US moon mission suffers setback as Peregrine lander suffers fuel leak, propulsion problems

The NASA-commissioned lunar lander, constructed and run by the US space business Astrobotic Technologies, is off to a shaky beginning on its lunar trip. On January 8, Astrobotic launched its Peregrine Mission One moon lander; however, as soon as it was detached from the rocket, the spacecraft started to malfunction. The lander was supposed to land on February 23 but is now having problems with propulsion and leaking fuel in orbit. It launched on Monday morning atop United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral and separated 50 minutes after launch. The lander used trans-lunar injection to travel toward the moon after separating from the rocket, but it was unable to properly align itself to face the sun in order to charge its solar panels. Although inquiries into the origin of the issue are still underway, the business believes that an irregularity in its propulsion systems was the root of the issue. The spacecraft, which was carrying 265 kg of experiments or payloads and was roughly 1.9 m in height and 2.5 m in width, was drifting between the moon and the earth as of January 9. This moon lander, the first constructed in the United States since the Apollo program, is purportedly carrying scientific instruments, DNA from the late US president John F. Kennedy, a fragment of Mount Everest, and the remains of several Star Trek cast members. In a post on X, Astrobotic posted a picture of the spacecraft stating: “The camera utilized is mounted atop a payload deck and shows Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) in the foreground. The disturbance of the MLI is the first visual clue that aligns with our telemetry data pointing to a propulsion system anomaly”. As it comes to its conclusions, the corporation keeps updating its social media pages with updates from the investigation. Peregrine Mission One was chosen to be a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which will offer contract transportation to the lunar South Pole region, according to the agency’s website. Mission Two and Mission Three are two other planned missions that will also transport human remains as payloads for space burial organizations such as Celestis and Elysium Space. Because it is powered by solar energy, the Peregrine lander is only scheduled to operate for 14 days, or one lunar day. The first Latin American scientific instrument to land on the moon, five tiny robots from Mexico, and a 2 kg student rover project from Carnegie Mellon University (USA) are among the payloads being carried by the lander, according to Astrobotic’s website. NASA also sent a radiation detector for the lunar surface and a retroreflector for laser research. The nation’s primary hub for research on aerospace, energy, and transportation, the German Aerospace Center, has also supplied a radiation sensor that will cooperate with the NASA device. Additionally, NASA carried on the mission a sensor for the descent and landing, a spectrometer for measuring water and carbon dioxide, another spectrometer for figuring out the composition of the soil, and a third spectrometer for investigating the volatiles in the lunar exosphere. In addition to these, the Astrobotic lander was equipped with a lunar surface navigation sensor. Time capsules containing human remains, art, music, books, and cryptocurrency were also sent by a number of nations and private parties. After a 46-day journey toward the moon, the landing on February 23 was scheduled. But the corporation issued a statement around seven hours after launch, pointing out that there was an anomaly that prevented the spacecraft from facing the sun. After a brief communications blackout, Astrobotic successfully executed an impromptu maneuver to reposition the spacecraft in response to the development. According to the corporation, the leak causing the spacecraft’s fuel to progressively run out is the cause of the propulsion issue, which is keeping it from reaching the Moon. The spacecraft is currently facing the sun and traveling towards the moon, but in another 30 to 40 hours, its fuel is likely to run out, at which point communication with it will be lost.