Astrobotic finally has a good understanding of the vehicles that will bring scientific payloads to the lunar surface. The company has already revealed a finished version of the Peregrine lunar lander ahead of its launch in the fourth quarter of this year. It’s a simple-looking design that resembles an upside-down pot, but it’s enough for 24 missions, including 11 NASA items, a Carnegie Mellon probe, personal cargo, and even “cultures from Earth” information”.
Peregrine stands just over 6 feet tall and can carry 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds on earth). More importantly for customers, it’s relatively inexpensive — $1.2 million per kilogram to deliver the payload to the lunar surface ($300,000 for orbital flight). It sounds expensive, but compared to the cost of a rocket launch, it’s a good deal. SpaceX currently charges $67 million per launch for the Falcon 9, which “only” reaches Earth orbit.
The Astrobotic team still needs to complete payload integration, perform environmental testing and deliver Peregrine to Cape Canaveral, where it will launch on a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket. However, the payload has been integrated into the flight deck.
If the machine succeeds, it should make history. Peregrine is on track to be the first (properly) American spacecraft to land on the moon since the end of the Apollo program. Past missions like Lunar Prospector, LCROSS, GRAIL, and LADEE all ended in intentional crashes. The Astrobotic effort won’t be as significant as the manned landing of Artemis, but it will help signal a renewed human interest in lunar presence.
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