A US spacecraft carrying scientific equipment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) is on its way to the Moon after a successful launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Peregrine-1, belonging to private company Astrobotic, has thus embarked on the first American lunar mission in 51 years and is set to land on February 23.
The Peregrine lander will 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 will attempt 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.
After the Peregrine lunar lander launched from Florida, Astrobotic mission control received a signal from the lander, which will go into a highly elliptical orbit to put it on course to its destination. It is the first mission to fly under NASA's commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative, a scheme in which the agency pays private companies to deliver scientific equipment to the Moon.
What does the lander contain?
Peregrine carries five NASA payloads and 15 other components. The instruments will measure radiation levels, surface and subsurface water ice, the magnetic field and the exosphere. This research is aimed towards minimising risks and harness the moon's natural resources when humans arrive on its surface.
Additionally, the lander has 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 will be deployed. The lander contains 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 rocket launch is deemed very crucial for the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as Vulcan has spent roughly a decade in development to replace ULA's Atlas V rocket and rival the reusable Falcon 9 from Elon Musk's Space X.
The mission is also delivering a memorial payload into space containing the remains and DNA of several people associated with the Star Trek television franchise, including the actors James Doohan, DeForest Kelley and Nichelle Nichols, according to the Guardian.
Who is involved in the ambitious project?
This is 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, BBC reported.
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. It is important to mention that NASA is registered as a "customer" in all three companies but is not in charge of the operations.
The Vulcan rocket was built by ULA, which is tasked with launching top-secret military payloads for the US government. It has already sold more than 70 Vulcan launches, including 38 to Amazon as it builds Project Kuiper, a constellation of internet communications satellites, as per reports.
“I am so thrilled. I am so proud of this team. Oh my gosh, this has been years of hard work. So far this has been an absolutely beautiful mission. Back to the moon. Our team has done such a good job. This is just … it’s hard to describe," said ULA CEO Tory Bruno.
Meanwhile, the US Space Force is looking for a second Vulcan launch sometime in April, which would lift Dream Chaser, an uncrewed space plane built by Sierra Space of Louisville, Colo., on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. If those flights are successful, four additional Vulcan launches this year would carry Space Force payloads to orbit.
Who is opposing the mission?
The Navajo Nation is objecting to human ashes and DNA aboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander. They are the indigenous people of North America who regard the Moon as sacred and have appealed to NASA to stop the mission, which they see as an act of "desecration".
“The moon is deeply embedded in the spirituality and heritage of many Indigenous cultures, including our own. The placement of human remains on the moon is a profound desecration of this celestial body revered by our people," said Buu Nygren, the president of the Navajo Nation, in a statement to NASA and US Transportation Department.
”There’s an intergovernmental meeting being set up with the Navajo Nation that NASA will support,” said Joel Kearns, a deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA, according to the New York Times.
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