Astrobotic PM-1 mission, CLPS mission with NASA and commercial payloads Options

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/astrobotic/status/1737123176336048282

Landing on February 23rd!

Phil

[mcaplinger]

Fingers crossed. But FWIW, I am certainly not holding my breath for this launch, which seems likely to slip even more, for Vulcan-related reasons if nothing else.

I also think it's amusing that the photo in the tweet makes it look like Peregrine only barely fits in the fairing, when in reality it is lost in all of that volume.

[Thorsten Denk]

https://twitter.com/ulalaunch/status/1742233436457169366

Launch next Monday Jan 8th at 07:18 UTC.

Thorsten

[nprev]

Successful launch & TLI, spacecraft AOS just occurred.

[nprev]

Agh. Serious anomaly. Hopefully it will be resolved, and right soon.

[mcaplinger]

Agh. Serious anomaly. Hopefully it will be resolved, and right soon.

Sounds like a stuck thruster or bad prop system leak. Fingers crossed but it is not sounding good at all.

https://twitter.com/astrobotic/status/1744389634568724791

[mcaplinger]

Landing almost certainly off the table.

[nogal]

Astrobotic has been publishing news reports on the Peregrine-1 status.

Report #5 has the following image:




Here is the link to the news page https://www.astrobotic.com/category/press/


______________________________________________________
Fernando

[HSchirmer]

Landing almost certainly off the table.

Curious, not a snarky question, but what sort of TLI are they on, and where do they end up (making the unwarranted assumption that they can even get star tracker telemetry while outgassing) Any idea whether "Landing diagram" plots out to be a lunar splat, Earth atmosphere burnup, or stuck in a chaotic orbit?

Glad to see that they're still getting data, understand that it's heart dropping outcome for the PI & post docs, but perhaps then can get some telescope time / citizen science for 'rapid unscheduled spectroscopy' from the ejecta of a lunar splat or atmospheric reentry?

[Explorer1]

The Vulcan took it to TLI, but they were planning on several other burns to refine. Whether they pass the Moon and at least conduct some science (like a few of the Artemis cubesats) and where it will go afterward is still unknown....

[Thorsten Denk]

Update #6:
"An ongoing propellant leak [...]"
"[...] in a stable sun pointing state for approximately 40 more hours, [...]"
https://twitter.com/astrobotic/status/1744543629392134194

Anything known about what caused this propellant leak?

Thorsten

[mcaplinger]

Anything known about what caused this propellant leak?

I haven't heard anything, and there is not much public detail about Peregrine's propulsion system. But it started right after the system was pressurized and was large enough to disturb blankets. I can think of three root causes: 1) damage during launch vibration (hopefully unlikely since the spacecraft was vibe-tested); 2) propellant migration causing a small explosion that blew a hole in the plumbing; 3) pressure regulator failure leading to overpressurization. Assuming https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-game-changing-dev...in-space-talos/ describes what they ended up flying, the main engines were MON-25/MMH biprops but how the attitude-control thrusters (presumably monoprops) were tied in, I have not seen.

[HSchirmer]

snip
1) damage during launch vibration (hopefully unlikely since the spacecraft was vibe-tested)
snip

I wonder if there might be an unexpected resonance- e.g. when the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches from Kennedy Space Center, the Vehicle Assembly Building 'squeals' because it randomly has a resonant frequency with the Merlin engine exhaust.
Sorta makes sense that the first actual lift off a brand-new rocket is when you actually find out about the sounds and launchpad acoustics.

[mcaplinger]

Sorta makes sense that the first actual lift off a brand-new rocket is when you actually find out about the sounds and launchpad acoustics.

Normally all of that is determined by analysis and then the testing is done with a lot of extra margin to cover all uncertainties. https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/simcenter/spac...oustic-testing/

And it's not like Vulcan is that different than Atlas in that regard.

What is a little odd is that Peregrine was supposed to be launched with two prototype Kuiper satellites, but after all of the delays, those were launched separately. There didn't seem to be any place to put them on the Centaur, but it seems implausible that they changed the configuration enough to impact Peregrine unfavorably.

If Astrobotic decides this was a vibe-induced failure, I'm sure there will be some finger-pointing.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

From the latest update from Astrobotics:

...There is no indication that the propulsion anomaly occurred as as result of the launch.