Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times.
It has been about seven months since Peregrine, a silvery lander that shot for the moon, burned up over the Pacific ocean.and ending up on our planet in pieces. Moreover, this saga was especially tense because Peregrine was very important.
Of note, Astrobotic's report mentions that PCV2 was a known risk on Peregrine. First of all, the company switched PCV suppliers in August of 2022, during the lander's construction — a change that came about because the original PCV components used to control helium pressure into the fuel and oxidizer tanks were"repeatedly failing." However, after that switch and after the new supplier's PCVs were installed, the new PCV1 encountered leaks during testing as well.
Furthermore, the report states that"subsequent disassembly of the valve showed that a threaded joint in the valve was loosened, and that the primary seating O-ring in the valve had been damaged along the sealing surface." Less than 90 seconds later, a maximum was reached. Then, operators adjusted Peregrine's trajectory to a sun-pointing position as planned , only to witness an unexpected attitude change. PCV2's failure had forced an oxidizer tank to rupture, which applied an external torque to the spacecraft. There were three fruitless attempts to fix the issue at the time but, even when closed, PCV2 was leaking internally. At that point, the team just had to ride the wave.
"I'll say our mission operations team learned the hard way — well, on the fly — and they're very experienced now on how to fly that spacecraft in cislunar space, even with an anomalous condition." Steve Clark, Vice President of Landers & Spacecraft at Astrobotic, said during the conference."The team is well-seasoned now."Falcon Heavy and land at the lunar south pole.
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