US company attempts first private landing on Monday
Published: Saturday, Jan 6th 2024, 14:32
Back to Live Feed
A private US company plans to lay the foundation stone for the first commercial landing on the moon on Monday. A "Vulcan Centaur" rocket from the manufacturer ULA is scheduled to take off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the morning (8.18 a.m. CET at the earliest) with the "Peregrine" lander on board.
The capsule from the US company Astrobotic in Pittsburgh is due to land on the Earth's satellite on February 23 in an area known as Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness).
The US space agency Nasa wants to prepare its own expeditions to Earth's companion with several devices on the "Peregrine Mission 1". Private individuals could also buy space for transporting material to the moon in the lander, which is 1.9 meters high and has a diameter of 2.5 meters.
During the mission, NASA wants to investigate the lunar exosphere as well as local magnetic fields and radiation at a distance of around 380,000 kilometers from Earth. In addition, thermal properties and the hydrogen content of the material on the lunar surface (regolith) are to be investigated. There are also plans to test advanced solar systems during this lunar collaboration between Nasa and a private company.
Humans on the moon again in 2025
This will help "better prepare us to send manned missions back to the moon", explained Nasa scientist Paul Niles. As part of the "Artemis" program, Nasa wants to orbit the moon with three men and one woman on the ten-day "Artemis 2" mission at the end of 2024.
In 2025, "Artemis 3" will - at least according to the current plan - land astronauts on the moon again after more than half a century, including a woman and a non-white person for the first time. The long-term goal of "Artemis" is to establish a permanent lunar base as a foundation for missions to Mars.
Help from private space companies is important for the US space agency. "We don't know how many of these early tests will be successful. But I can tell you that these American companies are technically detail-oriented. They are very enterprising. They are resourceful and motivated," said Nasa program manager Chris Culbert, praising Astrobotic and other partners. The companies are highly motivated to conquer the moon as a business field. However, success is not guaranteed: in April, a private Japanese company failed in a similar mission.
Criticism from indigenous people
However, a cargo from private partners in "Peregrine" is a thorn in the side of at least some indigenous people in the USA: human and animal ashes - as a special final resting place - are also to be placed on the moon by the mission. According to US media reports, the president of the Navajo Nation in the state of Arizona, Buu Nygren, therefore wrote a letter of complaint to NASA: The mission desecrates the moon, which is considered sacred in their culture, it said.
Nasa confirmed that it supports a planned conversation with the Navajo, but also emphasized that given the private nature of the mission, it has no influence on what will be shot towards the moon on January 8.
The University of Bern also wants to go to the moon
The University of Bern also wants to take an instrument to the moon in 2027 with a so-called "Commercial Lunar Payload Service". A highly sensitive Bernese laser is to be used for the chemical analysis of moon rocks.
According to the University of Bern, the instrument called "Lims" (Laser Ablation Ionization Mass Spectrometer) will land in the southern polar region of the moon. According to the researchers, this region is particularly interesting because certain elements occur there whose isotopes make it possible to determine the age of the material.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic