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Japan’s ispace said its attempt to make the first private moon landing had failed after losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander when it unexpectedly accelerated and probably crashed on the lunar surface.

The startup said it was possible that as the lander approached the moon, its altitude measurement system had miscalculated the distance to the surface.

“It apparently went into a free-fall towards the surface as it was running out of fuel to fire up its thrusters,” Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie told a news conference on Wednesday.

It was the second setback for commercial space development in a week after SpaceX‘s Starship rocket exploded spectacularly minutes after soaring off its launch pad.

A private firm has yet to succeed with a lunar landing. Only the United States, the former Soviet Union and China have soft-landed spacecraft on the moon, with attempts in recent years by India and a private Israeli company also ending in failure.

Ispace, which delivers payloads such as rovers to the moon and sells related data, had only just listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange two weeks ago and a frenzy of excitement around its prospects had driven up its shares some seven-fold since then.

But disappointment led to a glut of sell orders on Wednesday. After being untraded all day, the stock finished down 20 percent in a forced closing price decided by the bourse that reflects the balance of buy and sell orders.

Japan’s top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said while it was sad that the mission did not succeed, the country wants ispace to “keep trying” as its efforts were significant to the development of a domestic space industry.

Japan, which has set itself a goal of sending Japanese astronauts to the moon by the late 2020s, has had some recent setbacks. The national space agency last month had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket upon reaching space after its second-stage engine failed to ignite. Its solid-fuel Epsilon rocket also failed after launch in October.

Brakes on a high slope

Four months after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX rocket, the M1 lander appeared set to autonomously touch down at about 1:40 am Japan time (1640 GMT Tuesday), with an animation based on live telemetry data showing it coming as close as 90 metres (295 feet) from the lunar surface.

By the expected touchdown time, mission control had lost contact with the lander and engineers appeared anxious over the live stream as they awaited signal confirmation of its fate which never came.

The lander completed eight out of 10 mission objectives in space that will provide valuable data for the next landing attempt in 2024, Chief Executive Takeshi Hakamada said.

Roughly an hour before planned touchdown, the 2.3 metre-tall M1 began its landing phase, gradually tightening its orbit around the moon from 100 km (62 miles) above the surface to roughly 25 km, travelling at nearly 6,000 km/hour (3,700 mph).

At such velocity, slowing the lander to the correct speed against the moon’s gravitational pull is like squeezing the brakes of a bicycle right at the edge of a ski-jumping slope, Ujiie has said.

The craft was aiming for a landing site at the edge of Mare Frigoris in the moon’s northern hemisphere where it would have deployed a two-wheeled, baseball-sized rover developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tomy and Sony. It also planned to deploy a four-wheeled rover dubbed Rashid from the United Arab Emirates.

The lander was carrying an experimental solid-state battery made by Niterra among other devices to gauge their performance on the moon.

The mission was insured by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, an MS&AD Insurance Group unit, and ispace said it may receive some compensation.

© Thomson Reuters 2023
 


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Scientists Recreate Cosmic Ray Physics Using Cold Atom in New Laboratory Study

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Scientists Recreate Cosmic Ray Physics Using Cold Atom in New Laboratory Study

For the first time, researchers have managed to simulate a fundamental process of cosmic particle acceleration in a laboratory: the first series of discoveries that will transform our understanding of cosmic rays. Now, scientists from the Universities of Birmingham and Chicago have created a tiny, 100-micrometre Fermi accelerator, in which mobile optical potential barriers collide with trapped atoms, in a partial replica of how cosmic particles pick up energy in space. The technique not only replicates cosmic ray behaviour but also sets a new benchmark in quantum acceleration technology.

Lab-Built Fermi Accelerator Using Cold Atoms Validates Cosmic Ray Theory and Advances Quantum Tech

As per findings published in Physical Review Letters, this fully controllable setup demonstrated particle acceleration through the Fermi mechanism first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1949. Long theorised to underlie cosmic ray generation, the process had never been reliably replicated in a lab. By combining energy gains with particle losses, researchers created energy spectra similar to those observed in space, offering the first direct validation of Bell’s result, a cornerstone of cosmic ray physics.

In Fermi acceleration, ultracold atoms are accelerated to more than 0.5 metres per second using laser-controlled barriers. Dr Amita Deb, a coauthor and researcher at the University of Birmingham, mentioned, ‘Our chimney is more powerful than conventional quantum nano-measurements, which are the best acceleration tools in the world so far, and while its simplicity and small size can be compelling, its lack of a theoretical speed limit is the most attractive feature.’ The ultracold atomic jets could be readily controlled with high precision in the subsequent experiments.

