A historic private mission to land on the moon was almost certain to fail on Monday after the spacecraft suffered a “critical fuel loss”, dealing a major blow to US hopes of landing its first robot on the moon's surface in 50 years.
Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander, attached to the top of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, making its maiden flight, blasted off overnight from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and then successfully separated from its launch vehicle.
A few hours later, Astrobotic began reporting technical problems, starting with the inability to point Peregrine's top-mounted solar panel toward the sun and keep the onboard battery topped up, due to a malfunction in the propulsion system.
Although engineers “improvised” a way to tilt the spacecraft in the right direction and maintain its thrust, the company then posted on X that the same propulsion failure appeared to be the cause of a “critical loss of propellant.”
“We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time,” Astrobotic said, a clear acknowledgment that the Peregrine would not achieve a controlled landing on the moon as planned.
They also released an image taken with a mounted camera showing extensive damage to the spacecraft's outer layer. They called this the first “visual clue” that strengthens their theory of an anomaly in the propulsion system, without elaborating on its nature.
Peregrine falcons would reach the moon and then remain in their orbit for several weeks before landing in a mid-latitude region called Sinus Viscositatis on February 23.
A soft landing on Earth's nearest celestial neighbor has so far been accomplished by only a handful of national space agencies: the Soviet Union was the first, in 1966, followed by the United States, which remains the only country to put men on the moon.
China has successfully landed three times in the past decade, while India was the most recent country to achieve the feat last year.
– Turn to private –
The United States is turning to the commercial sector to fuel a broader lunar economy and ship its hardware at a fraction of the cost under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program — but Astrobotic's apparent failure could could lead to criticism of the new strategy.
However, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson praised the success of ULA's Vulcan rocket on its maiden voyage, which maintained the company's 100 percent success rate on more than 150 launches.
“Spaceflight is a bold adventure, and @astrobotic is making progress with CLPS deliveries and Artemis. @NASA will continue to expand our reach into the cosmos with our commercial partners,” Nelson said on X.
NASA paid Astrobotic more than $100 million, while another contracted company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, plans to launch and land near the moon's south pole in February.
The space agency hopes to use such missions to explore the lunar environment, paving the way for its Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon later this decade in preparation for future missions to Mars.
– Failure happens –
Controlled landing on the moon is a challenge, with about half of all attempts failing.
In the absence of an atmosphere that allows the use of parachutes, a spacecraft must navigate treacherous terrain using only its thrusters to slow its descent.
Private missions by Israel and Japan, as well as a recent attempt by the Russian space agency, have all ended in failure – although the Japanese space agency is aiming for the landing of its SLIM lander launched last September in mid-January.
In addition to the scientific instruments it carried for NASA, Peregrine contains more colorful cargo paid for by private customers, such as a physical Bitcoin, as well as cremated remains and DNA, including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, legendary science fiction author Arthur. C. Clarke, and a dog.
The Navajo Nation, America's largest indigenous tribe, had objected to sending human remains to the moon, calling it a desecration of a sacred space. Although they were granted a last-ditch meeting with White House and NASA officials, their doubts were ultimately ignored.
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