NASA has published an image taken by the LRO vehicle in orbit around the Moon. It photographed the future landing site of the Japanese Resilience probe.
Resilience is built by the Japanese company ispace. This is the second attempt to conquer the Moon for it. The first one took place in 2023. The Hakuto-R was very close to reaching its target, but due to a malfunction, it crashed during the final landing phase.
The ispace hopes that Resilience will be able to achieve the goal that its predecessor failed to do. The spacecraft was launched on January 15, 2025. After a 3.5-month flight, it successfully entered orbit around the Moon with a pericenter altitude of 100 km and an apocenter altitude of 2300 km. The mission payload is represented by several scientific instruments, a token payload, and a 5-kilogram Tenacious micro-rover.
Resilience is scheduled to land on June 5. The spacecraft should land in Mare Frigoris, located in the northern part of the visible side of the Moon. It was formed over 3.5 billion years ago by massive basaltic eruptions that flooded the low-lying area. Later, as the crust sagged under the weight of heavy basalt deposits, wrinkled ridges formed on it.
The LRO image shows Resilience’s planned landing site. It is characterized by flat topography and the absence of large impact craters. NASA also released an LRO image showing an overall view of the basaltic plains of Mare Frigoris and the wrinkled ridges that dissect them. The estimated Resilience landing area is highlighted with a white frame. The width of the image is 70 km.
Earlier we reported on selfies that Resilience took in near-lunar orbit.
According to LROC
