Peregrine carries a variety of instruments that cannot function as planned on the Moon. Despite the failure of Astrobotic Technology's mission, these instruments manage to shine in space.
Peregrine may not have said his last word. Although it is clear that the mission, which launches on January 8, 2024, will not be able to land softly on the moon, perhaps all is not lost. Astrobotic Technology, the company that undertook this space adventure with support from NASA, announced encouraging news in a press release published on January 11th.
Remember that the Peregrine's main problem is its propulsion, which is affected by a fuel leak. “As Peregrine emerges from a planned communications outage on NASA's DSN ground network [ndlr : le Deep Space Network]We are pleased to report that the team's payload data collection efforts were successful. Advertisement Astrobotic. We successfully received data from all 9 payloads designed to communicate with the lander. »
This is probably a relief for the mission team. Although Peregrine remains in critical condition, communications with the probe's various instruments are providing material for analysis. “We are proud of the mission team for achieving this incredible feat under such difficult circumstances,” Astrobotic added in its release.
An image sent by Peregrine. We can see the wheels of the Iris rover. // Source: Astrobotic TechnologyPeregrine's rover will never land on the moon, but it has a message for Earth
Notably, payloads that could have been ignited aboard the lander include the small Iris rover designed by Carnegie Mellon University (whose wheels can be seen in the Peregrine photo above). There is also the radiation detector LETS (“Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer”), which was intended to measure radiation on the lunar surface. This also applies to the neutron spectrometer NSS (“Neutron Spectrometer System”) developed by the Ames Research Center, which was intended to search for signs of the presence of water ice and study the composition of the lunar regolith.
In another situation update on January 11, Astrobotic Techbology also points out that the Iris rover was able to send a message from space: “Hello Earth! » (“Hello Earth!”). The LETS and NSS instruments are used to measure “the radiation environment in the interplanetary space around the Earth and the Moon,” NASA said in its own press release.
The escape aboard the Peregrine slows down somewhat
According to Astrobotic's latest estimates, Peregrine can rely on remaining fuel for a period of 48 hours. That's more than the team thought the day before, January 10th. “Our fuel life estimates have changed because the leak rate has slowed faster than expected,” the company explains.
Peregrine has now been traveling in space for three days, his journey taking him more than 360,000 km from Earth. Everything remains uncertain, because it is not impossible that the flight will begin again and only Peregrine's last sigh will remain as a reminder of his mission.
For further
Discover +
Subscribe to on Google News so you don't miss any news!