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SLIM lunar lander from Japan successfully enters lunar orbit

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Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
December 26, 2023

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) aims to demonstrate pinpoint landing technology and obstacle detection technology to “land where you want to land.” Credit: JAXA

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) announced that its Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration (SLIM) has successfully entered lunar orbit at 16:51 on December 25, 2023 (Japan Standard Time, JST).

SLIM’s lunar orbit will be inserted into an elliptical lunar orbit connecting the moon’s north and south poles every 6.4 hours, and the altitude at the point closest to the moon (near orbit) will be approximately 600 km (approximately 370 miles). . , 4,000 km (about 2,500 miles) at its furthest point from the moon (Apolune). The orbit change proceeded as planned, and the spacecraft is currently in a normal state.

Lunar orbit insertion (LOI) on December 25, 2023 at 16:51 (Japan time).
Light blue line: current orbit of the moon.
Future Plans:
Green line: Circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 600km.
Yellow line: Altitude approximately 600km x 150km on an elliptical orbit.
Red line: Altitude approximately 600km x 15km on an elliptical orbit. Credit: JAXA

From now on, the Apollone point will descend until mid-January 2024, and the orbit will be adjusted to a circular orbit at an altitude of about 600 km. After that, the perigee will drop and preparations for landing will begin. On January 19th, the near-orbit point will be lowered to an altitude of 15 km (approximately 9 miles), and the descent toward the moon will begin at around midnight (Japan time) on January 20th, with a scheduled landing on the lunar surface. There is. Around 0:20 a.m. on January 20th (Japan time)

Source: scitechdaily.com

SpaceX and Intuitive Machines delay lunar lander launch to February

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intuitive machine The company announced earlier this week that it was working with launch provider SpaceX to postpone its first lunar lander mission to mid-February.

The Houston, Texas-based company said the new launch window “comes as a result of changes to SpaceX’s launch manifest due to adverse weather conditions.”

The new target launch date, one month later than the original January 12-16 date, is due to the mission profile. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C spacecraft aims to land near the moon’s south pole and requires specific lighting conditions, including: There are only a few days each month.

The company is also constrained by launch infrastructure availability. The Lunar Module must be refueled with oxygen and methane propellant before liftoff, so it must launch from a specific launch site at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39A. This pad is the only one equipped with a tower to provide access for refueling the lander.

In the original launch window, Nova-C was scheduled to land on the lunar surface on or shortly after January 19, as it was on a direct orbit to reach lunar orbit. Intuitive Machines has not disclosed the exact launch date, but it is increasingly likely that it will coincide with plans to land another privately developed lunar lander. The lander, Astrobotic’s Peregrine, aims to land on the moon on February 23rd. That means we could see two privately developed American spacecraft land on the moon in the same week.

Both landers were developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Lander Service (CLPS) program. This program is an effort to recruit commercial landers to transport science and research payloads to the lunar surface. Nova-C will carry her six payloads for NASA as part of this initial mission, and he has been awarded two additional CLPS contracts for her to deliver cargo to the Moon.

All in all, the new launch window is a negligible delay for Intuitive Machines, which aims to base its business on access to the moon’s surface.according to Presentation released last Septemberwhen the company announced it would go public through a merger with a blank check company, Intuitive Machines expected to generate $279 million in revenue from its lander services next year alone.

Intuitive Machines is also launching a business unit related to orbital services, such as maintaining and refueling satellites, providing data services to the moon, and selling other space products.

Source: techcrunch.com

Astrobotic readies for early January launch of Peregrine lunar module

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astrobotic‘s first lunar module is ready for launch.

The company announced Tuesday that the lander, called Peregrine, has completed final inspection and refueling after mating with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket last month. All that remains is the January 8th launch — and then, of course, the historic moon landing.

“If you’ve followed the lunar industry, you know that landing on the moon is incredibly difficult,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a statement. . “That being said, our team has continually exceeded expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity during flight reviews, spacecraft testing, and major hardware integration.”

“We are ready for launch and landing.”

The Peregrine lander, which is approximately 2 meters tall, will carry 20 payloads for government and commercial customers. The lander has a payload of 90 kg and will operate for approximately 192 hours after landing on the moon. During that time, it provides power and communications to the payload. According to Astrobotic’s payload user guide on his website, the company charges about $1.2 million per kilogram of mass delivered to the lunar surface.

Astrobotic is performing this mission as part of a $79.5 million contract from NASA under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The company also won her second CLPS contract for the larger Griffin lander. The mission is scheduled to launch at the end of 2024.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is one of the few commercial companies betting on the growing market for lunar payload delivery services. Other companies include Intuitive Machines, which aims to launch its first lander on January 12, days after Peregrine, Firefly Aerospace, and the Japanese company whose moon launch attempt failed earlier this year. Includes ispace etc.

After Peregrine lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the spacecraft will perform a series of burns to position it for landing on the moon’s surface on February 23.

Astrobotic isn’t the only company with a lot at stake in the January 8 launch. This mission also marks the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The rocket was hit by delays that postponed its debut for years. . ULA aims to launch several Vulcan flights next year and will ultimately need to sign a multibillion-dollar 38-vehicle launch deal with Amazon for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband constellation.

Astrobotic and ULA originally targeted a Dec. 24 launch date, but it was later postponed to give ULA time to complete a wet dress rehearsal. According to ULA, the wet dress was finally completed on December 14th.

Source: techcrunch.com

Astrobotic Lunar Lander Set for ULA Launch on Christmas Eve

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based in pittsburgh astroboticULA’s first lunar lander is scheduled to take off on Christmas Eve aboard United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, ULA CEO Tori Bruno said.

Bruno told the audience at the CNBC Technology Executive Council Summit that the company is targeting its first Vulcan launch between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26. “The reason it’s Christmas Eve today is science: orbital mechanics,” said Tori Bruno, CEO of ULA.

The rocket will carry a payload hosted by Astrobotic’s Peregrine robotic lander and Celestis, a company that partners with launch companies to send parts of cremated remains into space as memorials. ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has a backup period in January in case the rocket fails to take off in December.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine will launch as part of a $79.5 million NASA contract awarded in 2019 under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The lander, which is just over 6 feet tall, 8 feet wide and has a payload of 120 kilograms, will deliver scientific payloads to the northern part of the moon on behalf of the space agency.

Although the mission date seems festive, Bruno said that’s partly due to Astrobotic’s mission requirements. “We’re going to parts of the moon where we have to control the lighting conditions very carefully, and we also have to maintain radio communication with the deep space network,” he explained. “This guy only gets a few days every month when you put the two together.”

This mission will take a long time. Astrobotic first announced that it had selected her ULA to launch its lander in 2019. At the time, both companies said the launch would happen in 2021.

However, the schedule has been pushed back due to numerous technical delays to Vulcan, including an accident in March of this year when the upper stage exploded during a test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Another explosion occurred during a rocket engine test of the BE-4 engine being developed by Blue Origin, further delaying the flight. Even before December, ULA still has work to do. Bruno told CNBC that the company is currently certifying Vulcan’s upper stage, and work should be completed in November.

This first mission, called Certification-1, is one of two certification flights that ULA must complete to meet Space Force requirements.

The mission will take off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. ULA wants to rapidly increase the pace of Vulcan’s launches, with a goal of launching once every two weeks by mid-2025. Some of that demand will come from the government, but ULA also expects demand from private customers. ULA won a huge contract from Amazon to launch part of its giant Kuiper satellite internet mega-constellation in 2022, but the price of the launch contract has soared. Not disclosed.

Source: techcrunch.com