Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The entire mission, from launch to lunar sunset, is expected to last about 60 Earth days. ispace's planned Mission 2 Milestones. (Image credit: ispace) Resilience's mission will be more than twice that long, if all goes according to plan. The ispace lander is taking a very circuitous, energy-efficient path to lunar orbit; it's expected to reach that destination four months from now. (There is also a big milestone before that: a flyby of the moon, which Resilience will make in about a month.) ispace will then spend another two weeks or so gearing up for the landing attempt, which will take place in the Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") region of the moon's northern hemisphere. Resilience is carrying five science and technology payloads from several commercial and academic partners. Among this gear is a microrover named Tenacious, which was developed by the company's Luxembourg-based subsidiary. The 11-pound (5-kilogram) rover will deploy onto the lunar surface and collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA. (The U.S. space agency did not provide any of the payloads on Resilience, however.) The ispace lander is also carrying some culture to Earth's nearest neighbor — "Moonhouse," a small red-and-white model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. RELATED STORIES: