The American space agency NASA and the company Astrobotic described on Friday the positive results of the failed mission of the Peregrine lunar module, which arrived yesterday It caught fire as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and lost all its cargo, including DNA samples and human ashes.

Joel Kearns, NASA’s Deputy Director for Exploration, said in a news conference that the agency remains committed to supporting space exploration by private companies “because the benefits will be enormous.”

The module, which would make the first landing on the moon by a US commercial robot, included about 20 payloads from customers, including NASA itself, five of which were to study the surface, atmosphere and lunar radiation.

Although engineers from the American company Astrobotic worked to save the mission, The spacecraft ran out of power to reach the lunar surface, becoming the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since 1972.

Unlike this Friday Japan joined the small club of countries that have managed to land their ships on the moon, but the future of its SLIM probe is uncertain. The Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA) confirmed the landing on the moon, but the device has problems with its solar cells, which do not generate electricity.

From perfection to discouragement

John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic, described the experiences of the company and its engineers since “the beautiful, perfect launch” of the Peregrine on January 8, powered by a Vulcan Centaur rocket from the company United Launch Alliance (ULA). . Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

“Everything seemed to be going well and it was exciting to see the vehicle take off. Then a catastrophic fuel loss occurred. We went from the highest to the lowest and it was a sad moment for all of us,” he explained.

“At the end of the mission we had no fuel. It was a difficult decision and after receiving recommendations from NASA, we decided to do nothing and return the spacecraft to Earth,” he added.

Richard Stephenson, from NASA’s tracking station in Canberra, Australia, confirmed the signal loss with Peregrine the day before, just as the module was set to return to Earth and disintegrate in the atmosphere over a remote area of ​​the South Pacific.

DNA and ash that went to the moon were lost

Astrobotic had indicated that it would work with NASA so that the return of the module, 1.9 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, did not pose a debris or safety problem.

The instruments he was carrying were lost with the module, including five miniature autonomous exploration robots from what was cataloged as Mexico’s first moon missionand another small rover designed by students at Carnegie Mellon University, among many other private payloads.

The ashes and DNA samples of countless people among them were also lost. scientists, teachers, authors and even former American presidents (George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy), who wanted to take the mission to the moon.

Peregrine was the first mission of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. to advance lunar science by placing agency-led experiments aboard landers and commercial spacecraft.

The program’s next mission is scheduled for February, when Houston-based Intuitive Machines launches its Nova-C lander atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (JO)