In a significant setback for NASA, a pioneering private mission to land on the Moon encountered a severe setback on Monday as the spacecraft experienced a “critical loss” of fuel dealing a major blow to America’s aspirations of deploying its first robotic presence on the lunar surface in over five decades.
Merely hours following the spacecraft’s early Monday morning launch from Florida to the Moon, Astrobotic Technology, the developer of this groundbreaking lunar mission, declared that the success of the mission was now uncertain.
After a successful launch this morning, Astrobotic is assessing a propulsion issue with its lunar lander. Check @Astrobotic for updates.
Each mission is an opportunity to learn. We're proud to work with our partners to advance exploration of the Moon. https://t.co/NARUSW6RiA
— NASA (@NASA) January 8, 2024
Astrobotic reported that the lunar lander, named Peregrine, faced a propulsion issue, hindering it from aligning with the sun. This misalignment prevented the spacecraft from effectively charging its batteries.
Although the battery problem was resolved, Astrobotic remained unable to address the apparent propulsion system issue afflicting the Peregrine lander.
In a statement issued late Monday evening, the company revealed that a fuel leak was responsible for the Peregrine lander’s thrusters, part of the attitude control system.
These thrusters, designed to precisely orient the 6-foot-tall lander in space, were forced to “operate well beyond their expected service life cycles” to prevent the lander from entering an uncontrollable tumble. Astrobotic added that the thrusters could likely only operate for 40 more hours at most.
“At this time, the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power,” the company said.
This rules out the possibility of a moon landing, originally scheduled for February 23.
Also Read: U.S. launches first lunar lander in over 50 years
Astrobotic had issued an early warning just after 1 p.m. ET, highlighting a “failure within the propulsion system” causing fuel depletion. Despite this, the company dedicated hours on Monday to address the issue, striving to stabilize the situation and evaluate available options.
Update #6 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/lXh9kcubXs
— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 9, 2024
During Monday afternoon, Astrobotic shared the inaugural image of the Peregrine lander in space, revealing crinkled outer layers of insulation on the vehicle.
(1/4) We’ve received the first image from Peregrine in space! The camera utilized is mounted atop a payload deck and shows Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) in the foreground. pic.twitter.com/dUuu0Idz8K
— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024
The distorted material was “the first visual clue that aligns with our telemetry data pointing to a propulsion system anomaly,” the company said in a post on the social media platform X at 4:12 p.m. ET on Monday.
‘Failures occur’
Achieving a controlled touchdown on the Moon poses a significant challenge, as approximately half of all attempts end in failure.
Without the presence of an atmosphere conducive to parachute deployment, a spacecraft must negotiate hazardous terrain relying solely on its thrusters to decelerate during descent.
NASA said it was working with Astrobotic to identify the root cause of the propulsion issue and evaluate how it affects its five science investigations aboard the spacecraft.
“Space is hard. We support our vendors and look forward to learning all we can.” NASA said.
Previous private missions from Israel and Japan, along with a recent endeavor by the Russian space agency, have unfortunately concluded in failure. However, Japan’s space agency aims for a mid-January touchdown with its SLIM lander, launched last September.
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