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Astrobotic ’s Peregrine lunar lander fail to reach the moon because of a problem with a single valve in the actuation organisation , according to a report card on the mission released Tuesday . Company leading said in a press league that technologist have redesign the valve and present additional redundancy into the actuation system of its next lander , Griffin , to insure the problem does n’t reoccur .
The composition comes from a reexamination display board tack together briefly after the Peregrine mission reason out in January . That missionencountered problem just hours after launching on January 8 , when locomotive engineer activate the spacecraft ’s propulsion organisation for the first clock time on orbit .
At that point , the fuel and oxidizer tanks should ’ve been pressurise with atomic number 2 , upon the opening of two pressure control valves , or PCVs . But helium began to flow “ uncontrollably ” through the 2d valve into the oxidizer tank , Astrobotic chief operating officer John Thornton explain during the press conference .
“ That caused a pregnant and rapid over - pressurization of the tank , ” he said . “ Unfortunately , the tank then bust and subsequently leaked oxidizing agent for the remainder of the mission . ”
That PCV was unable to reseal , in all likelihood due to a mechanical failure due to “ quivering - bring on liberalisation ” between some threaded component inside the valve , the review board ’s chair John Horack said . Telemetry data was able to pinpoint the location and timing of the anomaly , and this data point was consistent with the autonomous chronological sequence to open up and shut the PCV , and the perspective of the valve on the propulsion system of rules . engineer were also able to replicate the failure in ground examination .
While the oxidizer wetting proceed , Astrobotic ’s team was able-bodied to stabilize the space vehicle , load its bombardment , and power its lading . But the issue was ultimately fateful to the delegation , and after 10.5 day , the spacecraftreturned to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere .
The 34 - person review board included 26 people intimate to the company and eight from outside . The dining table brush up not just the data collected during the mission , but also all the data from the flight reservation campaign and component testing . In the end , it determined that the likely cause of the malfunction was the failure of that single helium PCV in the actuation organisation .
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The board also collect a timeline of case that lead to the unsuccessful person , and it depart all the way back in 2019 , when Astrobotic contracted an unnamed seller for the development of the actuation provender system . When that vendor started lose technical and supply chain issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Astrobotic made the decision in former 2022 to terminate their contract and finish the partly assembled feed system in - house .
“ By this time , we ’d already made the conclusion to do Griffin ’s propulsion system in - menage , to do more erect desegregation , ” Astrobotic ’s missionary work director Sharad Bhaskaran said . “ We ’d already developed a lot of the capabilities to do that propulsion integration . … This also glow down some of the risk cash in one’s chips into the Griffin program , which is far more complex than Peregrine . ”
But Astrobotic engineers begin encountering issues with the original seller ’s propulsion components — in exceptional the PCVs . In August 2022 , they shift to a different , nameless PCV supplier , and those valves were install on the lander .
A concluding set of tests on the actuation organisation showed leaks in one of the two PCVs — but not the one that ultimately leaked on orbit . That one test amercement ; the one that leaked was repaired . While Bhaskaran acknowledged that the second PCV was key “ as a endangerment in our risk of infection register ” due to the leak with the first during testing , engineer ultimately take for that the bankruptcy was low because the lander passed final toleration examination .
He justified not put back the second PCV , saying it was locate much far into the ballistic capsule and would have require “ all-encompassing OR ” on the lander , invalidated the net testing , and convey extra risk that come with dismantlement and reassembly .
Horack echoed that the team ’s decision - making was reasoned throughout : “ I really found that , in looking at the team and take care at what happened … I ca n’t see any decisions that were made in the flow leading up to the launching where I would have pronounce , ‘ Hey , I think you should have done this other than . ’ ”
These findings have already begin to inform the development of the much larger Griffin lander , which is currently schedule to launch to the moonshine before the terminal of 2025 . In accession to redesigning the valve , locomotive engineer have insert a regulator in the actuation scheme to control the flow of helium to the fuel and oxidizer tanks , and backup latch valves as added redundance in eccentric the government issue reoccurs with a PCV .
