Announcement: New Team Name is "HAKUTO"
Google Lunar X PRIZE, July 15, 2013 or formerly was a team formed in early 2008 by a group of experienced space professionals inspired by the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE to develop a robotic

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

exploration mission. Hakuto was named after the white rabbit in Japanese mythology. The team's original plan was to finance its lunar mission from advertising expenditure of large global companies and the team eventually succeeded in attracting sponsorship from multiple large brands, particularly in Japan. The team went through a number of phases of its organisation and plans. Initially the team was primarily a European effort and led in

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Later the team changed management and was led in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. At different stages of the competition the team had partnerships with two other teams ( Astrobotic and then

Team Indus TeamIndus (incorporated as Axiom Research Labsispace.

History

In 2008, ''White Label Space'' was founded in the Netherlands. In 2009, the team registered with the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP).''History''
team Hakuto, 2014 Throughout the period 2008 till 2010 the team established partnerships with a number of organisations, mostly in Europe, and White Label Space continued to publish its early progress on the developments of the lunar mission. On September 10, 2010 Japan-based members of the team established White Label Space Japan LLC, a Limited Liability Company registered in Japan. On June 11, 2012, it was decided to name unit 2 Rover prototype (PM-2) "White Rabbit" (written in

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

as「はくと」, which is pronounced "Hakuto"). On January 30, 2013, the European team members had ceased substantial involvement and the Japan-based members decided to continue the work, establishing a new parent company called ispace Inc.The Japanese Space Bots That Could Build Moon Valley
Sarah Scoles, ''Wired''. 14 May 2018. The change included a change of leadership from Steve Allen to co-founder Takeshi Hakamada.
team White Label Space''チーム体制変更のお知らせ''
team Hakuto, 2013.1.30 Around that time the team also announced the lead engineer as Kazuya Yoshida, a professor of aerospace engineering at

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

in Japan. On July 15, 2013 the team publicly announced the change the official team name to Hakuto (「ハクト」). On December 4, 2013, the team successfully crowd-funded the development of unit 3 Rover prototype (PM-3). On February 19, 2014, Hakuto was selected in the Milestone Prizes as one of five teams competing in the mobility subsystem section.''Japan's Hakuto was selected for Milestone Prizes finalists!''
Google Lunar X PRIZE, February 28, 2014 By 2014, carrying through on the initial vision of the ''White Label Space'' team, the Hakuto team had succeeded in obtaining sponsorship from a number of major Japanese brands for its lunar mission. Following on from the cessation of the GLXP the leader of the Hakuto GLXP team, ispace Inc., retained the support of KDDI, JAL and Suzuki, and proceeded to build further corporate partnerships as well as raising large amounts of

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

funding directed towards an expanded lunar mission program (see ispace Investors). The ''Sorato'' rover was donated to the US

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

in October 2019.

Lunar mission plans

The team initially planned its own lunar lander but later changed plan to fly their rover on landers operated by other GLXP teams. For most of the duration of the GLXP, the Hakuto rover was planned to be deployed from Astrobotic's ''Peregrine'' lander, however for the final phase of the prize, with Astrobotic lacking a launch contract, Hakuto established a new agreement with

Team Indus TeamIndus (incorporated as Axiom Research LabsAtlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture be ...

rocket. That mission would have included Hakuto's ''Sorato'' rover being deployed on the lunar surface along with other smaller rovers, including Team AngelicvM's rover. The proposed landing site was Lacus Mortis. In August 2019, ispace announced a restructuring of its lunar program, since called Hakuto-R. A significant change was the elimination of the technology demonstration orbiter mission in 2020 in favor of moving more quickly toward a demonstration of commercial lunar landing capabilities. The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander was launched aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket on 11 December 2022, carrying the ''Rashid'' rover of the Emirates Lunar Mission and

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

/ Tomy's SORA-Q transformable lunar robot, both of which Hakuto-R will deliver to the lunar surface. It also houses a music disc featuring the song ‘SORATO’ by the Japanese rock band

Sakanaction , stylised as sakanaction, are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, ...

. The primary landing site will be Atlas Crater and landing will occur in April 2023. Hakuto-R Mission 2, a lunar lander and

rover Rover may refer to: People * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Places * Rover, Arkansas, US * Rover, Missouri, US * ...

, is scheduled for launch in 2024.

References

External links

Hakuto official website

White Label Space Website

White Label Space Japan Site

ispace inc.
{{Future spaceflights Google Lunar X Prize Lunar rovers

History

Lunar mission plans

See also

References

External links