CNN
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Astrobotic Technology, the company behind the first lunar lander to be launched from the United States in 50 years, has announced it is abandoning its attempt to land its Peregrine spacecraft on the moon within 24 hours of its flight.
The spacecraft suffered a “significant” loss of propellant due to a fuel leak, the company said.
Early Monday morning, just hours after a rocket launched from Florida toward the moon, Astrobotic announced that the mission was in jeopardy. Astrobotic said the lunar module, named Peregrine, was unable to position itself facing the sun, likely due to propulsion issues. Because of its wayward orientation, the spacecraft was unable to recharge its batteries.
Although the battery issue was later resolved, Astrobotic was unable to fix an apparent problem with the Peregrine lander’s propulsion system.
The company said in a statement late Monday night that the fuel leak had caused the Peregrine lander’s attitude control system thrusters, which are designed to precisely adjust the 6-foot-tall box lander’s position during its stay in space, to be damaged. “It needs to work properly,” he said. To prevent the lander from tipping over uncontrollably, it must be used beyond its expected service life. ”
Astrobotic added that the thrusters would likely only be operational for a maximum of another 40 hours.
“The current goal is to get Hayabusa as close to the moon as possible before it can no longer maintain its position facing the sun and subsequently loses power,” the company said.
This means that the possibility of landing on the moon, scheduled for February 23, is no longer on the table.
Astrobotic had already warned just after 1 p.m. ET that a “malfunction within the propulsion system” was causing the vehicle to run out of fuel. But the company worked for several hours Monday to stabilize the problem and evaluate its options.
At some point Monday afternoon, Astrobotic also shared the first images of the Peregrine lander landing in space. Photos showed that the outer layer of the vehicle’s insulation was wrinkled.
From Astrobotic/X
Astrobotic Technology, the company that developed the Peregrine lunar lander, shared the first image of the lander in space on January 8, 2024. The image was taken by a camera mounted above the payload deck and shows the lunar lander’s multilayer insulation (MLI). Exterior view of the Peregrine lander in the foreground.
The distorted material was “the first visual clue consistent with our telemetry data indicating an anomaly in the propulsion system,” the company said in a post on social media platform
The lunar module, called Peregrine after the world’s fastest bird, lifted off at 2:18 a.m. ET atop the Vulcan Centaur rocket, developed by United Launch, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The first leg of the trip appeared to be a complete success. Alliance.
This was the first flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, a new rocket designed to replace ULA’s older lineup of rockets.
Shortly after 3 a.m. ET, the company confirmed that Vulcan Centaur had performed as expected, sending the Peregrine lunar module into a translunar ejection trajectory. According to ULA. This would require a precisely timed engine fire to propel the Peregrine lander into orbit above Earth’s orbit, allowing it to synchronize with the moon some 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away.
The Peregrine lander was then expected to activate its own onboard thrusters and use up to three maneuvers to pinpoint its course.
Astrobotic said in a statement that Peregrine began communicating with NASA’s deep space network, activated its avionics systems, and “all thermal, propulsion, and power controllers powered up and operated as expected.” Ta.
“After successful activation of the propulsion system, Peregrine entered a safe operating state,” the company said.
However, it was not until after that that the Peregrine lander experienced an “anomaly”, causing the vehicle to face away from the sun and be unable to charge its batteries.
Mission controllers then “developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels toward the sun,” according to Astrobotic.
they achieved that goal.
“The team’s impromptu operation successfully reoriented Peregrine’s solar array toward the sun. The battery is currently recharging,” the company said in an update. Posted 12:34pm ET.
Still, Astrobotic said the underlying propulsion problem needs to be fixed. For the spacecraft to make a soft touchdown on the lunar surface, it must use its onboard thrusters and have enough propellant remaining.
Astrobotic Technology, a Pittsburgh-based company, developed Peregrine under a $108 million contract with NASA. The vehicle was designed from the beginning to be relatively inexpensive, and is intended to realize NASA’s vision of reducing the cost of robotic landers by letting the private sector compete for such contracts.
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told CNN on January 2 that he considered this first launch to be a test mission.
“It’s really a 50-50 shots on goal approach. It’s not about one particular mission, it’s about the success of the industry,” Thornton said.
“Every success or setback is an opportunity for learning and growth,” Joel Kearns, deputy assistant administrator for Exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement Monday. We will move forward with efforts to promote commercial development.”
Thornton previously said the Peregrine mission cost Astrobotic more than it made in profit, but he also told CNN what it would mean for the company if the mission fails. .
“It certainly has some impact on our relationship and our ability to secure additional assignments in the future,” Thornton said. “It’s certainly not the end of business, but it’s certainly difficult.”
Abandoning plans to land on the moon would be a huge loss not only for Astrobotic, but also for NASA and other countries and agencies carrying payloads to the Peregrine lander.
The company will not be able to test the landing maneuver, which has proven to be an extremely difficult step in the journey in previous attempts to land on the moon by various countries and companies.
The Peregrine vehicle carries five scientific instruments from NASA and 15 other payloads from various organizations and countries. The lander’s commercial cargo also includes memorabilia and remains that customers paid to send to the lunar surface.