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Peregrine Mission One

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Peregrine Mission One
Peregrine model
Mission typeLunar Landing, Surface operations
OperatorAstrobotic Technology
COSPAR ID2024-006A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.58751Edit this on Wikidata
Mission durationOne lunar day on surface (14 days Earth)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftPeregrine
Launch mass1,283 kg (2,829 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date8 January 2024 (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 January 8, 2024[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]

In early December, ULA CEO Tory Bruno announced that due to issues found during a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket, the launch would likely be delayed to the subsequent January 8th launch window.[1]

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 Summary
 USA Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) NASA A retroreflector bounces any light that shines on it directly backward (180° from the incoming light). The LRA is a collection of eight of these, each a 1.25-cm diameter glass corner cube prism, all embedded in an aluminum hemisphere (painted gold) and mounted to the lander deck. This design ensures that the LRA can retroreflect (i.e., bounce) laser light from other orbiting and landing spacecraft over a wide range of incoming directions and efficiently retroreflect the laser signal directly back at the originating spacecraft. This enables precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the LRA on the lander. The LRA is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent fiducial (i.e., location) marker on the Moon for decades to come. (Note: this LRA design is too small for laser ranging from the Earth).[29]
 USA Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS) NASA During lunar exploration missions outside of the Earth’s protective atmosphere, exposure to space radiation has a detrimental effect on the health of the astronauts. Lunar surface environments present a greater radiation risk to the astronaut than Low Earth Orbit (LEO). There are two sources of radiation risk for lunar surface environments. The first source of risk is the total radiation dose from Galactic Cosmic Rays, which is about twice as high on the lunar surface as in LEO. The second source of risk is from space weather events resulting from solar activity. The Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS) is a radiation monitor that is derived from heritage hardware flown on Orion EFT-1 and slated to fly on the Orion EM-1 mission that will enable acquisition of knowledge of the lunar radiation environment and demonstrate the capabilities of a system on the lunar surface. The LETS radiation sensor is a solid-state silicon Timepix detector that is derived from heritage hardware that was flown on Orion EFT-1. This sensor will measure the rate of incident radiation providing, information that is critical to understanding and mitigating the hazardous environment that people will experience as they explore the surface of the Moon.[30]
 Germany M-42 Radiation Detector DLR This radiation detector is a complement to another scientific experiment riding aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission. These sensors will precisely measure the level of radiation a human body will encounter on a trip to the Moon and back. The data from both Artemis I and Peregrine Missions will improve our understanding of lunar spaceflight environmental conditions with respect to astronaut health, as space radiation will be one of the key risks in the future of Human Space Exploration.[31]
 USA Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) NASA NDL is a LIDAR-based (Light Detection and Ranging) descent and landing sensor. This instrument operates on the same principles of radar but uses pulses of light from a laser instead of radio waves. NDL measures vehicle velocity (speed and direction) and altitude (distance to ground) with high precision during descent to touchdown.[32]


 USA Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) NASA The payload includes a spectrometer context imager and a longwave calibration sensor. It measures surface and subsurface hydration (H2O and OH) and CO2 and methane (CH4) while simultaneously mapping surface morphology and surface temperature. The plan is for the measurements to take place during rover traverse when integrated onto a rover, throughout areas of targeted volatile investigation (called science stations), and during drilling activities. This instrument was created at NASA Ames Research Center. In total, it has three specific instruments: the near-infrared spectrometer, Ames imaging module, and longwave calibration sensor.[33]
 USA Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) NASA The NSS instrument will determine the abundance of hydrogen-bearing materials and the bulk regolith composition at the landing site and measure any time variations in hydrogenous volatile abundance during the diurnal cycle. NSS can measure the total volume of hydrogen up to three feet below the surface, providing high-resolution ground truth data for measurements made from instruments in orbit around the Moon. NSS measures the number and energy of neutrons present in the lunar surface environment, which can be used to infer the amount of hydrogen present in the environment. This detection is possible because when neutrons strike a hydrogen atom, they lose a lot of energy.[34]
 USA Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) NASA PITMS will characterize the lunar exosphere after descent and landing, and throughout the lunar day, to understand the release and movement of volatile species. Previous missions have demonstrated the presence of volatiles at the lunar surface, but significant questions remain about the where those volatiles came from and how they are transported across the lunar surface. Investigating how the lunar exosphere changes over the course of a lunar day can provide insight into the transport process for volatiles on the Moon. The instrument has the ability to measure the low level of gases expected in the lunar exosphere and released by regolith interaction with surface disturbances, like rovers.

The PITMS sensor has direct heritage from the Ptolemy mass spectrometer that made the first in situ measurements of volatiles and organics on comet 67P with the Rosetta lander, Philae. PITMS operates in a passive sampling mode, where molecules fall into the zenith-facing aperture and are trapped by a radiofrequency field, then sequentially released for analysis. PITMS has a unit mass resolution up to an upper mass-to-charge (m/z) limit of 150 Da.

The PITMS investigation will provide time-resolved variability of OH, H2O, noble gases, nitrogen, and sodium compounds released from the soil and present in the exosphere over the course of a lunar day. PITMS observations will complement other instruments on board the Peregrine lander for a comprehensive approach to understanding the surface and exosphere composition, linking surface properties and composition to LADEE measurements from orbit, and providing a mid-latitude point of comparison for polar measurements planned by VIPER, PROSPECT, and other missions. The PITMS data provide a critical mid-latitude link to future polar mass specs to characterize the latitudinal migration of volatiles from equator to poles.

PITMS is a joint NASA-ESA project implemented by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and ESA’s contractors Open University (OU) and STFC RAL Space, with coordination and support provided by ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). The integrated PITMS payload and science investigation will be operated by GSFC with an international team of scientists.[35]

 USA Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) Astrobotic Astrobotic will demonstrate its standalone Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) sensor as a payload on its first mission to the Moon. TRN will enable spacecraft to perform landings on planetary surfaces with an unparalleled accuracy of less than 100 meters. The TRN sensor is being developed under a $10 million NASA Tipping Point contract with NASA Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Moog.[36]

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[37] 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[38] 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
 Argentina Your Photos on the Moon @andres Artwork
 USA The Arch Libraries Arch Mission Foundation Time capsule
 Canada USA Writers on the Moon https://www.writersonthemoon.com Stories by 133 authors

References

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  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.
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  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Astrobotic - Payload User Guide". Astrobotic Technology. 2018. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
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