MADRID, 9 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, the first US mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, will not be able to fulfill its mission as a result of the loss of fuel.
“Unfortunately, given the propellant leak, there is no possibility of a soft landing on the Moon,” the company reported in an update to the communications released after the propulsion problem registered after the ship separated from the Vulcan rocket with the which was launched this January 8 from Florida.
Equipped with a batch of NASA instruments, its objective was to study for ten days starting with a landing on February 23 the lunar exosphere, the thermal properties of the lunar regolith, the abundance of hydrogen in the soil at the landing site and track environmental radiation.
Despite the failure, the batteries have been able to be charged with energy received from the solar panels, an image has been received showing part of the ship (above) and Astrobotic states that the mission “retains enough propellant to continue using 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 over the initial estimate. The team continues to work to find ways to extend the operational life of Peregrine,” the statement added. .
Peregrine became the first American commercial lunar lander to launch on a mission to the Moon on January 8. Shortly after spacecraft separation, Peregrine experienced a propulsion problem. The privately designed and developed spacecraft uses novel industry-developed technology, some of which has never flown in space.
Copies of four of NASA’s payloads aboard Peregrine are expected to fly on future flights, including the Laser Retroreflector Array, Volatile Near-Infrared Spectrometer System, Neutron Spectrometer System, and Linear Transfer Spectrometer of energy.
