10,000 visitors each year to a lunar city called “Moon Valley” and aims to be a key orchestrator in the creation of the cislunar ecosystem.

Ispace announced plans for a second moon landing attempt with the Resilience mission in late 2024, using a similar lander to the first attempt but with a small lunar rover for exploration and sample collection. The mission aims to execute a soft landing and conduct operations on the moon, following a low-energy transfer orbit route.

In July 2024, Ispace completed the construction of its "Tenacious" micro lunar rover and planned to launch it on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast later in 2024, as the company's second lunar mission endeavor.

Key customers and partnerships

Ispace has secured partnerships with many institutions and is amongst the 4 companies selected by NASA to collect space resources and transfer ownership to the agency for an Artemis demonstration. In July 2019, Ispace was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to take part in a pilot phase to establish commercial partnerships in Europe for lunar transportation and exploration. In April 2022, the company signed an MoU with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance to cover risks arising in the lunar business named the “Lunar Insurance Plan,” which is the first ever case of commercial lunar exploration insurance.

In April 2023, Ispace signed a long-term collaboration agreement with Dutch mining and infrastructure company Epiroc for upcoming lunar missions such as Hakuto-R Mission 2 (M2). The companies planned to jointly develop technology and solutions that were slated to be usable as early as 2024. In December 2023, Ispace partnered with Orbit Fab, a provider of on-orbit refueling services, to collaboratively develop in-space propellant harvesting and deliver future sustainable Lunar missions.