Peregrine 1 mission heralds start of lunar commercialization

Hours before sunrise on Monday morning, United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket was scheduled to make its maiden flight, carrying a historic passenger: the Peregrine, the first person to be sent to the moon in more than 50 years. American lunar lander. Its mission could mark a turning point in human exploration of the universe. Peregrine is not a NASA spacecraft, but a spacecraft developed by Astrobotic, a private company headquartered in Pittsburgh. If it lands successfully, the Peregrine Falcon will become the first commercial spacecraft to successfully land on the moon or any planet beyond Earth.

Astrobotic is one of a small group of companies selected to perform lunar deliveries for the space agency in the coming years as part of NASA’s new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine Mission 1 is expected to launch at 2:18 a.m. ET on January 8 and is the first mission under a $79.5 million contract with the space agency. But this is entirely a commercial endeavor, and in addition to providing five payloads to NASA in support of the upcoming Artemis mission, Peregrine will also provide cargo to other customers on board at a cost of $1.2 million per kilogram ( Approximately 2.2 pounds). These include mini-rovers and scientific instruments, art collections and archival materials, physical “bitcoins,” and controversial human remains.

The peregrine falcon is heading toward the near side of the moon, the hemisphere that always faces Earth. The 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide lander will (hopefully) touch down gently in an area called Sinus Viscositatis (“Viscous Bay”) because of the mysterious dome there that’s thought to have been there long ago Formed from thick rock. Siliceous lava. These strange features, known as “siliceous volcanoes,” don’t match the surrounding basalt terrain, and the Moon isn’t home to the ingredients that have hitherto been known to form siliceous volcanoes.

Celestial Robot

“The formation of the dome is a scientific mystery that we are still trying to understand,” CLPS project scientist Paul Niles said in a briefing before Thursday’s launch. The Peregrine Falcon will land in a sea of ​​lunar sea near the lunar dome, or as we move from Dark features formed by solid basalt lava flows can be seen on Earth. NASA payloads on board include the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS), Near Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) and the Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer ( PITMS). The instruments will collect data to help characterize the local environment.

“Our three instruments will collect data on lunar volatiles using different techniques,” Niles said. “The two instruments will provide a perspective on the radiation environment on the lunar surface and help us better prepare to return manned missions to the moon. We will also learn about the composition of the surface by evaluating its mineralogy.” Subsequently, the U.S. Space Agency The agency will send another set of instruments to the Gruysen Dome.

In terms of science delivery, Peregrine will also carry payloads for the Mexican Aerospace Agency (AEM). According to Astrobotic, its fleet of five mini-rovers, each less than 5 inches wide, will be the first Latin American scientific instruments to reach the lunar surface. Carnegie Mellon University’s 4-pound Iris rover also hitched a ride on Peregrine, planning to take photos and send them back home. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is sending its M-42 radiation detector, which is designed to measure how much radiation humans would be exposed to on missions to and from the moon.

Among non-scientific payloads, ULA’s Vulcan Centaur and Peregrine will transport a small collection of human remains for space memorial companies Celestis and Elysium Space. Celestis has two separate commemorative destinations planned for the trip: one “,” will land on the moon with the Peregrine Falcon, while the other “,” will continue on to deep space with the Centaur upper stage after separation from the lunar lander . Prices for such flights around Earth start at just under $13,000, and potential customers can choose to transport a nominal amount of human ashes or DNA.

Celestial Robot/ULA

One of the DNA luminaries heading to the lunar surface will be 2001: A Space Odyssey Co-author, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. The Enterprise flight contained the remains of several key figures from the Star Wars franchise, including series creator Gene Roddenberry, his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry and their son Eugene ” Roddenberry, as well as Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura in the original series) and her son Kyle Johnson. Elysium has not revealed whose remains will be transported.

The idea of ​​turning the moon into a memorial site has been met with some backlash. After hearing about the plan, Navajo President Buu Nygren spoke out against the upcoming mission, calling it “nothing short of sacrilege” for many cultures that consider the moon sacred, reported.

Respond to leadership questions ReutersDuring Thursday’s NASA briefing, Joey Roulette, a member of the space agency, reiterated that the decision on which payloads to fly rests entirely with Astrobotic. “They don’t have to work with us to remove these payloads,” said CLPS project manager Chris Culbert. “These are real business missions. They sell whatever they can.”

The issue highlights one of the potential drawbacks of relying on contractors, and one that will undoubtedly resurface as NASA relies more heavily on commercial industry for future missions. While NASA may not be able to approve which payloads are included on commercial missions, Culbert added that the teams “clearly have a lot of discussion about how to put the payloads together.”

The rest are memorabilia and objects that represent the planet and humankind’s achievements. Astrobotic worked with DHL to curate a souvenir “moon box” that will fly with the Peregrine, including items such as photos, documentation and even a fragment of Mount Everest. Hungary’s Puli Space Technologies and Britain’s SpaceBit are sending plaques to the lunar surface, while Japanese aerospace company Astroscale has filled a “lunar dream capsule” with “185,872 messages from children around the world.”

In addition to the lunar rover, Carnegie Mellon University also created what it calls “the first museum on the moon.” The university’s plan for a small four-room cylinder containing “hundreds of images, poems, music, nano-objects, mechanisms and samples from Earth” will be preserved at the Peregrine Falcon Landing on the vessel for future visitors and tourists to enjoy. Other fixtures on the ship. Likewise, Peregrine will carry Lunar Library 2, which it calls “humanity’s ultra-persistent archive.” Wikipedia is there, along with other major collections of Earth information and human language.

And, there are two Bitcoin projects going to the moon with Peregrine, as cryptocurrencies are clearly inevitable: physical Bitcoins engraved with private keys from Seychellois cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX; Exchange BitMEX for Bitcoin. and US-based BTC Inc.’s Bitcoin magazine Genesis Plate, which includes a copy of the first Bitcoin block ever mined.

Once the Peregrine Falcon reaches lunar orbit, it will stay there for a few weeks before attempting to land on the lunar surface. This is expected to happen on February 23rd. That’s a pretty big deal considering the U.S. hasn’t launched a lander on the moon since the Apollo missions. However, this is risky business. Speaking of moon landings, there have been many successful examples. “Landing on the moon is extremely difficult,” Culbert said during a NASA briefing. “We recognize that success is not guaranteed.”

Regardless, its business partners aim to keep trying and stay connected. Following Peregrine Mission 1, NASA will conduct a second CLPS mission in February, led by Intuitive Machines. After that, at least four more CLPS lunar launches are planned before the end of 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/peregrine-mission-1-heralds-the-beginning-of-the-moons-commercialization-140038460.html?src=rss

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