Moon Malaise This Week – Two Missions Impacted

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Apollo 11 Lunar Module captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA)

NASA said we would have weeks like this one.

First we have the compromised Peregrine Lunar Lander floating in space. Astrobotic posted this update earlier today:

Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the Moon. However, we do still have enough propellant to continue to operate the vehicle as a spacecraft. The team has updated its estimates, and we currently expect to run out of propellant in about 40 hours from now — an improvement from last night’s estimate. The team continues to work to find ways to extend Peregrine’s operational life. We are in a stable operating mode and are working payload and spacecraft tests and checkouts. We continue receiving valuable data and proving spaceflight operations for components and software relating to our next lunar lander mission, Griffin.

Second, we now have an official delay of the Artemis II and III missions, which is the crewed trips around the Moon and then to the surface of the Moon. NASA made the following statement:

NASA will now target September 2025 for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts near the lunar South Pole. Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains on track for 2028.

Rumors about a delay in the Artemis missions has been floating around for some time based on earlier audit reports, so this is not a big surprise. It is possible that NASA decided to dump the Artemis news this week to get everything on the table with this latest Peregrine problem rather than have two bad weeks.

We will just need a little more patience.

Image (Credit): Artemis II map. (NASA)
Image (Credit): Artemis III map. (NASA)

Bad News for Latest US Moon Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Planned flight of the Peregrine lunar lander. (Astrobotic)

We started with high hopes, yet a problem has already threatened the success of Astrobotic’s mission to the Moon. Shortly after a successful lift off earlier this morning, the Peregrine lunar lander started reporting issues with its propulsion system, which impacted its ability to charge its batteries. Fortunately, the charging issue was resolved, yet the propulsion issue is still outstanding.

Astrobotic is already talking about a modified mission. Noting the loss of propellant, the company stated:

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. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.

That sounds pretty ominous at this point when the final goal is the Moon. The US mission is starting to look like two other lunar missions that failed last year – one Japanese and one Russian – yet those happened on the Moon’s surface. If the Peregrine can stay in the Moon’s orbit then maybe it can get a few things accomplished.

If there is any good news, it is that the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket appeared to operate as expected. That means the folks at ULA and Blue Origin can sleep a little better tonight.

I do not expect the Astrobotic people will have a good night’s sleep for some time.

The US Aims to be Back on the Moon Next Month

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. (Astrobotic)

After ending launches to the Moon’s surface more than 50 years, NASA is funding a lunar mission that launches tomorrow morning. United Launch Alliance (ULA) will be using its new Vulcan rocket to launch the Astrobotic mission towards the Moon. ULA, as noted earlier, has a lot riding on this new rocket as it seeks a buyer. Blue Origin will also be watching events closely as the manufacturer of the Vulcan rocket engines.

This is a milestone for the U.S. as well as Astrobotic, which will be the first private company to reach the Moon’s surface if everything goes without a hitch. The Pittsburgh-based company plans to place its Peregrine lunar lander on the Moon’s surface at Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness). The company notes that the Peregrine Mission One (PM1) “…is carrying 20 payloads (cargo) from governments, companies, universities, and NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.” The NASA payloads are shown below.

The Peregrine lunar lander is not expected to land on the Moon’s surface until February 23rd. The delay will allow sufficient sunlight to be present at the landing site.

Fingers crossed that all goes well tomorrow morning.

Space Quote: No One Owns the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Moon as seen from the International Space Station. (NASA)

“No one, and no religion, owns the moon, and, were the beliefs of the world’s multitude of religions considered, it’s quite likely that no missions would ever be approved…Simply, we do not and never have let religious beliefs dictate humanity’s space efforts — there is not and should not be a religious test.”

-Statement by Celestis CEO and co-founder Charles Chafer in an email to Space.com regarding Native American concerns about a NASA -funded rocket taking human remains to the Moon next week. A second company, Elysium Space, will also be placing human remains on the Moon as part of this same mission. NASA separately noted in response to the Native American concerns, “We don’t have the framework for telling [private companies] what they can and can’t fly.”

AstroForge Readies Secret Asteroid Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
 

If you were the operator of an airline yet you refused to share the planned destination of your planes, I can assure you that the Federal Aviation Administration would have issues. Yet AstroForge is planning to do just that – set off into the wild blue (or black) yonder in a spacecraft named Odin towards an asteroid that it refuses to name. Needless to say, but I will say it, some people are not very happy.

The New York Times had a story on this adventure, which quoted Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts:

I’m very much not in favor of having stuff swirling around the inner solar system without anyone knowing where it is…It seems like a bad precedent to set.

The Odin spacecraft’s goal is to observe the satellite(s) in question so that AstroForge can identify those worth revisiting as part of a mining mission. Here is the plan in the words of AstroForge:

…get to deep space, perform a flyby of the asteroid target, and take high resolution images of the surface. It’s important to note that meeting just one of these objectives would be a groundbreaking achievement not just for AstroForge but for commercial space at-large.

While asteroid visits are not new, nor the idea of mining them, AstroForge would be the first commercial company to do so. The economics of such ventures are still being determined, but the company appears to have enough believers to fund such missions for now.

No specific date for the Odin launch has been set, but it is expected to occur in 2024.