HOW DOES THE ASTROBOTIC / DHL MOONBOX PROGRAM WORKS ?
In collaboration with Astrobotic, DHL will offer a MoonBox service that allows people to send keepsakes to the lunar surface. Customers can order their DHL MoonBox and DHL will be in charge of the outbound delivery and transport to Astrobotic in Pittsburgh, where the packages will be stored for safekeeping until the first lunar mission. All of the Moon Capsules on a flight will be integrated into a single Moon Pod on the future lander. HOW WILL ASTROBOTIC GO TO THE MOON? The first mission went to the moon with the lunar lander called "Peregrine". The Peregrine lander was launched on January 8, 2024, from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41, aboard the maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur. A propellant leak prevented it from reaching the Moon for a soft or hard landing. The second mission with the Griffin lander is targeted to land in a region of interest in the Moon's south polar region in the near future. The spacecraft is expected to operate for 100 days after its landing. NASA's VIPER rover will be the main payload on the larger Griffin lander (450 kg). VIPER will investigate permanently shadowed regions of craters located in the Moon's south pole, specifically for potential deposits of water ice that could be used as resources for future crewed missions. Other commercial payloads are on board the Griffin lander, including the Lunar Codex's Polaris archive of contemporary culture as one of the commercial sub-payloads of Astrobotics' MoonBox initiative. WHY USING NICKEL TO STORE DATA ON THE LUNAR SURFACE? Astrobotic's lunar missions will operate for some days on the lunar surface. Then you get the lunar night and it gets extremely cold. As cold as -180 degrees. All the electronics can't survive that. The only way you can store data safely on the Moon is named Nanofiche. Text and images will be etched by laser onto thin sheets of nickel. Nickel should be able to endure the very harsh conditions of the moon. WHAT IS THE LANDING SITE OF THE GRIFFIN MISSION ? The Griffin/VIPER combination is targeted to land at one of 11 “regions of interest” in the south polar region of the Moon identified in scientific papers as being favorable for hosting permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) with water ice present under the surface, while also being safe for spacecraft to land and generate power through solar panels while outside of the PSRs. IS THIS NICKEL TIMECAPSULE THE FIRST OBJECT 'MADE IN BELGIUM' TO LAND ON THE MOON? Not exactly. There is already something on the lunar surface that has a "Belgian" connection. "Fallen Astronaut" is a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. It is a small stylized figure, meant to depict an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration. It was commissioned and placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15 in 1971. |
THE UNIQUE SERIAL NUMBER OF THE BELGIAN MOONBOX PAYLOAD PEREGRINE MISSION 1
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