NASA’s First Moon Lander Since Apollo Era Continues To Survive In Space After Accident

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NASA's first lunar lander launch (the NASA Peregrine Mission 1) since the Apollo era continues to surprise despite a scare that took place soon after its launch and led to engineers confirming that a soft landing is impossible. Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander lifted off on the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) brand new Vulcan rocket earlier this month, making it the U.S.'s first private commercial attempt to land a spacecraft full of payload on the Moon.

Now, Astrobotic's engineers believe that the Peregrine might have 52 hours of propellant remaining - an update that comes 17 hours after Astrobotic's previous one that had estimated 48 hours of fuel left for the lunar journey.

Lunar and other deep space planetary exploration landers must account for multiple factors when undertaking a journey. For missions to the Moon, since the distance is considerably less than other planets, such as Mars, landers can be sent directly to the Moon without needing additional propulsion systems on board.

This is the case for Peregrine as well since it relies on onboard engines to orient itself with the Moon and land. Landing on the Moon is tricky since spacecraft cannot use parachutes to slow down their initial rate of descent. As a result, the engines called the main engines, fire up to slow down the spacecraft. Peregrine has five main engines, but these are not the only ones it uses for maneuvering during a lunar journey.

Astrobtic's lander also has a complement of 12 attitude control systems that play an equally important role in a landing. While the main engines are responsible for slowing down the