Toray Carbon Magic supports commercial lunar exploration program

Toray Carbon Magic Co. Ltd. (Shiga, Japan) announces that it will take part in the HAKUTO-R commercial lunar exploration program operated by ispace inc. (Tokoyo, Japan) as a supporting company. Toray Carbon Magic says it has been using the optimization design and weight reduction technologies that it cultivated in years of race car development to help develop a carbon fiber-reinforced airframe and parts for the program’s lunar lander, rover and other equipment when ispace competed for the Google Lunar XPRIZE — an initiative meant to spur affordable access to the moon and give space entrepreneurs a legitimate platform for new business models. By further supporting the HAKUTO-R program, Toray Carbon Magic believes it is taking substantive steps toward future society contributions.

“We have shared ispace’s vision to extend the human presence into outer space since we began exploring ways to collaborate,” Akiyoshi Oku, president of Toray Carbon Magic, says. “We look forward to helping the HAKUTO-R program succeed through our race-proven lightweight materials and integrated molding technologies.”

The HAKUTO-R program will encompass two lunar missions, both launched with SpaceX’s (Hawthorne, Calif., U.S.) Falcon 9 rocket. The first will be a soft lunar landing planned for 2022. The second will be a lunar landing and rover deployment, scheduled for 2024. The program will lay the groundwork for ispace’s vision of frequent transportation and data collection efforts on the moon.

Toray Carbon Magic leverages composite design, aerodynamics and processing technologies to improves part and structural performance. It became part of the Toray Group in 2013. Toray is reported to be the world’s biggest manufacturer of carbon fiber composite materials. Toray Carbon Magic combines the technological prowess of both entities in engineering innovations that deliver new value by contributing to social progress.