A private company wants to build a city on the moon. But it has to land a probe first

A private space exploration company based in Japan, ispace, wants to see people living on the moon by 2040. They have plans to eventually build a city on the lunar surface that would house a thousand people and welcome thousands more for tourist visits.

But first, they need to land a probe on the moon's surface successfully. On Thursday, ispace announced its second attempt to land a probe on the moon had failed and is now officially over.

The company said that it's unlikely that they will be able to restore communication with its lunar lander called Resilience and that they are unable to achieve any of its objectives.

During a press conference, the company's CEO and founder, Takeshi Hakamada, described the mission as a failed attempt and stated that they don't know the cause of the problem, but will analyze to determine if they can identify the issues that prevented the probe from landing safely.

"Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," Hakamada said.

In April 2023, their first attempt also fell short of that goal after they lost communication with their first lander during the mission's final moments.

The attempt Thursday came after a nearly five-month journey from the Earth to the moon that began with a January 15 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, the lander was scheduled to touch down in an area of the moon known as the "Sea of Cold," part of the Mare Frigoris region.

The Resilience is part of ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 and was orbiting the Moon ahead of Thursday's attempted landing.

Powered by solar panels, the spacecraft was carrying a mix of commercial and scientific payloads, including a water electrolyzer to test the ability to generate hydrogen and oxygen from lunar water, a food production module for growing algae as a potential food source and a deep-space radiation probe. The mission is expected to last about two weeks.

If ispace is going to establish a colony on the moon, it will need to identify an ample supply of ice or water, which it will convert into fuel for a future lunar fueling station. The ability to produce fuel on the moon will enable the company to transport people back and forth between the Earth and the moon.

If the landing would have been successful, a small rover called Tenacious would have deployed to explore the lunar surface, collect soil samples and transmit HD video and telemetry back to Earth. The rover was carrying a tiny art installation: a red-painted "Moonhouse" sculpture by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg is mounted to the front of the vehicle.

"Our goal is to build the cislunar economy, one in which the Moon and Earth are economically and socially connected. We view the success of the lunar landing as merely a stepping stone toward that goal. We strongly believe that this endeavor and its long-term success will contribute to making life on Earth sustainable for all humanity," ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said in a statement ahead of the landing attempt.