Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Yamama Bedwan, Staff reporter

The ispace, on Tuesday, announced that the “Rashid Rover” is getting closer to the moon, while the control centre in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, is preparing for the next phase during which various maneuvers to direct the lander towards the moon's orbit will be conducted.

It said on its account on Twitter, "With our HAKUTO-R M1 lander making its way closer to the Moon, we are preparing for the next phase of operations. The upcoming phase will entail various maneuvers that will direct the lander towards lunar orbit."

It also quoted statement of Chit Hong Yam (Hippo): Mission Design and Operations Group Manager, saying, "Even with the help of the Sun's gravity, the lander will still be traveling too fast to insert into our target orbit for landing, so we will use several maneuvers to reduce its speed relative to the Moon."

In addition, ispace announced two days ago on twitter that the HAKUTO-R M1 lander was traveling at a speed around 520 m/s, which is about the same speed as someone standing near the Earth's equator as it spins, or about the same speed as a supersonic aircraft at Mach 1.5.

The mission is taking a low energy route to the moon and is due to arrive around April 2023. Once there, the rover will spend one lunar day (equivalent to 14.75 days on Earth) on the surface, conducting its main operations.

It will spend a second lunar day conducting secondary operations, to check whether the rover will survive the moon’s tough nighttime environment, before decommissioning.

Scheduled to touch down in the Atlas crater the northeast part of the moon, the rover has been designed to withstand the lunar night, when temperatures can reach as low as -183°C, or -297.4°F.