A “critical loss” of fuel caused by a leak may have doomed the United States’s first attempt to land a craft on the moon in over five decades.
Astrobotic Technology, a private company based in Pittsburgh, announced the launch of its unmanned lunar landing, Peregrine, on Jan. 8. In the early hours of the morning, the craft launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
However, soon after the lander separated from the rocket, the team noticed a “propulsion anomaly” preventing Peregrine from orienting its solar panels toward the sun and collecting power. This malfunction could threaten “the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.” Engineers found a way to tilt the spacecraft in the right direction thanks to an “improvised manoeuvre,” and charge the battery. But another issue was discovered soon after.
“The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture.”
Peregrine was supposed to touch down on the moon on Feb. 23. The lander was on track to be the first commercial craft ever to touch down on the moon but it appears that could be in jeopardy.
Working Around the Clock
In a final update, Astrobotic revealed they had received the first images of their craft in space, which helped to confirm their telemetry data pointing to an issue with the propulsion system. The company was still staying positive though, and promised to provide more updates when they became available.“Nonetheless, the spacecraft’s battery is now fully charged, and we are using Peregrine’s existing power to perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible,” the company said.
“At this time, the majority of our Peregrine mission team has been awake and working diligently for more than 24 hours, we ask for your patience as we reassess incoming data so we can provide ongoing updates later this evening.”
Following the Peregrine mission, Astrobotic has announced plans for further lunar exploration efforts with the launch of Griffin Mission One in late 2024. Griffin, the largest lunar lander since the Apollo lunar module, is set to carry NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the south pole of the moon to search for water or ice.
The United States hasn’t returned to the moon since December 1972 when Apollo 17 successfully delivered astronauts to the lunar surface and forever immortalized Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt as the 11th and 12th men ever to set foot on the lunar surface.
