Doomed US moon lander will hit Earth's atmosphere and die
Technology
Peregrine is on a collision course with Earth
(Web Desk) - The star-crossed US moon lander, Peregrine, is on a collision course with Earth, according to the latest updates from Astrobotic.
The lander won't crash on our planet, however: It will instead burn up on re-entry to our atmosphere, destroying it.
Peregrine's fate was sealed after a faulty valve caused a critical loss of propellant just hours after it launched on Jan. 8.
Designed to soft land on the moon — a technical term that essentially means a gentle touchdown rather than a bump or a crash — the spacecraft can't achieve that goal.
For now, it is stable, but on life support.
Originally, Peregrine was meant to fly 240,000 miles out into space, loop back around Earth and slingshot out to the moon. Now, we know it will likely never complete the loop.
It is notoriously difficult to land on the moon, and only four space agencies have ever managed to do it, though many others have tried.
For its part, Peregrine was tipped to be the first private mission to land on the moon, but alas, that honor will go to another, future spacecraft.
While Peregrine is doomed, it is doing whatever science it can in these final days: The lander is loaded with several scientific instruments, including five of NASA's, designed to measure conditions on and near the moon.
Astrobotic has said that its scientific payloads have been fired up and feeding back data on conditions of the space between Earth and the moon.
Astrobotic and NASA will give a press conference about the mission on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern that will be livestreamed for free on the NASA site.
