HAKUTO-R is a multinational commercial lunar exploration program operated by ispace. It includes ispace's first two lunar missions, the first mission will perform a soft landing on the Moon in 2023. It will be the first private sector-led Japanese mission to land on the lunar surface.

Managed by ispace, and supported by sponsors, a passionate crew of volunteers, and a large fan club in Japan, HAKUTO competed in the race for the greater part of the past decade. In 2015, the team achieved a $500,000 milestone prize, and in 2017, it completed and delivered a flight-ready rover to its launch location. However, since ispace relied on a partner for the lander and launch, which were not fulfilled, and as no other contestants were capable of completing the mission, the competition ended in March 2018 without a winner. As a result, Team HAKUTO officially closed.

As a technology demonstration, Lunar Flashlight will be the first interplanetary spacecraft to use a new kind of “green” propellant that is safer to transport and store than the commonly used in-space propellants such as hydrazine. This new propellant, developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and tested on a previous NASA technology demonstration mission, burns via a catalyst, rather than requiring a separate oxidizer. That is why it’s called a monopropellant. The satellite’s propulsion system was developed and built by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with integration support from Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta.

Lunar Flashlight will become the first mission to use a four-laser reflectometer to look for water ice on the Moon. The reflectometer works by using near-infrared wavelengths that are readily absorbed by water to identify ice on the surface. Should the lasers hit bare rock, their light will reflect back to the spacecraft, signaling a lack of ice. But if the light is absorbed, it would mean these dark pockets do indeed contain ice. The greater the absorption, the more ice may be at the surface.