13:00 ET update: There is astrobotics released the fourth update It appears that the mission will not go as planned due to the anomaly experienced by the Peregrine lunar lander.
“Unfortunately, the malfunction in the propulsion system appears to have caused a critical loss of propellant,” the company wrote. “The team is working to offset this loss, but given the current situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can obtain. We are currently evaluating what alternative mission profiles might be possible.”
Astrobotic’s history-making private lunar lander experienced an anomaly on its way to the moon.
The astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander was launched into an elliptical orbit atop a Vulcan Centaur rocket built by United Launch Alliance (ULA) earlier today. The mission is the maiden voyage of ULA’s new launch vehicle, and the Peregrine lander has the potential to be the first private mission to land safely on the lunar surface.
But just hours after the start of the journey, the lander experienced an anomaly that could have threatened the entire lunar landing mission, according to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic. It was expected to land on the moon on February 23.
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“After the successful activation of its propulsion systems, Peregrine entered a safe operational state. Unfortunately, an anomaly then occurred that caused Astrobotic to lose a stable solar “It prevented him from obtaining a pointing direction,” he wrote. EST (0718 GMT) liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. “The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will provide updates as more data is obtained and analyzed.”
Astrobotic reported in the second update that this may be due to a thrust issue.
“The team believes that the likely cause of the erratic pointing at the sun is a thrust anomaly that, if proven correct, threatens the spacecraft’s ability to make a soft landing on the Moon.” wrote to company Xformerly Twitter.
The Peregrine lander has many commercial and scientific payloads. NASA contracts Astrobotic to conduct five science experiments designed and supervised by the agency; While some will study the moon’s surface, atmosphere, and radiation environment, the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) experiment will place a mirror and laser system on the lunar surface, measuring very precise distances and serving as Peregrine’s permanent location beacon. on the moon.
Mexico has five small autonomous robots, as well as a tiny Nano Lunar Rover built by Carnegie Mellon University students at Peregrine. There is a piece of Mount Everest in the flight, and space memorial companies Celestis and Elysium Space are trying to place on the lunar surface the human DNA and remains of mission “participants” whose remains will be permanently placed on the lunar surface after Peregrine’s landing. .
A number of commercial cargoes are also on board, including Lunar Bitcoin, an archive of miniature books and texts from the Arch Mission Foundation, and logistics and shipping company DHL’s “MoonBox”, which contains memories and messages from 100,000 people around the world.
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All of these burdens now hang in the balance unless Astrobotic can fix the anomaly that Peregrine is currently experiencing. The company said the biggest concern is the Peregrine’s battery life. The spacecraft needs to point its solar panels towards the sun to generate power for its systems.
“The spacecraft’s battery is reaching operationally low levels while the team works to resolve the issue,” Astrobotic said. Wrote. “Just before entering a period of known communications blackout, the team developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar arrays toward the Sun. Shortly after this maneuver, the spacecraft entered a period of anticipated communications loss.”
Peregrine has already made what is known as a phased loop around the Earth to perform course corrections and place itself in an orbit that would be a high, elliptical lunar orbit. If it reaches the moon, it will gradually descend and circularize its orbit to about 62 miles (100 kilometers) before beginning its descent into the south polar region of the lunar surface on February 23.
Meanwhile, ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket appears to have performed wonderfully on its first flight. Meanwhile, Astrobotic provides updates on efforts to resolve the Peregrine moon landing issue in x.