2024-01-18 16:30:00
The Peregrine saga is coming to a tragic end, with the lunar lander re-entering through Earth’s atmosphere after failing to land on the Moon.
Why are astronauts’ suits white?
After 10 days of travel through space, Astrobotic has positioned its lunar lander on a trajectory toward Earth to perform a controlled re-entry over a remote area of the South Pacific on Thursday, January 18 around 4:00 pm ET , the company wrote in an update.
pilgrim released on January 8 aboard United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, with plans to land on the Moon in late February. However, the spacecraft experienced a propulsion anomaly that destroyed any chance of a soft landing on the Moon. The lander began losing propellant at a critical rate. , which may have been caused by a faulty valve.
The 2,829-pound (1,283-kilogram) spacecraft carries 24 different payloads from three national space agencies, with 11 payloads from NASA alone, as well as a number of other payloads from private companies. The payloads that were supposed to be deployed in space and on the Moon are the Cremated remains and DNA of almost 200 individuals. Fortunately, the companies responsible for otherworldly memorial services pack a symbolic portion of people’s remains, just in case something goes wrong.
Illustration: Astrobotic
Although the spacecraft is still operational, Astrobotic has made the decision to divest Peregrine in a responsible manner, rather than adding to the already critical problem of space debris. “The team has been continually monitoring our re-entry analysis with NASA, which indicates a re-entry path over the area indicated below, with no anticipated dangers,” Astrobotic wrote in its statement. “Safe reentry is our top priority.”
Peregrine is expected to burn up in the atmosphere during reentry, but it is not impossible that some debris could reach the surface. The participating NASA will organize a Press conference to 1:00 pm on Friday, January 19, during which we hope to learn more about the doomed mission, the reentry procedure, and how it all happened.
To position the spacecraft on an Earth-bound trajectory, the company performed a two-step maneuver. The initial step involved a main engine burnout, but due to the anomaly with Peregrine, the team was unable to operate the engine as usual. A series of 23 small engines burn to change the spacecraft’s trajectory. The team subsequently used the spacecraft’s propellant leak to their advantage, adjusting Peregrine’s attitude or orientation, so that the force induced by the propellant leak changed its position toward the South Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific Ocean often serves as a spacecraft graveyard, where space agencies dump their defunct missions in remote waters to avoid falling into habitable zones. areas.
Peregrine is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to help the space agency in its quest to return. humans to the Moon and make it a sustainable place for long-term human presence. Also meant to usher in a new era for private companies by granting them greater access to the lunar surface, Astrobotic hoped to become the first private company to land on the Moon. However, space is a complicated business and the race for private companies to land on the dusty surface of the Moon is still on.
For more space flights in your life, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and bookmark the dedicated Gizmodo page space flight page.
This content has been automatically translated from the original material. Due to the nuances of machine translation, there may be slight differences. For the original version, Click here.
1705646707
#failed #mission #Moon #carrying #human #remains #crash #Earths #atmosphere #today