American private company’s Peregrine-1 moon lander is now moving towards the Earth. Astrobotic, the company that made the lander, said that it will burn as soon as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. This box-shaped lander has been in space for the last 5 days and is currently 3.90 lakh km away from the Earth. Astrobotic has been continuously giving updates regarding this lander.
This lander was sent into space on January 8. According to the company, there was an explosion in the spaceship shortly after launch. After this, it became clear that Peregrine-1 would not be able to make a soft landing on the moon. The company said that after the explosion the fuel of the lander started leaking. Because of this, it could not reach where it was supposed to get sunlight.
Due to a lack of solar energy, the solar panels installed on the lander could not be charged and the battery system failed. Even after this, the company found a way to charge the battery but could not stop fuel leakage.
Apart from scientific hardware, this spacecraft also has a cargo of private customers of Astrobotic Company. It includes a sports drink can, a Bitcoin human and animal ashes and DNA. The purpose of this Moon mission was to detect water molecules on the Moon.
Along with this, one of the objectives was to measure the radiation and gases around the lander. This would reveal what effect solar radiation has on the lunar surface. NASA also sent cargo related to its Commercial Lunar Payload Service Program on this Moon Lander. For this, NASA had paid Rs 828.72 crore to the company.
