At 2:18 a.m. EST, United Launch Alliance launched its Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Onboard Peregrine are a suite of NASA scientific instruments and commercial payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. The payloads onboard the lander aim to help the agency develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under Artemis and in advance of human missions on the lunar surface.
The Peregrine 1 lander carrying Nasa scientific equipment is on its way to the moon after a successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral.
It marks the first launch of the powerful new rocket built by the Boeing-Lockheed venture United Launch Alliance, and an attempt to make the first US lunar soft landing in 50 years.
Built by the space robotics firm Astrobotic, the Peregrine lunar lander launched at 7.18 GMT, aiming to become the first lunar landing by a private firm – a feat that has proved elusive in recent years.
Within minutes of separation from the rocket, Astrobotic mission control received signal from the lander, which will go into a highly elliptical orbit to put it on course to its destination.
Peregrine is set to land on 23 February and will seek to gather data about the lunar surface ahead of planned future human missions.
It is the first mission to fly under Nasa’s commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative, a scheme in which the space agency pays private companies to deliver scientific equipment to the moon.
Peregrine carries five Nasa payloads and 15 others. Its instruments will measure radiation levels, surface and subsurface water ice, the magnetic field, and the extremely tenuous layer of gas called the exosphere. The readings are expected to help minimise risks and harness the moon’s natural resources when humans return to its surface.
Also onboard are the first Latin American scientific instruments attempting to reach the surface of the moon. Five small moon rovers, each weighing less than 60g and measuring 12cm across will be deployed. Carnegie Mellon University has a rover onboard as well.
but not without controversy
Peregrine lunar lander: First US moon landing mission in decades launches with NASA science, humans remains on board | CNN
NASA Science Heads to Moon on First US Private Robotic Artemis Flight – NASA
hopefully waking-up some of the congresscritters who profess religious fervor will be moved by this from the guardian:
To infinity and beyond.
I suppose this Artemis launch and mission is important, if nothing more than the scale of the rovers onboard – as small as 4 1/2 inches and just over 2 ounces.
I’m having some difficulty understanding how things so small will produce significant informational results, but after 50 years of minimal lunar surface activity I suppose we have to learn to walk again before we learn to run.
In contrast, within the last 20 years NASA put two rovers on Mars, one of which operated for 15 years – 14 3/4 years longer than expected. They were a bit larger. According to Wiki:
Probably why I’m having difficulty with the size of the rovers sent to the moon.
If you are traveling at the speed of light and turn on the headlights, do they do anything?
—Whats-his-name, the comedian.
I had not been keeping up with NASA as usual. Thanks for the update. Burial on the moon? Weird
Just came across this excellent advice for interviewing liars like Trump, by novelist David Pepper:
Do NOT move on from the first lie.
Don’t do the very thing they count on you to do to get their next round of lies.
STOP at that first lie and dig in.
For as long as you need to.
Rebut that lie with every fact and figure and proof point there is. (Having of course planned in advance). Air video clips showing the truth. Whatever it takes.
Just keep going and digging and rebutting.
Make it clear to your audience (and the person you are interviewing) that there is an objective truth on the matter, and also make clear to the person you are interviewing that you will not move on until they acknowledge it.
Do it for as long as it takes to force the lying subject to acknowledge the lie.
And most importantly, for as long as they refuse to acknowledge it, as much as you want to move to the next question, do NOT!
Yes…if that means end the interview rather than moving on, end the interview.
And make it clear that you will not move to the next question—that you will end the interview if necessary—if they do not acknowledge that what they said is not true.
When this leads to awkward silence or hostility, which it will, stick to it. (Trump counts on that awkwardness and silence so that you will move on. It’s a form of his bullying).
And amid that silence, if Trump still won’t acknowledge the lie, just end the interview.
Get up and go.
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/how-to-interview-trump?r=17y7a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
My hat’s off to David Pepper.
Sturg, that physics question will be like an earwig.
blueindallas’ midnight ramblings worth repeating:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/politics/elise-stefanik-january-6-prisoners-liz-cheney/index.html
Stefanik’s in training to stink as bad as her boss.
they wouldn’t illuminate anything in front of you, you’d get there the same time the light does
All previous visits to places outside of the outer orbits of Earth’s satellites were extremely careful to avoid putting Earth’s various DNA on them. Exploration had the second reason of finding life beyond Earth, the first was always a country bragging rights. By deliberately putting DNA from this rock on other rocks is contaminating and makes it very difficult to say there was life there before humans took a big dump.
Joe standing his ground at Mother Emanuel.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eugene-shoemaker-buried-moon-celestis-nasa
“To date, the late scientist Eugene Shoemaker is still the only person whose remains have been sent to the Moon. Even casual stargazers are likely to recognize Shoemaker’s name from the famed Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (which had broken into fragments) that impacted Jupiter in 1994.”
