Japan's Ispace Lander Launches to the Moon With a UAE Rover

For Sunday's mission, the payloads include the Rashid lunar rover from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai; a two-wheeled "transformable lunar robot" from JAXA, the Japanese space agency; a test module for a solid-state battery from NGK Spark Plug Company; an artificial intelligence flight computer; and 360-degree cameras from Canadensys Aerospace. As a vestige of its Lunar X Prize heritage, it is also carrying a panel engraved with the names of people who provided crowdfunding support and a music disc with a song performed by the Japanese rock band Sakanaction. The Japanese company's lander is not the only passenger on Sunday's flight. A secondary payload on the Falcon 9 is a small NASA mission, Lunar Flashlight, which is to enter an elliptical orbit around the moon and use an infrared laser to probe the deep, dark craters at the moon's polar regions. Much like some other recent moon missions, M1 is taking a circuitous, energy-efficient trip to the moon and will not land, in the Atlas Crater in the Northern Hemisphere of the moon, until late April. The fuel-efficient trajectory allows the mission to pack in more payload and carry less fuel.