UK technology on doomed moon probe ‘performs well’
UK scientists who helped develop a key piece of technology for the first private Moon launch said their sensor and electronics are performing well, despite the mission going not as planned.
The Peregrine Mission One (PM1), built by US space company Astrobotic, blasted into space on Monday but encountered a fuel leak shortly after launch, scuppering any hope of a soft lunar landing.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the company said that the spacecraft has been operating in space for more than three days and is now 225,000 miles from Earth.
It was thought that the probe had less than two days of propellant (fuel) but in its most recent update, Astrobotic said “the rate of leak had slowed more than anticipated” and now estimate that Peregrine has about 48 hours of propellant remaining.
Dr Simeon Barber, of the Openuniversity,helpeddevelop the sensor – the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer – on an onboard instrument known as the PITMS (Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer).
He and his colleagues are working around the clock to gather data from the spacecraft before it loses power and starts tumbling.
He said: “I am so grateful to colleagues at the Open University and RAL Space who have dropped everything in their work and personal lives in the race against time to get the very best from the PITMS instrument in these challenging circumstances.
“We are hugely encouraged that the instrument including the Uk-led sensor and electronics are performing well in our post-launch checkout tests, and we look forward to getting the instrument fully operational and taking measurements.” The 1.2-tonne probe – about the size of a garden shed – was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, inset, and the aim of the mission was to land on February 23.
But shortly after separating from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, the Astrobotic team found that Peregrine was struggling to achieve a stable position pointing towards the Sun.
The company later said the cause may have been a valve on the spacecraft that failed to close.
However, it has ruled out a soft landing on the moon, saying that the mission parameters had changed as a result.
Astrobotic said: “We have successfully received data from all nine payloads designed to communicate with the lander.
“All ten payloads requiring power have received it, while the remaining ten payloads aboard the spacecraft are passive. These payloads have now been able to prove operational capability in space and payload teams are analysing the impact of this development now.”
The Exospheric Mass Spectrometer would have been the first instrument on the moon built in the UK and in Europe.
Its key aim was to analyse the thin lunar atmosphere as well as find out more about how water might be moving around the Moon.
Meanwhile, Nasa has also confirmed that all its onboard instruments – including PITMS – have received power and are making measurements.
Astrobotic is the first of three US companies to attempt to send a spacecraft to the Moon as part of Nasa’s initiative.
Two other commercial ventures – Intuitive Machines and Firefly – have planned missions to the lunar surface this year.
Dr Simeon Barber developed the Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer