by The Peregrine spacecraft – launched last week on the first US mission aimed at a lunar landing in more than 50 years – is heading back towards Earth and is expected to re-enter a fire after a leak Crucial fuel to break his lunar ambitions.
The failed lunar landing attempt is a setback for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program, which recruits private companies to help the space agency investigate the lunar surface with the goal of returning humans to the moon later in the decade.
Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the Peregrine lander under a $108 million contract with NASA, revealed on Sunday that it made the decision to dispose of the spacecraft by allowing it to disconnect mid-ocean as it headed back towards the Universe.
“Although we believe that the spacecraft could work for several more weeks and could raise the orbit to miss the Earth, we have to take into account the anomalous state of the propulsion system and the ability to use the vehicle’s board to end its contribute to the mission. responsibly and safely,” according to an update posted on the Pittsburgh-based company’s website. “We do not believe there are any safety risks associated with Peregrine’s re-entry, and the spacecraft will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.”
The impending demise of the Falcon vehicle comes after the spacecraft faced challenges en route to the moon, including an “anomaly” that caused its solar-drive battery to point away from the sun and the fuel leak that left the spacecraft without enough propellant to complete its solar battery. planned mission to gently touch down on the lunar surface.
It is not yet clear what caused the leak.
Astrobotic and NASA are expected to provide additional updates on the mission during a news conference at 12 pm ET on Thursday.
“It has been an honor to witness firsthand the heroic efforts of our mission control team overcoming enormous challenges to recover and operate the spacecraft,” said Asterisk CEO John Thornton in a statement Sunday. “I look forward to sharing these stories and more, after the mission ends on January 18. This mission has already taught us so much and has given me great confidence that our next mission to the Moon will achieve a soft landing.”
Weight disposal options
Astrobotic had other options to dispose of the Hawk.
The spacecraft could be left in space, destined to spend eternity in darkness. But the company said it decided against that route considering “the risk that our damaged spacecraft could cause a problem.” The Hawk-land would essentially be an uncontrolled piece of garbage, capable of smashing other objects in space, such as operational satellites.
The company may also have considered allowing the Falcon vehicle to land on the moon, as many spacecraft have done — intentionally and unintentionally — on lunar missions over the years.
When it returns to Earth, the vehicle will be destroyed as it enters the planet’s thick atmosphere at high speeds. The company said its decision to return the Falcon came after “receiving input from the space community and the US Government regarding the safest and most responsible course of action.”
Critical errors
If Peregrine had reached the moon, it could have become the first US spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
But the company admitted just hours after its spacecraft was launched on January 8 that a soft landing on the moon was not possible.
Constellation then changed course – aiming to operate the vehicle as a satellite as its tanks were drained.
A fuel leak slowed Peregrine in the days after launch, causing the spacecraft to drift for thousands of miles.
For the vast majority of the mission, the Hawk lander was controlled solely by its attitude control thrusters, which are small engines located on the side of the landing gear and designed to maintain stability or make precise movements.
At one point, the company said it was able to briefly power up one of the spacecraft’s main engines, which are designed to deliver up to three bursts of power to propel the Hawk lander further out toward the moon after reach the space.
But – because of the fuel leak – long controlled burns of the main engines were impossible, Astrobotic said.
As of Monday, the company said the spacecraft was about 218,000 miles (351,000 kilometers) from Earth.
What the Hawk could and could not achieve
Astrobotic was able to power some of the science instruments and other payloads on board the lander.
Two of NASA’s five payloads — the Neutron Spectrometer System and the Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer — were able to collect data on radiation levels in space, the space agency announced in a Jan. 11 news release. While NASA had hoped to make those measurements on the surface of the moon — where it plans to return astronauts later in the decade — space agency officials indicated the data was still valuable.
The Falcon lander was also able to activate a new sensor, developed by NASA, designed to help the spacecraft land on the moon. Called the Navigation Doppler Lidar, it uses lasers and the Doppler effect – which uses the frequency of waves to measure distance – for precise navigation.
“The measurements and operations of the NASA-provided science instruments on board will provide valuable experience, technical knowledge, and scientific data for future CLPS lunar deliveries,” said Joel Kearns, associate deputy administrator for exploration with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in statement. .
But at least one of NASA’s science instruments – the Laser Retroreflector Array – was unable to function. The LRA is a collection of eight prisms embedded in aluminum that can reflect lasers and relay precise locations. NASA engineers designed the array to be a permanent feature on the moon, helping other spacecraft navigate their locations.
Likewise, a range of other payloads specifically designed to operate on the moon remain trapped aboard the Seahawk. They include a rover developed at Carnegie Mellon University and five tiny robots from the Mexican Space Agency designed to land on the lunar surface.
The Falcon spacecraft is carrying various memorabilia, letters and even human remains that customers paid to fly on the mission.
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