by The upcoming launch of a lunar lander – the Hawk One Mission – is a bone of contention for many reasons. As a privately built spacecraft, it represents an enterprise promoted by NASA’s Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The IS Lunar ground hawk manufactured by Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based firm, and carries a variety of NASA and commercial payloads.
So Pittsburgh could soon be seen as a gateway to the moonalong with NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and Florida’s Space Coast. Helping to make this connection, at Astrobotic headquarters, there is an adjacent Moonshot Museum that gives the public a first-hand look at the development of the lunar lander.
Peregrine Mission One will launch from the Space Coast on January 8, marking the first ever liftoff of the new United Launch Alliance (ULA) program. Vulcan Centaur rocket.
The private lunar lander is scheduled to touch down in late February, setting foot at the moon’s Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness), near the Gruitheisen Domes. The landing target is on the northeastern border of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms).
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A long and winding journey
Hawk shows the history of prime time in the making; he wants to be the first private lander ever to touch down on the moon. But Astrobotic isn’t going it alone; seven different countries are on board this legendary mission.
NASA has also invested heavily. Peregrine Mission One is an early calling card to help restart human lunar exploration by a space agency. The free Artemis program,.
“It took many years to get here,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told Space.com in an exclusive interview. “As for me, it has been 16 years since I have been with the company since the beginning back in 2007.”
It was a long and winding journey here on Earth to reach the moon, Thornton said. “He certainly looked very different there. We were talking Google X Award, trying to build a business and trying to get paid sales going. I always knew it was very difficult. I knew it would be a slog.”
Thornton said the moon was a four-letter word at NASA for years, due to changing politics and a stop-start space policy. “We had a lot of people who doubted us, laughed at us, and it was really hard to get support. But we just got enough support over the years to reach the critical mass that we are now,” he said. . .
Great effort
Getting to the moon takes a lot of effort. In the form of NASA’s CLPS, the government is working with several American companies to deliver science and technology to the surface of the moon on robotic missions.
“I think we are close to a sustainable model [the teaming of government with the private sector]but I don’t think we’re there yet,” Thornton said. The right level of technical risk, the necessary financial filters and other factors were challenging in the formation of NASA’s CLPS, he said.
“The next step for CLPS, in my opinion, is that we need to achieve CLPS 2.0,” Thornton said. “I’m a big fan of creating more stability and certainty for the industry so we can take more advantage of supply chain opportunities and build more of a reliable, sustainable and mature industry to get back to the surface of the moon.”
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Team Astrobots
Thornton sees significant demand and interest from the scientific community in private lunar exploration. Additional good news is the availability of technology, which allows researchers and exploration supporters to buy flight computers, avionics and other hardware for lunar spacecraft instead of inventing them.
But preparing for moon missions is still difficult. “We can’t fly the lander here on Earth in the environment like the moon,” Thornton said. “There is no way to imagine lunar gravity and there is no way to have that as well in a vacuum environment. That’s really the biggest challenge in our opinion.”
Thornton is proud of the “Astrobots” team who have worked hard to shape the company today and put it on a solid footing for the future. This team is made up of four Astrobotic departments: lunar landers, planetary mobility, space technology and business development.
The payloads for Mission Hawk One are strange in some ways. For example, it includes a digital art gallery, a lunar Bitcoin, a dream capsule containing messages from 80,000 children from around the world, robotics technology, cremains from dear individuals (including Gene Roddenberry and others”Trek star” luminaries), as well as souvenirs containing “MoonBoxes” organized by the DHL company, one of which has a piece of Mount Everest.
Pucker factor
Obviously, Peregrine Mission One’s first ever Vulcan flight adds even more tension. “Indeed, there is no question,” said Thornton. “He’s definitely got a pucker factor.”
What gives Astronomical comfort, Thornton added, is ULA’s long history of success with its other rockets, such as the workhorse Atlas V. “They’ve definitely pulled out all the stops at every step to make the first one a success,” he said of Vulcan’s upcoming debut.
Astrobotic has not published the cost of Peregrine Mission One, but it is in the neighborhood of $100 million, Thornton noted.
Important take away
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The launch of Peregrine is the start of a commercial movement, one of 10 CLPS missions aimed at the lunar landscape in the near future. And, even if the Hawk has a problem during launch or landing, that movement will continue, Thornton emphasized.
“Failure is going to happen, we hope not. This is a mission gone awry. And that’s how we’re going to innovate. That’s how we’re going to take the first big step another,” he said. “It should be routine and regular, but we can’t get there if we don’t try again.”
And failing this mission would not mean the program failed. “It’s an opportunity to learn and get better,” Thornton said. “We’ve really benefited from what we’ve learned from this first mission…and we just have to learn more from now on. That’s the most important success we’ll emphasize if there’s a bad day.”
