Critical Fuel Loss Puts US Moon Landing Mission at Risk

January 8, 2024 TruthUSA

Lunar lander Peregrine has experienced a serious loss of propellant, potentially dooming the first US mission to the moon in over half a century.

A fuel leak is believed to have caused a “critical loss” of fuel which may have ended the United States’ first moon landing attempt in over 50 years.

Pittsburgh-based private company Astrobotic Technology revealed the launch of its unmanned lunar landing, Peregrine, on Jan. 8. The craft launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket in the early hours of the morning.

However, shortly after the lander separated from the rocket, the team identified a “propulsion anomaly,” preventing Peregrine from orienting itself towards the sun to collect power. This malfunction could jeopardize “the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.” Engineers managed to tilt the spacecraft in the right direction through an “improvised manoeuvre” and charge the battery. However, another issue was discovered shortly after.

Astrobotic expressed in a statement that, “Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant.”

“The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture,” the company added.

United Launch Alliance launches its next-generation Vulcan rocket on its maiden flight from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Fla., at 2:18 a.m. EST on Jan. 8, 2024. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

Peregrine was expected to land on the moon on February 23, potentially becoming the first commercial craft to touch down on the moon. However, the success of this mission now seems uncertain.

Unfortunately, a space race has emerged as private businesses compete to be the first private enterprise to land a craft on the moon. In 2019, a company from Israel suffered a crash during its private mission, and another from Japan experienced the same fate last year. Rival U.S. company Intuitive Machines also has spacecraft ready to fly, hoping to beat Peregrine to the moon by taking a more direct path.

At this point, Astrobotic has stated they are in discussions for alternative “mission profiles” so that if Peregrine is unable to make the landing, it could at least complete a different task. Initially, the mission was aimed at collecting data about the lunar surface before future human missions are launched as part of NASA’s Artemis program, funded with $108 million by NASA.

Working Around the Clock

In an update, Astrobotic confirmed they had received the first images of their craft in space, which helped verify their telemetry data pointing to an issue with the propulsion system. The company remained optimistic and promised to provide further updates when available.

“Nonetheless, the spacecraft’s battery is now fully charged, and we are using Peregrine’s existing power to perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible,” the company said.

“At this time, the majority of our Peregrine mission team has been awake and working diligently for more than 24 hours, we ask for your patience as we reassess incoming data so we can provide ongoing updates later this evening.”

Following the Peregrine mission, Astrobotic has announced plans for further lunar exploration efforts with the launch of Griffin Mission One in late 2024. Griffin, the largest lunar lander since the Apollo lunar module, is set to carry NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the south pole of the moon to search for water or ice.

The full Harvest moon rises over the ruins of St Michael's Church in Somerset, England, on Oct. 5, 2017. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images) — The full Harvest moon rises over the ruins of St Michael’s Church in Somerset, England, on Oct. 5, 2017. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The United States hasn’t returned to the moon since December 1972 when Apollo 17 successfully delivered astronauts to the lunar surface and forever immortalized Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt as the 11th and 12th men ever to set foot on the lunar surface.

Landing on the moon has always been a challenging prospect. The Soviet Union and the United States managed successful landings in the 1960s and 1970s. China followed in 2013 and India in 2023. Last year also saw several failures, with landers from Russia and a private Japanese company experiencing crashes.

Source link