SLOWLY but surely, space is opening up to people and groups who couldn’t access it before. As New Scientist went to press, Japanese firm ispace was set to launch a lunar lander called Hakuto-R, which – if all goes well – could be the first commercial craft to land on the moon (see page 12). It will carry with it two small rovers, one from the United Arab Emirates and another from the government-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, smashing the US, Soviet Union and Chinese hegemony of previous lunar landings.
At the same time, the European Space Agency has announced its …
