The first American Moon landing mission in 51 years met an unfortunate end as a crippling fuel leak forced private company Astrobotic to abandon the soft landing on the lunar surface. The leakage came to attention on Monday, just hours after the launch of the Peregrine-1 lunar lander.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology's lander began to lose fuel possibly due to a ruptured tank as the spacecraft encountered trouble to orient its solar panel towards the sun and generate solar power. "Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon," the company said in a statement.
The issue came to the fore nearly seven hours after the predawn liftoff on Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket provided the lift for Astrobotic's lander putting it on a long, roundabout path to the moon.
The company said a stuck valve may have caused high-pressure helium to flood an oxidiser tank, causing it to burst just hours into the flight. A formal review board comprised of industry experts will determine the cause. There is no indication that United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, which launched the lander, contributed to the problem, said Astrobotic.
The company said its new goal was to keep the lander operating as long as possible in space, to avoid a similar problem on its next mission a year or so from now. The flight controllers managed to keep the spacecraft pointed towards the sun and its battery fully charged. The operations are likely to continue for the next 40 hours.
Aim of the mission
The Peregrine lander was supposed to study the Moon's surface environment ahead of human missions planned for later this decade. It was launched via the Vulcan Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral and targeted a soft lunar landing at the "Bay of Stickiness" - a reference to the type of volcanic material that may have built nearby hills, according to reports.
Peregrine carried five NASA payloads and 15 other components. The instruments were to measure radiation levels, surface and subsurface water ice, the magnetic field and the exosphere. This research was aimed at minimising risks and harnessing the moon's natural resources when humans arrive on its surface. Astrobotic’s contract with NASA for the Peregrine lander amounted to nearly $108 million and it has more in the pipeline.
Astrobotic had planned a successful lunar landing on February 23, which would have made it the first private business to successfully land on the Moon, something that has been accomplished by only four countries, including India's Chandrayaan-3, so far. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month.
Additionally, the lander had the first Latin American scientific instruments trying to reach the surface of the Moon. Five small moon rovers, each weighing less than 60g and measuring 12cm across were scheduled to be deployed. The lander also carried non-scientific payloads, including a physical coin “loaded with one Bitcoin” and a Japanese “lunar dream capsule” that contains 185,872 messages from children from around the world.
This was the first lunar project since the Apollo mission in 1972, although American probes have deliberately crashed into the Moon in the meantime. Astrobotic is the first of three US companies to send a lander under this new arrangement. Two other companies, Intuitive Machines and Firefly, will follow in the coming months.
These surface operations are being run as NASA wishes to resume astronaut missions and is currently using robots from commercial partners to deliver scientific instruments, general equipment and supplies to reduce costs over time.
(with inputs from AP)
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