This progress means that, for the first time, complicated astrophysical events like shocks and turbulence can be studied in a laboratory, lead author Dr Vera Guarrera stated. This opens new avenues for high-energy astrophysics and also for applications in quantum wavepacket control and quantum chemistry.

Researchers plan to find out how different behaviour affects energy cutoffs and acceleration rates. A compact Fermi accelerator of this type could be a cornerstone for studies of fundamental physics and also connect to emerging technologies such as atomtronics.

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Scientists Say Dark Matter Could Turn Failed Stars Into ‘Dark Dwarfs’

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Scientists Say Dark Matter Could Turn Failed Stars Into ‘Dark Dwarfs’

Astronomers now propose that “failed stars” known as brown dwarfs could be powered by dark matter. Dark matter makes up about 85 percent of the universe’s matter but does not shine; it interacts only via gravity. Brown dwarfs form like stars but lack enough mass to ignite fusion. The theory suggests brown dwarfs in galaxy centers might trap dark matter in their interiors. When that dark matter annihilates, it releases energy that heats the star, turning the dwarf into a brighter “dark dwarf.” If such objects exist, finding them would give scientists a new clue to the nature of dark matter.

Dark Matter in Failed Stars

According to the new model, dense brown dwarfs at the centers of galaxies act like gravity wells that accumulate dark matter. Because dark matter interacts only via gravity, it naturally drifts to galactic cores, where it can be captured by star. As University of Hawai‘i physicist Jeremy Sakstein explains, once inside a star dark matter can annihilate with itself, releasing energy that heats the dwarf. The more dark matter a brown dwarf collects, the more energy it outputs. Crucially, this effect only works if dark matter particles self-annihilate (as with heavy WIMPs); lighter or non-interacting candidates like axions would not create dark dwarfs.

They propose using a chemical signature: a dark dwarf should hold on to lithium-7 that normal brown dwarfs burn away. The researchers say powerful telescopes like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope might already be sensitive enough to spot cool, dim dark dwarfs near the Milky Way’s center. Detecting even one would strongly suggest that dark matter is made of heavy, self-interacting particles (like WIMPs).

In related work, Colgate astrophysicist Jillian Paulin coauthored studies of ancient “dark stars” fueled by dark matter, while SLAC physicist Rebecca Leane and collaborators have shown that dark matter capture could heat brown dwarfs and exoplanets – a process called “dark kinetic heating”. Together, these ideas highlight how even dim, unusual stars could illuminate the nature of dark matter.

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New Gel-Based Robotic Skin Feels Touch, Heat, and Damage Like Human Flesh

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New Gel-Based Robotic Skin Feels Touch, Heat, and Damage Like Human Flesh

Researchers have created a novel electronic “skin” that could let robots experience a sense of touch. This low-cost, gelatin-based material is highly flexible and durable and can be molded over a robot hand. Equipped with electrodes, the skin detects pressure, temperature changes, and even sharp damage. In tests it responded to pokes, burns and cuts. Unlike conventional designs that use separate sensors for each stimulus, this single “multi-modal” material simplifies the hardware while providing rich tactile data. The findings, published in Science Robotics, suggest it could be used on humanoid robots or prosthetic limbs to give them a more human-like touch.

Multi-Modal Touch and Heat Sensing

According to the paper, unlike typical robotic skins, which require multiple specialized sensors, the new gel acts as a single multi-modal sensor. Its uniform conductive layer responds differently to a light touch, a temperature change or even a scratch by altering tiny electrical pathways. This design makes the skin simpler and more robust: researchers note it’s easier to fabricate and far less costly than conventional multi-sensor skins. In effect, one stretchy sheet of this material can replace many parts, cutting complexity while maintaining rich sensory feedback.

Testing the Skin and Future Applications

The research team tested the skin by casting the gel into a human-hand shape and outfitting it with electrodes. They put it through a gauntlet of trials: blasting it with a heat gun, pressing it with fingers and a robotic arm, and even slicing it open with a scalpel. Those harsh tests generated over 1.7 million data points from 860,000 tiny conductive channels, which fed into a machine-learning model so the skin could learn to distinguish different types of touch.

UCL’s Dr. Thomas George Thuruthel, a co-author of the study, said the robotic skin isn’t yet as sensitive as human skin but “may be better than anything else out there at the moment.” He noted that the material’s flexibility and ease of manufacture as key advantages. Moreover, the team believes this technology could ultimately help make robots and prosthetic devices with a more lifelike sense of touch.

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