US lunar lander Peregrine at risk of being stranded due to fuel leakage

Peregrine, the first commercial U.S. lunar lander, is at risk of being stranded due to technical defects. The issue of solar panels not rotating towards the sun had been resolved, but a more serious fuel leakage problem surfaced.

Astrobotic Technology, the U.S. private space company that launched Peregrine, announced on Monday (local time) on social media X (former Twitter) that the fuel leakage is continuing and is doing its best to prevent uncontrollable falls. “At this time, the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power,” said the company.

That rules out the possibility of a moon landing. Peregrine, launched at 2:18 a.m. on Monday, was planning to land on Sinus Viscocitatis (Bay of Stickiness) near 35 degrees north latitude on the moon on Feb. 23. According to Astrobotic Technology, a problem with the propellant system caused the fuel loss. The attitude control system can operate for about 40 hours based on current fuel consumption.

If Peregrine succeeds in landing on the moon, it would be 52 years since Apollo 17 landed in 1972. It would have set a milestone as the first commercial lunar landing, but a defect was reported just seven hours after launch. “The failure raises questions about NASA’s strategy of relying on private companies, mostly small startups, for getting science experiments to the lunar surface,” remarked the New York Times. Reuters reported that NASA plans to postpone future exploration missions.


purple@donga.com