PARTNERS
The companies who support HAKUTO-R and share our vision.
OFFICIAL PARTNER
The SMBC Group is a financial group providing a wide range of business solutions globally, including banking, securities, leasing, credit cards and consumer financing. Our group’s vision is to continuously refine our financial functions to meet the various challenges faced by our customers and society, in general. We thus wish to become a global solution provider that grows together with our customers and society through a relationship of trust. The SMBC Group is committed to providing high-quality solutions on a global basis, including in non-financial areas. We therefore take on new challenges every day in order to achieve sustainable growth as a group. Through our support of the HAKUTO-R program, we will contribute to the extension of humanity’s living sphere into space, as well as the realization of a sustainable future society.
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Japan Airlines (JAL) was founded in 1951 and became the first international airline in Japan. A member of the oneworld alliance, the airline now reaches 349 airports in 52 countries and regions together with its codeshare partners with a modern fleet of more than 230 aircraft. Following its corporate slogan, FLY INTO TOMORROW, JAL aspires to become the first choice for customers around the world. Every JAL employee constantly aims to achieve the highest goals and strives to maintain JAL’s competitive edge by introducing exciting new products and value.
Through its support of HAKUTO-R, the world’s first commercial lunar exploration program, JAL is helping to open up the new lunar frontier and contribute to the expansion of human activity in space.
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. is one of the core operating companies within MS&AD Insurance Group which ranks among the top ten non-life insurance groups in the world and No.1 position in the domestic non-life insurance market by income. We have been pursuing our mission “to contribute to the development of a vibrant society and help secure a sound future for the planet, by enabling safety and peace of mind through the global insurance and financial services business”. We will continue to face various risks faced by our customers and support challengers who will open up the future.
In the HAKUTO-R program, we will develop and provide insurance products against various emerging risks.
NGK SPARK PLUG CO., LTD., which began with the challenge of making Japan’s first spark plug, has been developing various business areas such as oxygen sensors, semiconductor packages, cutting tools, artificial bones and fuel cells, based on ceramics, a core technology. Following our corporate message “IGNITE YOUR SPIRIT”, fueled and motivated by our own drive, NGK SPARK PLUG will deliver cutting edge solutions as a leading manufacturer in the world.
In the HAKUTO-R program, we develop a new all-solid-state battery for lunar exploration, transport the experiment module to the moon, and conduct a technology demonstration test of all-solid-state battery on the lunar surface for the first time in the world.
CITIZEN WATCH is a true manufacture d’horlogerie with a comprehensive manufacturing process that extends from creating a watch’ s individual components to its final assembly. The company operates in more than 100 countries around the world. Since its founding in 1918, CITIZEN have held the belief of “Better Starts Now” – that is, no matter who you are and what you do, it is always possible to make something better, and now is the time to start doing it. Sharing this belief, we have made watches, invented and improved technologies and explored the future of watches such as our proprietary light-powered Eco-Drive technology, and satellite-synchronised timekeeping system Satellite Wave. Citizen will contribute its “Super Titanium™” technology to the HAKUTO-R program – towards the future of lunar exploration.
Suzuki is a brand of mobility including motorcycles, automobiles, and marine products. The Company has the motto of “Develop products of superior value by focusing on the customer” in the first paragraph of its mission statement, and is taking steps in line with daily lives of people throughout the world. We have been continuing to take on various challenges such as through providing small cars and entering into the Indian market, wishing to make people’s lives richer. We are committed to create new values with the aim of “easy, exciting and impressive” to continue contributing to richer lives and societies. As a member of the HAKUTO-R program, a team which takes on a challenge to a new frontier, the moon, we wish to support the development of lander to lead our specialized technologies of “small cars” to a “big future”.
Since its foundation in 1923, Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd. has accumulated technologies, expertise, and achievements, focusing on air conditioning equipment, under the company creed: “Contribution to society through personal harmony and creativity.” TAKASAGO is committed to maintaining the highest standards in human comfort, product quality and environmental protection. Takasago Thermal Engineering’s has offices in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India and Mexico.
Sky started out developing systems for home appliances, and since then has developed systems for a wide range of fields, including digital multifunction devices, car electronics, mobile devices, information appliances, and its own products, such as learning activity software for the education field and client operation management software for the public and private sectors. Sky will continue to provide technology and services that accurately meet the needs of society.
The Mission 2 lunar exploration activities will also contribute to the NASA-led Artemis program. In December 2020, ispace EUROPE was selected by NASA to acquire regolith from the lunar surface to be purchased by the space agency. In furtherance of this effort, a shovel developed by Epiroc AB, a leading productivity and sustainability partner for the mining and infrastructure industries, and a corporate partner participating in the HAKUTO-R program, will be mounted on the front of the micro rover. Once on the lunar surface, operators plan to use the shovel to collect a sample of lunar regolith and photograph the collection with the camera mounted on the rover.
JINS aims to enrich and expand people’s way of life itself by”Shining a New Light” on possibilities that no one knows exist yet. As a brand action that embodies this tagline, JINS has joined the “HAKUTO-R” lunar exploration program as a corporate partner, which, if successful, will make the first Japanese private company to explore the moon. JINS committed to working together to create a new vision for the space industry in the future, sharing ispace’s commitment of “expand our living sphere to the Moon” and the attitude that continues to take on the challenge of overcoming difficulties and failures in a world full of possibilities that no one has yet discovered.
Based on its corporate philosophy of “Study the properties of water, master them, and we will create an environment in which nature and humanity are in harmony,” Kurita Water Industries provides water environmental solutions to customers and society through a wide range of water treatment products, technologies, and services. On the HAKUTO-R project, Kurita provided ultrapure water to the lunar water electrolysis equipment developed by Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd. that will be mounted in Mission 2. We aim to play a part in humanity’s challenge to space by developing water recovery and purification technology in the space field and constructing sustainable space plants.
MEDIA PARTNERS
Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc. heads TBS Group, which consists of TBS Television, TBS Radio, BS-TBS etc. TBS is one of the leading commercial broadcasters in Japan, being enjoyed in every corner of the nation.
Founded in 1879, The Asahi Shimbun has been one of the most popular daily newspapers in Japan.
Shogakkan was founded in 1922 and started with a ‘learning magazine’ for elementary school students. Today, Shogakkan publishes a wide variety of magazines, books and electronic publications.
SUPPORTING COMPANY
