2024-01-07 21:18:44
The first American spacecraft that intends to reach the Moon after more than half a century is ready to take off this Monday morning (8), but now it will be the turn of an artifact from private industry. If all goes according to plan, the Peregrine lander will land in a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis, or Grip Bay, on February 23.
Published on: 07/01/2024 – 20:18
3 min
The new rocket, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, is expected to take off from the US Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral at 2:18 am (4:18 am Brasília time) for its maiden voyage, in which it carries the lander. lunar Peregrine from Astrobotic. So far, the weather seems favorable for the launch.
“Bringing the United States back to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo is a transcendent honor,” said John Thornton, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic.
Until now, a soft landing on Earth’s natural satellite has only been achieved by a few national space agencies: the then Soviet Union was the first, in 1966, followed by the United States, which remains the only country to have landed humans on the Moon.
China has successfully touched the surface three times in the last decade, while India was the most recent to achieve the feat on its second attempt last year.
The United States turns to the private sector in an effort to stimulate a broader lunar economy and deploy its own spacecraft at low cost under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
“Faster and more economical trips”
The NASA space agency paid Astrobotic more than $100 million for the mission, while another contractor, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, plans to launch its rocket in February and land near the Moon’s south pole.
“We believe this will allow for faster, more cost-effective travel to the lunar surface to prepare for Artemis,” said Joel Kearns, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration.
Artemis is the program led by NASA to return astronauts to lunar soil at the end of this decade, in preparation for future missions to Mars.
Controlled landing on the Moon is a challenge, as approximately half of all attempts end in failure. In the absence of an atmosphere that allows the use of parachutes, a spacecraft must navigate treacherous terrain using only its thrusters to slow its descent.
New private missions
Private missions by Israel and Japan, as well as a recent attempt by the Russian space agency, have failed, although the Japanese Space Agency aims to land its SLIM module, launched last September, in mid-January.
To make matters even more complicated, this is ULA’s first Vulcan launch, although the company boasts a 100% success rate in its more than 150 previous launches.
ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, plans for the new rocket to have reusable first-stage boosters in an attempt to save costs.
Aboard Peregrine is a suite of scientific instruments that will be used to study the radiation and composition of the lunar surface, which would pave the way for the return of astronauts.
The Peregrine will carry a shoebox-sized vehicle built by Carnegie Mellon University, a physical bitcoin and, somewhat controversially, cremated remains and DNA, including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, the legendary author and scientist science fiction film, Arthur C. Clarke and a dog.
The Navajo Nation, the largest indigenous tribe in the United States, claims that the mission to the Moon desecrates a body that is sacred to their culture and defended the removal of the cargo. Although they were granted a final meeting with representatives from the White House, NASA and other officials, their objections were ignored.
(With information from AFP)
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