Peregrine Mission 1
- 8th Jan 2024
- Author: Dhara Patel
On the morning of 8 January 2024, Astrobotic Technology, an American private company developing space robotics technology, launched their Peregrine Mission 1 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the debut flight of the Vulcan Centaur – a new launch vehicle developed by the United Launch Alliance (ULA).
As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Astrobotic were contracted by NASA to help deliver their science, exploration, and technology payloads to the Moon. It’s the first CLPS mission meaning that if the Peregrine lander touches down softly on the lunar surface on the planned landing date of 23 February 2024, it could go down in history as the first private mission to make it to the surface of our lunar neighbour!
Who is Astrobotic?
Astrobotic is a private space company. They develop different systems (including power, navigation and computing) for spacecraft. Currently they have two fully funded lunar lander missions on the table and many other NASA and commercial contracts for developing technologies that are ongoing. The American employee-owned company was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. Astrobotic’s mission is to make space accessible everyone. ‘We are committed to empowering a thriving human presence beyond Earth.’
Peregrine Mission 1
Peregrine was created to serve as a delivery vehicle to send payloads from NASA, other governments, universities, and private companies to the lunar surface. A bit like the Royal Mail but nothing short of 100% delivery success will do! Once separated from the launch vehicle (the Vulcan Centaur on its inaugural flight), the spacecraft will power on and journey to the Moon. Once its safely on the surface, the lander will provide power and communications for its customers.
It's a risky mission - a private spacecraft has never landed on the Moon successfully before, and it’s launching on a rocket that’s never flown before! Saying that the United Launch Alliance (the manufacturer of the rocket) has a 100% mission success rate with its predecessor launch vehicle, so things are looking bright.
What's on board?
The Peregrine lander weight around 1.3 metric tonnes and is about six times bigger (taller and wider) than the classic British Henry vacuum cleaner, though is box-shaped and stands on four legs. On board it will carry 21 different payloads or cargo.
Whilst NASA has scientific aims in mind with the five instruments it has on the lander, as a commercial mission, Peregrine will be carrying many other payloads (including mementos and technologies) from a variety of companies and organisations across six different countries.
Check out Astrobotic’s lunar delivery webpage to see what’s being sent on the mission. Hitching a ride is a copy of Wikipedia from the Arch Mission Foundation, a small lump of Mount Everest in the DHL MoonBox payload and a plaque from UK-based space robotics company, Spacebit.
NASA’s scientific aims include studying the:
- lunar exosphere (the extremely thin atmosphere-like space surrounding the Moon).
- thermal properties and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith (the temperature and amount of hydrogen in the layer of debris covering the Moon’s surface)
- magnetic fields (the area surrounding the Moon that has a magnetic force)
- radiation environment (the levels and effects of the space radiation around the Moon).
Why are private lunar missions important?
NASA has sent numerous missions to the Moon before, so why are they enlisting commercial partners to do that work now? With growing plans and a strategic focus on deep space exploration, NASA are working with private companies, so they can instead utilise their expertise, and work more cost-effectively to develop and operate spacecraft (like the Orion crew module) and rockets (like the Space Launch System) whilst partnering with other American companies to deliver ongoing and supporting space activity.
The CLPS program was setup so NASA could continue deeper investigation of the Moon with the help of private companies whilst they focus their innovation and efforts on larger projects like Artemis – a NASA-led international program to take humans to the lunar surface in the twenty-first century. With numerous commercial companies enlisted to send robotic science investigations and technology demonstrations to study and explore the Moon, our understanding of the lunar environment for human settlement can continue to advance as we prepare to return humans to the Moon in the next few years.
A fiery end
Shortly after launch the Peregrine spacecraft separated from the rocket and not long after, it ran into trouble. It was able to generate power as required from its solar panels. Engineers kept reorientating the spacecraft for its solar panels to face the Sun but the spacecraft wouldn't remain in position.
They traced the fault to propellant that was leaking out from a ruptured oxidiser tank and this leak was generating a thrust that kept disorientating the spacecraft. And in the process of restoring stable pointing towards the Sun to ensure the spacecraft had power, the already depleting oxidiser had to be used.
It looked like the mission was completely doomed but the engineers and scientists came together to solve problems that allowed them to eek out more life from the spacecraft. While a moon landing was out of the question they were able to keep the spacecraft operational for 10 days and return it to Earth. On 18 January Astrobotic directed Peregrine into the Earth's atmosphere where it burned up on re-entry.
To simply put it, NASA are putting their resources towards the big innovative, deep space exploration feats, whilst partnering with private companies to continue laying the groundwork to make that possible.
And while this mission didn't go quite to plan, upcoming commercial mission like it will be small yet vital steps in contributing to our further understanding of the Moon and paving the way for future sustainable exploration and resource utilisation by humans on our lunar neighbour.
Full references / credits:
(Banner image) A rendering of the Peregrine spacecraft on the lunar surface. Credit: Astrobotic Technology
(1a) Peregrine's journey. Credit: Astrobotic Technology
(1b) Vulcan Centaur rocket. Credit: United Launch Alliance
(2) Peregrine in Astrobotic's clean room before shipment to Florida for launch. Credit: Astrobotic Technology
(3)The lunar surface. Credit: NASA
(4a) Models of the first three commercial landers selected for the program. Left to right: Peregrine by Astrobotic Technology, Nova-C by Intuitive Machines, and Z-01 by OrbitBeyond. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center CC BY 2.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Lunar_Payload_Services#/media/File:NASA_Selects_First_Commercial_Moon_Landing_Services_for_Artemis_Program_(47974872533).jpg
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(4b) An artist’s rendering of astronauts working near NASA’s Artemis base camp, complete with a rover and RV. Credit: NASA
(5a) A snapshot from Astrobotic's video showing the spacecraft's view of Earth just after launch. Credit: Astrootic Technology
(5b) One of the last images returned from Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was this view showing the crescent Earth as the spacecraft neared reentry. Credit: Astrobotic Technology
