ULA’s Vulcan rocket launches for the first time carrying the Peregrine Moon lander to space. The liftoff happened from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. 8. (video: ULA)
Private Moon company Astrobotic’s mission has new life after finding a match made in heaven with its new customer, Astrolab, following NASA’s decision to pull the plug on the agency’s VIPER Moon rover.
Later this year, Astrobotic will launch its medium-class Griffin lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA’s VIPER mission was set to fly on Griffin as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) to look for water in the polar regions on the Moon. However, the space agency canceled the program last summer due to delays and budget restraints.
“We were devastated when that news came out because we really wanted to be a part of that historic mission and be the ones to deliver that rover,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told FOX Weather.
Still, NASA opted to continue its CLIPS contract with Astrobotic to develop the landing skills needed for future Moon missions, but without the rover. The company planned to fly a payload simulator.
NASA SEEKING GOOD HOME FOR VIPER MOON ROVER
However, Thornton said the response was immediate, with more than 60 companies reaching out to Astrobotic, eager to take VIPER’s spot on the Griffin mission. With the mission only a year away from liftoff, Astrobotic narrowed down the potential customers by who could be ready to fly in time. California-based startup Astrolab’s small FLIP rover checked those boxes.
“The schedule looked good, and the technology was a good sync up and match up. So we didn’t have to reinvent and redesign interfaces to the spacecraft. It just kind of all worked out,” Thornton said.
Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, on left, and Astrolab’s FLIP rover, on right.
FLIP is small, with a mass of nearly half a metric ton, and will carry payloads to the lunar south pole designed to study Moondust risks. Astrolab has a larger rover, FLEX, which is in development. The company plans to fly FLEX with SpaceX as soon as next year.
‘All about the landing’
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic launched its first robotic mission to the Moon in January 2024, but the Peregrine lander didn’t make it to the lunar surface.
Thornton said the 10-day spaceflight after launching on ULA’s Vulcan rocket was challenging, but it gave the Astrobotic team experience operating its first spaceflight mission and learning what worked. The mission-ending problem came down to faulty valves.
“We didn’t find anything other than the valves in the 10 and a half days that we were operating that would have taken the spacecraft down otherwise. So that’s good news. But it also kind of makes the valve failure hurt that much more because it’s like we were that close.”
Astrobotic has added a dual-redundant valve system to correct the problem. Both valves with different designs would have to fail for the same result to occur.
Thornton said the mission proved their software, avionics and navigation were solid.
A view of Earth seen by Peregrine on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024.
(Astrobotic)
“All those lessons learned we’re incorporating into the new mission and I think we’re just going to be that much better for it,” he said. “I think our odds of success are really high.”
The big picture for Astrobotic is landing on the Moon. Only about half of all Moon missions are successful. Last year, Astrobotic was one of two CLIPS missions that attempted to land on the Moon. While Peregrine did not make it, Houston-based space company Intuitive Machines did land – but not upright. It marked the first successful private Moon mission.
“It’s all about landing for us,” Thornton said.
“We’re putting everything we possibly can into success and making sure this mission can get every chance it can to be successful and show our customers that we can deliver on time and deliver safely upright on the surface of the Moon,” Thornton said.
The Moon business is booming. Dozens of other private and international missions to Earth‘s only natural satellite are in the works. Two lunar landers launched from Florida in January are on their way to the Moon right now.
NASA plans to return humans to the Moon in the next few years, but this time with plans to maintain a presence there.
Thornton explains the lunar south pole contains the key to deeper space exploration.
“There’s water permanently in the permanently shadowed craters. And if we can get that and harness it, we have water to drink. Of course, you can split water, and then you have oxygen to breathe,” Thornton said. “But most importantly, you can split water and condense it and make rocket fuel.”
Sam Moore, Executive Director of the Moonshot Museum, joined FOX Weather to give a preview of the museum as it opens on Saturday.
And western Pennsylvania has a front-row seat to the Moon business. It’s the only place to watch lunar robotics in action with special clearance.
The Moonshot Museum is located within Astrobotic’s headquarters on Pittsburgh‘s north side. Visitors can look into the cleanroom where Griffin is currently being worked on.
“We’re trying to show that window into the $500 billion space industry and show that you don’t have to be an engineer with a Ph.D. and go work in some ivory tower at NASA,” Thornton said. “You can be right down the street working at the local space company.”