By Girish Linganna
Jan 10: A severe fuel leak has led a US-based company, Astrobotic Technology, to abandon its mission to land a spacecraft on the moon.
The Peregrine lander, launched on Monday by United Launch Alliance's (ULA) 202-foot Vulcan Centaur rocket, started facing fuel loss shortly after its launch. Carrying 20 payloads, with 5 from NASA, the spacecraft also struggled to maintain the orientation of its solar panel towards the sun, a crucial factor for generating solar power.
Peregrine was also on a mission to take distinctive items into orbit, like samples of human DNA and ashes of the deceased.
Astrobotic has stated that due to the propellant leak, a soft landing on the moon is now unfortunately impossible. The company had planned for a fuel-efficient, indirect route to the moon, aiming for a lunar landing on February 23.
This mission had the potential to be the first moon landing by the United States in over half a century, and notably, the first ever by a private firm. Additionally, a second lander, developed by a company based in Houston, is scheduled for launch in the following month.
The company has stated that their revised objective is to keep the lander functional in space for as long as they can. This will allow them to gather maximum knowledge for their next mission, which is planned for approximately a year from now. This comes in the context that only four countries have achieved a successful moon landing to date , United States of America, Russia (formerly USSR), China and India. India achieved this feat in 2023 with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, becoming the first country in the world to land in the South Pole region of the moon.
Flight controllers succeeded in maintaining the spacecraft's alignment with the sun, ensuring its battery remained fully charged. This effort is expected to allow for an additional 40 hours of operational capability.
The company based in Pittsburgh did not provide detailed explanations regarding the failure of the Peregrine lander's propellant system, which occurred just hours into the flight.
NASA invested 108 million dollars (INR 885.6 Crores) in Astrobotic to transport its experiments to the moon on this mission, as a component of the agency's commercial lunar programme.