Peregrine Mission One
Peregrine model
Mission typeLunar Landing, Surface operations
OperatorAstrobotic Technology
Mission durationOne lunar day on surface (14 days Earth)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftPeregrine
Launch mass1,283 kg (2,829 lb)
Start of mission
Launch dateDecember 2023 (planned)
RocketVulcan Centaur
Launch siteCape Canaveral SLC-41
 

Peregrine Mission One or the Peregrine Lunar Lander is a lunar lander built by Astrobotic Technology, that was selected through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). It is scheduled to be launched December 24, 2023[1] by United Launch Alliance (ULA) aboard a Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. The lander will carry multiple payloads, with total payload mass capacity of 90 kg.[2]

History

In July 2017, Astrobotic announced an agreement had been reached with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to launch their Peregrine lander aboard a Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.[3] This first lunar lander mission, called Mission One, was initially planned to be launched in July 2021.[3][4]

By May 2019, Mission One had 14 commercial payloads including small rovers from Hakuto, Team AngelicvM,[5] and a larger rover from the Carnegie Mellon University named Andy that has a mass of 33 kg (73 lb) and is 103 cm (41 in) tall.[6] A small rover, weighing 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), named Spacebit is included, and it moves on four legs.[7][8][9] It is a technological demonstrator and will travel a distance of at least 10 m (33 ft).[10] Other payloads aboard the lander include a library, in microprint on nickel, which will include Wikipedia contents and Long Now Foundation's Rosetta Project.[11][12]

On November 29, 2018, Astrobotic was made eligible to bid on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon,[13] and in May 2019, it was awarded its first lander contract for NASA.[14][15] Therefore, in addition to the 14 commercial payloads, the lander will carry 14 NASA-sponsored payloads, for a total of 28.[16]

In June 2021, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno announced that the maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur, with Mission One aboard, had been delayed to 2022 due to payload and engine testing delays.[17] On February 23, 2023, ULA announced an expected launch date for the mission of May 4, 2023.[18] After an anomaly during testing of the Vulcan Centaur on March 29, the launch was delayed until June or July,[19] and then until late 2023.[20]

Peregrine will carry a maximum payload mass of 90 kg (200 lb) during Mission One,[21] and it is planned to land on Gruithuisen Gamma.[22] The payload mass for the planned second mission (Mission Two) is capped at 175 kg (386 lb), and the Mission Three and later missions would carry the full payload capacity of 265 kg (584 lb).[22]

The lander

The Peregrine lander was announced in 2016.[23] It inherits designs from their previous concept lander called Griffin, which was larger but with the same payload capacity.[23][24] Astrobotic had contracted Airbus Defence and Space to provide additional engineering support as they refine the lander's design.

Peregrine bus structure is mainly manufactured out of aluminum alloy, and it is reconfigurable for specific missions. Its propulsion system features a cluster of five thrusters, built by Frontier Aerospace.[25] Each thruster produces 150 lb (667 N) thrust. This propulsion system would propel the trans-lunar injection, trajectory corrections, lunar orbit insertion, and powered descent. The propulsion system is capable of delivering an orbiter to the Moon and then performing a powered soft landing.[22] The lander would carry up to 450 kg (990 lb) of bi-propellant mass in four tanks; its composition is MON-25 /MMH, a hypergolic bi-propellant.[26] For attitude control (orientation), the spacecraft uses twelve thrusters (45 N each) also powered by MON-25/MMH.[22]

The spacecraft's avionics systems incorporate guidance and navigation to the Moon, and a Doppler LiDAR to assist the automated landing on four legs.[23] From Mission 2 Its landing ellipse will be 100 m x 100 m, down from 24 km × 6 km previously.[22]

Peregrine is about 2.5 m wide and 1.9 m tall, and it would be able to deliver up to 265 kg (584 lb) of payload to the surface of the Moon.[23][27][22][28]

Its electrical systems will be powered by a lithium-ion battery that is recharged by a solar panel made of GaInP/GaAs/Ge. Radiators and thermal insulators are used to dispose of excess heat, but the lander does not carry heaters, so the first few Peregrine landers are not expected to survive the lunar night,[22] which lasts 14 Earth days. Future missions could be adapted to do so.[22]

For communications to Earth, the lander uses different frequencies within the X-band range for uplink as well as downlink.[22] Following landing, a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi modem enables wireless communication between the lander and deployed rovers on the lunar surface.[22]

Payloads

Lunar rovers

Country Name Agency or company
 Mexico Colmena x5 Agencia Espacial Mexicana
 USA Iris Carnegie Mellon University

Instruments

Country Name Agency or company
 USA Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) NASA
 USA Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS) NASA
 Germany M-42 Radiation Detector DLR
 USA Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) NASA
 USA Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) NASA
 USA Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) NASA
 USA Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) NASA
 USA Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) Astrobotic

