Those responsible are not giving up on moon mission threatened with failure
Published: Tuesday, Jan 9th 2024, 11:30
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The first planned US moon landing in more than 50 years is apparently on the brink of failure - but despite running out of fuel for the Peregrine landing module, those responsible are not giving up just yet. The spacecraft should now at least be brought as close as possible to the Earth's satellite, explained the company Astrobotic on Monday evening (local time).
Peregrine was launched on Monday morning with the new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. After 48 minutes, the Astrobotic company's lunar landing module separated from the launch vehicle without any problems. However, a few hours later, an "anomaly" occurred which prevented the capsule from being correctly aligned with the sun, meaning that the battery on board could not be properly charged.
There is still energy for around 40 hours, Astrobotic explained on Monday evening. After that, Peregrine will fall into an "uncontrollable tumble". The company later explained: "At the moment, our goal is to get Peregrine as close to the moon as possible before it loses the ability to maintain its position facing the sun and gradually loses power."
Crash landing on the moon?
Astrobotic did not provide any concrete details on how to proceed. However, experts have speculated that the company may be considering a crash landing on the moon, even if it would not be possible to control it.
The original plan was for Peregrine to orbit the celestial body for several weeks after its arrival near the moon and then touch down on February 23. Astrobotic wanted to become the first private company to successfully land on the Earth's satellite. Nasa paid the company more than one hundred million dollars (around 85 million Swiss francs) for the project.
Landing on the moon is a major challenge, with around half of attempts failing. So far, only the USA, the Soviet Union, China and India have successfully landed on the moon. In September, the Japanese space agency sent the Slim mini probe on its way, which is due to land on the Earth's satellite in mid-January.
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