Destination Moon
Space is hard, even in the hubristic Year of Our Lord 2024. Peregrine Mission One, the first flight of N.A.S.A.'s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (C.L.P.S., "clips"), was successfully launched by the new Vulcan-Centaur rocket (8 January), but shortly after liftoff a propellant leak deep-sixed any attempt to land the Peregrine lander. The Peregrine was deorbited & burned up in the atmosphere on Thursday (18 January): Peregrine-link.
Meanwhile, J.A.X.A.'s Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (S.L.I.M.), launched aboard an H-IIA rocket (6 September 2023), landed on the Moon on Friday (19 January), right on target in the Mare Nectaris (the "Sea of Nectar"). Telemetry from S.L.I.M. 7 a small rover it deployed have been received, but the lander is running off of batteries, as the onboard solar panels are not facing the Sun as intended. It is not yet known if the S.L.I.M. will be able to "wake up" at some future point, if the solar panels begin generating power: S.L.I.M.-link.
Ad astra per aspera.
No comments:
Post a Comment