Turkey's first spacecraft's journey to the Moon postponed

Within the scope of AYAP-1, the first phase of the Lunar Research Program, the goal was to explore the Moon from orbit and make the first contact with the lunar surface, while the second phase, the AYAP-2 Project, aimed to land a rover on the surface using a soft landing method.

As part of the AYAP-1 Project of the Lunar Research Program, a spacecraft will be developed to reach the lunar orbit from Earth, collect data from there, and subsequently make contact with the lunar surface, with mission operations to be conducted accordingly.

On the other hand, it has emerged that the landing on the Moon has been postponed. President Erdoğan made a statement in 2022 saying, "We will perform a hard landing on the Moon with our national and original rocket next year," but the launch process has been postponed with new statements. Accordingly, it is necessary to wait until 2026 for the lunar mission.

Within the scope of AYAP-1, it is aimed to carry out Turkey's first "Moon" and "Deep Space" mission and to gain operational experience.

It is planned to develop a spacecraft capable of operating in lunar orbit (400 thousand kilometers away from Earth) and suitable for a soft landing.

Furthermore, it is planned for the developed Hybrid Propulsion System to gain space heritage, and for high-resolution images and scientific data (origin of water on the Moon, mini-magnetosphere formations, surface components, surface temperature and reflection maps, radiation) taken from the lunar surface to be converted into knowledge by scientists in Turkey.

DEEP SPACE RESEARCH

The project is currently being carried out under the Lunar Research Program within the scope of the National Space Program. Additionally, there is direct input from many stakeholders in industry and academia in Turkey. For this reason, it will also contribute to the strengthening of the country's space ecosystem. Another contribution will be the increase in Turkey's competence in space sciences and the level of international cooperation through the knowledge obtained from the data that will be collected by scientific payloads developed by domestic and international partners on the spacecraft.

With this project, which will open the door to "Deep Space" for the country, the interest of young people in space science and technologies will be strengthened.

ALL PROCESSES ARE EXPECTED TO BE COMPLETED IN 2026

Within the scope of the spacecraft, the "System Level Design Phase" has been completed, and "Detailed Design (Equipment/Module/Component Development) Phase" activities are being carried out.

The mission qualifications of all equipment to be used on the spacecraft have been reviewed, and the production of qualification models for some equipment has been initiated. After this equipment passes the qualification test, flight models will be produced and integrated into the spacecraft.

Contracts have been signed for long-lead equipment and components within the scope of the spacecraft, and the planning of all equipment to be used on the "Spacecraft Flight Model" has been completed.

After the production of the flight models of the subsystems and equipment that make up the spacecraft, system-level integration will be carried out, followed by environmental (such as vibration, thermal-vacuum, electromagnetic compatibility) and functional tests. It is planned that all processes will be completed in 2026 and the vehicle will be launched in the same year.

FIRST MISSION AYAP-1 FOLLOWED BY AYAP-2

Since it is Turkey's first lunar mission, the success of the mission was prioritized above all else, and plans were made accordingly.

In this context, while deciding on domestically developed equipment, it was taken into account that they should be at least at the prototype level, and qualification model plans were carried out. In addition, for mission-critical equipment, alternatives with "Deep Space" heritage were included in the scope of the spacecraft, increasing reliability in a way that will contribute to mission success.

The spacecraft developed within the scope of the first mission (AYAP-1) is also planned for AYAP-2