Time capsules

Country Name Agency or company Type
 USA Bitcoin Magazine Genesis Plate BIT Inc. Plaque
 Germany DHL MoonBox DHL Commercial payload capsules
 Canada Lunar Codex[29] Incandence Artwork, books, stories, music
 UK Footsteps on the Moon Lunar Mission One Image bank
 USA Luna 02 Celestis Memorial capsule
 Seychelles Lunar Bitcoin BitMEX Cryptocurrency
 Japan Lunar Dream Capsule[30] Astroscale Time capsule
 USA Memorial Space Flight Services Elysium Space Memorial capsule
 Hungary Memory of Mankind on the Moon Puli Space Technologies Time capsule
 USA MoonArk Carnegie Mellon University Lunar Museum
 UK Spacebit Plaque Spacebit / Sacha Jafri Artwork
 USA The Arch Libraries Arch Mission Foundation Time capsule

References

  1. ↑ Berger, Eric (2023-11-15). "ULA chief on the Vulcan rocket: "The path to flight one is clear"". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  2. ↑ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Will Launch Private Moon Lander in 2021 Archived October 4, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Mike Wall, Space.com October 2, 2019
  4. ↑ "Astrobotic Awarded US$79.5 Million Contract to Deliver 14 NASA Payloads to the Moon" (Press release). Astrobotic Technology. May 31, 2019. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  5. ↑ Cole, Michael (March 19, 2018). "Astrobotic Ready to Become Delivery Service to the Moon". Spaceflight Insider. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Andy's Mission". Planetary Robotics Lab. Carnegie Mellon University. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  7. ↑ Britain's first moon rover is a four-legged robot that will explore lunar tunnels Archived October 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Ryan Browne, CNBC October 10, 2019
  8. ↑ [SpaceBit moon rover set to land on lunar surface in 2021] Sky News October 10, 2019
  9. ↑ A lunar rover which will explore the moon on foot in 2021 was unveiled in London on Thursday Archived October 10, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Reuters October 10, 2019
  10. ↑ UK's 1st Moon Rover to Launch in 2021 Archived October 13, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Mike Wall, "Space.com" October 12, 2019
  11. ↑ Wall, Mike (May 16, 2018). "'Lunar Library' Aims to Preserve Humanity's History On the Moon (Wikipedia, Too)". Space.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  12. ↑ Grush, Loren (May 15, 2018). "This nonprofit plans to send millions of Wikipedia pages to the Moon — printed on tiny metal sheets". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ "NASA Announces New Partnerships for Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Services" (Press release). NASA. November 29, 2018. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved November 29, 2018. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  14. ↑ "NASA funds commercial moon landers for science, exploration". Astronomy Now. June 2, 2018. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  15. ↑ Wall, Mike (June 1, 2018). "These Are the Private Lunar Landers Taking NASA Science to the Moon". Space.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019. Peregrine will tote as many as 14 agency payloads to a big crater on the moon's near side called Lacus Mortis by July 2021, on the lander's Mission One.
  16. ↑ Grush, Loren (June 5, 2019). "This tiny rover will test how well small mobile robots can survive on the Moon". The Verge. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  17. ↑ Berger, Eric (June 25, 2021). "Rocket Report: China to copy SpaceX's Super Heavy? Vulcan slips to 2022". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 29, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  18. ↑ Grush, Loren (February 23, 2023). "United Launch Alliance Delays Vulcan Debut Flight to Early May". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  19. ↑ Doughty, Nate (April 19, 2023). "ULA rocket taking Astrobotic's lunar lander to space pushes back departure date following explosion during testing". bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  20. ↑ Berger, Eric (14 June 2023). "Vulcan aces engine test, but upper stage anomaly will delay launch for a while "Working corrective action and retest."". Arstechnica. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  21. ↑ "Peregrine Lander". Astrobotic Technology. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Astrobotic - Payload User Guide". Astrobotic Technology. 2018. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Foust, Jeff (June 3, 2016). "Astrobotic unveils Peregrine lunar lander". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on October 17, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  24. ↑ "Griffin Lander". Astrobotic Technology. Archived from the original on December 11, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Frontier Aerospace Selected for NASA Award to Develop Deep Space Thruster Using MON-25/MMH Propellant". Astrobotic Technology. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Aerojet Rocketdyne Successfully Demonstrates Low-Cost, High Thrust Space Engine" (Press release). Aerojet Rocketdyne. May 23, 2018. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  27. ↑ Foust, Jeff (June 13, 2016). "Landers, laws, and lunar logistics". The Space Review. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Spacebit forms partnership, prepares to send tiny rover to the moon". SpaceNews. October 24, 2019. Archived from the original on October 17, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  29. ↑ "A Time Capsule of Human Creativity, Stored in the Sky". New York Times. July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
  30. ↑ "Otsuka's POCARI SWEAT Aims the Very First Moon Landing". businesswire.com. May 15, 2014. Archived from the original on October 17, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
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