Peregrine, the unmanned lunar landing module built by the space robotics firm Astrobotic, was released this Monday morning. The mission would mark the United States’ return to the Moon in more than half a century. It would also be the first time that a project led by a company achieved this goal. But the team in charge is not having a good time: they have recorded a technical failure that puts the precious objective at risk.
Astrobotic reported early that its spacecraft Peregrine experienced an “anomaly” that prevented him from pointing his solar panels stably to the Sun. A problem that, by itself, could be catastrophic: if it was not resolved, the module would not be able to charge its battery. And without a battery, there was no return mission to the Moon.
“The team believes that the likely cause of the unstable orientation toward the Sun is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the spacecraft’s ability to land softly on the Moon,” Astrobotic said in a statement. The 1.2-ton module was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was made on the first flight of the Vulcan rocket, developed for a decade by the Boeing-Lockheed United Launch Alliance (ULA) company.
After a couple of tense hours, Astrobotic announced that its engineers had reestablished communications with the lunar landing module. Then, they performed a correction maneuver to reorient Peregrine’s instruments toward the Sun. “We are charging the battery,” they explained. But minutes later they added that, in fact, A failure in the propulsion system was causing a critical stall that compromised the return to the Moon.
On the way to the return of humans to the Moon
Astrobotic noted that the team is working to try to stabilize the loss, but they have acknowledged that the problem is serious. “Given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture,” they said in another release. “We are currently evaluating what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”
Astrobotic is the first of three American companies that aim to send unmanned vehicles to the lunar surface this year. The other two are Intuitive Machines and Firefly. All of these operations are the result of a new NASA partnership with private initiatives to, among other things, reduce costs. All three companies have NASA as a “client,” but the agency “is not in charge” of their missions.
NASA is prepared for eventual failures with these missions in its plan to return to the Moon. “If they fail, the next one will learn and succeed,” Pam Melroy, deputy administrator of the US space agency, told the BBC in December.
Peregrine was scheduled to land on the Moon on February 23, with a total of 20 payloads on board. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for 16 years,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said after the launch. With what has happened in the last few hours, doubts are growing that the mission will be successful.
NASA specifically agreed that the lunar landing module Astrobotic will include five instruments designed to study the environment mole. And so, preparing the conditions before sending astronauts back to the Moon this decade, after more than 50 years.
The last moon landing by the United States was Apollo 17, in 1972. Since then, it has not set foot on the lunar surface again. NASA hopes to restart human travel to the Moon by the end of 2025, with its Artemis III mission. But several problems with flight tests, the development of the lunar landing module that will carry the astronauts and the spacesuits have affected the schedule. It is now believed that it will not happen until after 2027.