NASA Takes Cues from SpaceX, Prepares for Minor Setbacks in Moon Mission Plan

Prompt 1: Rewrite the text by rephrasing the sentences and using synonyms where appropriate.

Upon the launch of the first U.S.-made moon lander in over five decades, an unexpected critical failure occurred shortly after it entered space on January 8. Initially, this news came as a surprise, but NASA had prepared for such an eventuality.The Peregrine lander, constructed by Astrobotic, a startup based in Pittsburgh, was deployed into orbit but encountered a propulsion error, resulting in the leakage of propellant into space. Within a day, the company confirmed that the spacecraft had no chance of reaching the moon.

NASA had actually anticipated minor setbacks like this as part of its moonshot strategy, drawing inspiration from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Wall Street. The agency’s overarching plan is to send humans back to the moon within this decade.Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was developed in collaboration with NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. The program aims to facilitate the development of privately-made lunar landers capable of carrying NASA payloads, while acknowledging that some partners may progress further than others.Jim Bridenstine, the former NASA administrator who oversaw the creation of CLPS, stated prior to Astrobotic’s launch, “Unlike other NASA programs, if there’s a failure in this program, it’s not a total loss. We modeled this after venture capital.”

Since the beginning of the 21st century, NASA has increasingly embraced this framework. The approach involves partially funding a company’s hardware development and subsequently procuring rides or services once the hardware is complete.

That is in stark contrast to the way NASA used to operate. In the past, if the space agency needed something built, it would typically fund and oversee the entire development process of a vehicle. However, this approach was often slow and costly.Under the CLPS program, NASA provided Astrobotic with some initial funding and shared its expertise with the company. However, NASA mostly allowed Astrobotic to independently build Peregrine according to its own vision. To expedite progress, NASA also selected multiple companies to develop landers, creating a competition to become the first private U.S. company to successfully land on the moon.

According to Bridenstine, who is now an independent consultant and a member of Viasat’s board of directors, these companies had to seek private capital, attract non-NASA customers, and compete with each other in terms of cost and innovation.NASA was aware that not all companies would achieve the same level of success as Astrobotic.The objective was not to achieve perfection, but rather to prioritize speed. Bridenstine acknowledged that this approach was influenced by SpaceX’s methodology.

Unlike NASA and other companies that are hesitant to publicly acknowledge failures, SpaceX embraces the possibility of explosions or midflight failures during the testing of new rockets. This allows their engineers to gain valuable flight experience quickly, enabling them to progress through development stages at a faster pace.However, it is important to note that explosions and glitches still have consequences. NASA invested $108 million of taxpayer funds into the development of the Astrobotic mission, surpassing the initial contract value of $79.5 million when the company was initially selected for CLPS. Additionally, the agency had five lunar payloads on Peregrine that will not reach the lunar surface as planned.It is worth mentioning that NASA’s tolerance for failures differs when it comes to crewed missions. The agency can only accept mishaps during development tests or when human lives are not at risk.

“We anticipated failures when designing this program,” Bridenstine stated.

In addition, Thursday brought a glimmer of positive news. Although the moon was not reached, Astrobotic revealed that it had successfully obtained data from nine of the payloads it transported on the lander, demonstrating their functionality in space.

Furthermore, another CLPS company called Intuitive Machines, headquartered in Houston, is preparing to launch its lunar lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, potentially as soon as mid-February. This indicates that there remains a possibility for the companies associated with the program to accomplish their missions successfully.

This article is republished from PhysORG under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.