NASA finally declared the real reason the Peregrine moon lander Failed!
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NASA finally declared the real reason the Peregrine moon lander Failed!
While ULA and Blue Origin were celebrating the long-awaited success of their Vulcan flight, NASA encountered a setback. Their first robotic lander in over fifty years lost its trajectory to the moon after just a few hours of flight.
The Peregrine lander, commissioned by NASA, was slated to touch down near the lunar south pole on February 23. A successful landing would have marked the first American moon mission since Apollo 17's arrival in December 1972, and notably, the inaugural lunar landing by a private company.
Shortly after the spacecraft detached from the rocket's upper stage, controllers encountered a concerning issue. An anomaly with its thrusters hindered the spacecraft's ability to align itself with the sun, posing a potential threat to its capability to make a soft lunar landing.
The initial indication of trouble arose when the spacecraft couldn't adjust its position to allow its solar panels to face the sun. The ground-based engineering team managed to command the craft to maneuver into the correct orientation, enabling its batteries to recharge. These batteries are crucial for powering Peregrine's communications and scientific instruments, which, at present, appear to be functioning adequately.
After numerous attempts, that aspiration has now been officially shattered. Astrobotics and NASA have focused on a potential explanation for the issues affecting its Peregrine moon lander.
"Astrobotic's current hypothesis regarding the propulsion anomaly on the Peregrine spacecraft is that a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer failed to reseal after activation during initialization," stated company representatives in a post on X Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 9).
"This resulted in a surge of high-pressure helium, causing a spike in the oxidizer tank's pressure beyond its operational limit and subsequent tank rupture," they further explained.
In simpler terms, imagine this: you have a spaceship, and inside it, there are things that help it move around. One of these things is like a door that controls the pressure inside. Astrobotic thinks that this door didn’t close properly when they turned it on, which caused too much air to go into another part of the ship, making it burst from not being able to withstand the extra air.
In space, a propellant system leak acts as a thruster (explains cartoon balloon physics), which in turn hindered the teams' ability to position the solar panels for charging the batteries.
The Peregrine lander relies on a hypergolic propellant mixture, blending hydrazine fuel with a nitric oxide and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer solution. This established design ignites spontaneously when these substances come into contact, eliminating the need for an external ignition source.
Astrobotic's spacecraft comprises two fuel and oxidizer tanks each, along with a fifth tank for helium pressurant. The craft features five main engines and 12 smaller attitude control engines.
Astrobotic engineers have devised a method to prevent the lander from spinning uncontrollably. However, with a continuously operating reaction control thruster and a leaking propellant, the spacecraft's fuel will eventually deplete, resulting in its loss.
While this explanation is preliminary, a comprehensive report will be prepared by an expert review board post-mission. All available data from the lander is being collected to support this analysis.
The ULA's Vulcan rocket placed Peregrine on the intended translunar trajectory without any apparent issues. There's currently no evidence suggesting that the propulsion anomaly occurred due to the launch.
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