Japanese Company Ispace Inc Plans for the Moon in Just Two Years

Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO of Ispace Inc, dared to think big, and it has paid off. The company recently announced that it has raised more than ninety million dollars to help to make its founder’s ambitious dreams come true. The investment funds came from some of the biggest companies in Japan including Japan Airlines Co and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Inc.  The Development Bank of Japan and the government-backed Innovation Network Corp have also invested.

Ambitious Timelines

The company objective is to take commercial cargo trips to the moon by 2020. Its next big milestone is a lunar orbit in 2019, and the plan is to start looking for water by 2021. The company says that there is water aplenty beneath the lunar surface. The water will be used to create hydrogen as a fuel source.

The founder concedes that his timeline is tight as interspace development typically takes between five and ten years but he says that the lunar rover has already been developed. To speed up the process, the company will purchase most of the required components from other companies and use them to design and assemble the system.

Over the next few years, Ispace plans to send a few small payloads consisting of scientific equipment into space. These resources will be needed mine materials required to build infrastructure on the moon.

Gaining Legitimacy

In 2007 Google offered $25 million to the company that could land a spacecraft on the moon and drive on the surface. The initial deadline was 2012 but this was extended a few times. Nobody won the prize but Ispace Inc was one of five that won an intermediate prize which gave them the initial funding to start implementing the founder’s ambitions. It also gave the project legitimacy and made funding easier to obtain. Hakamada believes that there is a future in tourism and mining in space.

Space Missions Are Now in the Private Domain

To date, lunar travel has been funded by the US, Russia and China using public funds. The cost and availability of equipment have dropped over time and the private sector is taking advantage of these opportunities.

The money raised in this investment round will cover the first two missions. After that, the lunar landings must be financially self-sustaining.  Space missions will be used to promote client branding and satellite maintenance will be cheaper from the moon as the costs of transport will be greatly reduced. It is expected therefore that the first funding may come from government

Asked what is and might still be the most difficult parts of the project Hakamada said the most difficult part was raising the funds, and that the next biggest challenge will be incentivising people to go to the moon.