THE doomed $108million US Peregrine spacecraft has shared a final image as it’s commanded to destroy itself in a fiery mess.
The lander launched just last week hoping to touchdown on the moon but an explosive rupture blasted it off course – jeopardising its mission.
4
4
After soaring through space and covering thousands of miles the Peregrine met a dramatic end on Thursday.
The private operator, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, directed the craft into Earth‘s atmosphere to burn up after there was “no chance” of a successful mission.
At around 4pm EST the craft smashed into the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean, about 400 miles south of Fiji.
Astrobotic Technology confirmed the spacecraft’s demise, saying it lost contact with the vehicle moments before the planned reentry time, which “indicates the vehicle completed its controlled re-entry over open water in the South Pacific.”
read more on the moon
The robotics company shared an eerie last image taken from the Peregrine before its destruction.
The picture shows a stunning crescent earth, illuminated in the darkness.
Little or no remains of Peregrine are expected to survive intact to the ocean surface.
Onboard the spacecraft are a host of scientific experiments, as well as the ashes of the original Star Trek cast and the DNA of former US president John F. Kennedy.
Most read in Tech
Astrobotic also packed the lunar lander with a chip of rock from Mount Everest and toy-size cars from Mexico.
Beyond that, Peregrine is also carrying a British-made tool, known as the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer (ESA), that was designed to help search for water in the Moon’s exosphere.
Astrobotic released a statement yesterday which confirmed the failure of the project but also offered hope for the future.
It read: “This afternoon Astrobiotic received independent confirmation of Peregrine’s safe, controlled re-entry yesterday over the South Pacific.
“Peregrine Mission One has concluded.We look to the future and out next mission to the Moon, Griffin Mission One.
“All of the hard-earned experience for the past 10 days in space along with the preceding years of designing, building and testing Peregrine will directly inform Griffin and out future missions.
Astrobotic’s aim had been to drop off five Nasa instruments on the Moon’s surface to study the environment ahead of the return of astronauts later this decade.
Had the project been a success it would have become the first American mission in half a century to achieve the feat and the first ever private venture to do so.
Only government agencies from the US, the Soviet Union, China and India have managed controlled lunar landings so far.
But, soon after Peregrine launched, engineers noticed a problem.
The fault was linked to leaking propellant from a ruptured oxidiser tank.
According to the BBC, This was generating a thrust, turning the craft and preventing it from keeping its solar panels pointed at the Sun which is crucial to maintain power.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
It comes as Japan’s space missions also encountering problems.
Japan’s SLIM moon lander has successfully touched down on the lunar surface – but officials fear all is not well.
4
4
