The mission of a private company and NASA failed due to a fuel leak
It seems that the American Peregrine spacecraft, which the private company Astrobotic Technology and NASA planned to land on the Moon, will face a similar fate to the Russian one “Luna-25” – he will not accomplish his plan. We tried to figure out what awaits the earthly envoy with Russian experts.
Photo: astrorobotic.com
Peregrine (or “Sapsan” in Russian), launched on January 8 on a Vulkan launch vehicle, was supposed to be the first American vehicle in more than 50 years to be landed on the Moon, near the Ocean of Storms, the largest lunar sea located in western part of the visible side of the Moon. The twenty instruments the lander was equipped with would attempt to detect water molecules, measure radiation, and determine the presence of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane in the surface and subsurface layers of the regolith.
The Sapsan payload included carried a small lunar rover developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and several other rovers of the Mexican Space Agency.
In addition to scientific equipment, Peregrine carried memorial capsules with the ashes of deceased US citizens, the places for which were purchased by a commercial company.
< p>The launch was originally planned for December 24, 2023, but was postponed to January 8. The landing on the Moon was planned for February 23.
However, seven hours after the launch, experts announced an “anomaly” that prevented stable orientation to the Sun and a soft landing on the Moon. After 10 hours there is a problem with orientation was resolved, but another was identified – fuel leak, – The engine stopped functioning.
By the morning of January 9, NASA was talking about the last remaining 40 hours, during which the device would still be able to remain oriented towards the Sun due to maneuvering engines. After the machine costs almost 80 million dollars, it will most likely turn into space debris and fly past its destination.
Among the listed devices that made up the payload of the Sapsan, – the LETS radiation sensor, which was supposed to collect information about the radiation situation on the Moon, NIRVSS – to measure the chemical composition of regolith and map surface temperatures. The lander also carries the TRN instrument for landing on the lunar surface with an accuracy of up to 100 meters, as well as a navigation lidar – Navigation Doppler Ledar (NDL), developed by NASA Research Center, which was supposed to determine the exact speed and position of the Peregrine spacecraft. By the way, according to the developers of Luna-25, the American lidar is probably the only device that was not similar on our landing module.
– By and large, Peregrine did not bring anything revolutionary to the Moon; the mission was mainly commercial and image-building. However, on the other hand, the presence of several NASA instruments on board spoke of the fact that the space agency also considered it as a training one before the main missions within the framework of the Artemis project. Still, the United States has not made automatic landings on the Moon longer than our country, – the last time they did this was in 1968.
There was a lot of stuff there: ashes in capsules, DNA samples, children’s drawings, photographs, they even like- then they managed to stuff a bottle of mineral water inside, apparently for advertising purposes… By the way, the Navajo Indian tribe protested against sending ashes to the Moon, which it considers sacred.
However, the loss of one American device does not mean a stop their flights for several years, as it happens with us. Already starting in February, several more private missions are preparing to go to the Moon.
Recent Comments