“But with Shoemaker it was a little different. A close colleague of Shoemaker’s, Carolyn Porco, had decided to try to finally get the deceased scientist, who had wanted to be an astronaut in life but was disqualified for medical reasons, to the Moon. Luckily, NASA also liked the idea of honoring Shoemaker by getting his ashes all the way to the lunar surface, and they called Celestis.”
”On January 6, 1998, NASA’s Lunar Prospector blasted off for the south pole of the Moon, looking for ice, and carrying an ounce of Shoemaker’s ashes. According to a memorial website set-up by Porco, the ashes were carried in a polycarbonate capsule provided by Celestis. It had been wrapped in a piece of brass foil, laser-etched with his name and life dates over an image of the Hale-Bopp Comet; an image of Arizona’s Meteor Crater, where he had trained the Apollo astronauts; and a quote from Romeo and Juliet. On July 31, 1999, the mission ended when NASA deliberately crashed the craft on the surface of the moon, taking Shoemaker with it, and making him the first and only person to be buried off-world.”
Here’s today’s trivia, kids.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/world/peregrine-lunar-lander-anomaly-astrobotic-nasa-scn/index.html
“Just hours after launching from Florida toward the moon early Monday morning, the company announced the spacecraft was in jeopardy. The lunar lander, dubbed Peregrine, was unable to place itself in a position facing the sun, likely because of a propulsion issue, according to the company. The wayward orientation prevented the spacecraft from charging its batteries.”
“Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,” Astrobotic said in a mission update posted just after 1 p.m. ET.
Rut-roh!
That bird is going to either fly forever or have a crash landing. Sounds like the separation shook it up a bit and caused either a valve to open or a rupture to happen causing the loss of propellant. They did get the panels to face Sun so it can charge its batteries and maintain communications. Oops. S(tuff) happens. They can be comforted by knowing their vessel was not the first and will not be the last to not like the shaking and lack of gravity.
As we watch over the privatization of our space program one thing is starting to stand out.
Nasa was really good at their job, they made it look easy, maybe too easy.
Jack
Mr. Ivy graduated in ‘73 with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Sadly the space industry was laying off that year.
“Helping Jesus get here quicker” is going to backfire. Jesus doesn’t need anyone’s help to do his job.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/joe-biden-eddie-bernice-johnson-memorial-monday President Biden is coming to Dallas this evening; there’s a wake for Eddie Bernice Johnson. “…she was the first African American and the first woman to serve in the Texas State Senate since Reconstruction.” “In the United States Congress, Johnson ended her career as chair of the House Science Committee.” https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/04/texas-eddie-bernice-johnson-lawsuit/ “Eddie Bernice Johnson’s family says medical neglect led to former congresswoman’s death” “A towering Dallas political figure — once a nurse, state legislator and congresswoman — Johnson was the dean of the Texas Congressional delegation before retiring from office in 2023. She proved effective at her work due to her long tenure serving in the U.S. House — nearly 30 years at the time of her passing — and a pragmatist streak that made her open to working with Republicans.” LOn Sept. 7, Johnson went to an orthopedic surgeon for a complicated back surgery on the lumbar region of her lower spine to repair damage done by scoliosis and other issues so that she would be able to continue walking…” “Her surgeon referred her to the Baylor Scott & White rehab center where staff was supposed to take care of her wound and help her regain her strength before going home, he said.” “…his mother, he said, was lying unattended in her bed in her own feces and urine, the statement said. There were no nurses at the nursing station when he went to find help, the statement said.” “The congresswoman’s orthopedic surgeon who had performed her back operation noted complications that she was having three days later that were directly related to that incident, according to Weisbrod.” “Medical records released to reporters indicate Johnson had intense pain and a fever, as well as other signs of infection in the wound.” “Doctors operated again on Sept. 25, Weisbrod said. Treating the infection required not only cutting away the infected parts of the wound, but also removing all the hardware from the previous surgery to make sure it wasn’t infected, and then putting it back into the spine again, he said. She began taking antibiotics intravenously, the… Read more »
Ivy – yeah the early-mid Seventies were actually a recession due to the policies of Nixon and the Vietnam War. This is rarely talked about. I was discharged into it. By luck my ex and I decided to return to Denver after my enlistment ended (sort of ended, I was still in the reserves). There was some NASA money going to space station and a few satellites. I went into the oil and gas production world. As that died in the Eighties I found my place in the space world. At that time “that actor” (Back to the Future reference) was doing his “Space Wars” buildup, I was not in that. I referred to myself as going from miles below the surface to somewhere above the surface in my work. I went from oil production to stuff way above us.
I hope President Biden gets in and out OK, before the high winds come in, and with the weather between here and DC.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/biden-attends-service-for-eddie-bernice-johnson-at-concord-church/
POTUS Joe meeting people like a normal, compassionate, human being.
BlueBronc, we remember it clearly. We moved to Florida in spite of it. I watched from my window one of the Apollos blast off, the one that made the Russian rendezvous.
Last but not least
NEW THREAD