- Written by Jonathan Amos
- science correspondent
Within hours, a U.S. company aiming to land on the moon would find its mission doomed.
Astrobotic says its Peregrine spacecraft will be instructed to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
The lander suffered a massive propellant leak shortly after lifting off from Florida on a Vulcan rocket last week.
Engineers were able to stabilize the situation, but the loss of oxidizer meant a safe touchdown to the lunar surface was never attempted.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic decided to dispose of the spacecraft rather than let it continue wandering aimlessly through space, posing a collision risk.
“Astrobotic positioned the Peregrine spacecraft for a safe and controlled atmospheric re-entry of Earth over a remote surface area in the South Pacific. The team continues to monitor our atmospheric re-entry analysis. I’m monitoring it. [the US space agency, Nasa]” the company said in its latest mission update.
“We expect re-entry to occur on Thursday, January 18th at approximately 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT).”
Astrobotic’s goal was to deliver five NASA instruments to the moon’s surface to study the local environment ahead of astronauts’ return later this decade.
If Peregrine were able to land safely, it would have been the first American mission in half a century, and the first private enterprise to accomplish this feat.
To date, only the governments of the United States, Soviet Union, China, and India have managed controlled moon landings.
But Astrobotic can console himself with the fact that he made it out of a difficult situation.
Engineers diagnosed what was wrong with Peregrine and were able to restore life on the lander far beyond what was initially thought possible.
“Space exploration is a learning game and, especially at this stage, this should not be viewed as a failure but as an amazing engineering success,” said Sian Cleaver, Airbus’ Orion European service module industry manager. . BBC’s Today programme.
“At one point, the mission appeared to be a failure, but a team of engineers and scientists worked together to resolve the issue, restore some functionality to the spacecraft, and ultimately return it to Earth. It was a success,” she said. “I think that’s actually pretty impressive.”
“There’s a lot to be gained from this, but ultimately space travel is hard, and that’s being realized here.”
The cause was determined to be propellant leaking from a damaged oxidizer tank. This created thrust, causing the spacecraft to rotate and prevent its solar panels, which are essential to maintaining a power supply, from constantly pointing toward the sun.
The Astrobotic team activated Peregrine’s thrusters to restore stable directionality, but of course this consumed more of the rapidly depleting oxidizer.
Nevertheless, the payloads on board were launched, proving their space suitability, and some were even able to collect data such as the nature of the radiation environment between Earth and the Moon.
This equipment was reported to be in good working order during checkout testing. This technology should have the opportunity to fly again on a later lunar mission.
Astrobotic is the first of three U.S. companies to send landers to the moon this year under a new public-private partnership with NASA.
The agency is acquiring transportation services from the Pittsburgh company and two other commercial ventures, Intuitive Machines and Firefly. Together, the three were planning her six missions to the moon in 2024.
Astrobotic should make a second attempt later this year when it attempts to land a NASA rover called Viper. Houston-based Intuitive Machines’ first effort could begin next month. The Nova-C spacecraft will aim for the moon’s south pole.
By then, Japan’s space agency plans to attempt a safe descent near an equatorial impact crater called Shiori. This event is scheduled for Friday at 15:20 GMT.