While many began the New Year working to uphold newly-created resolutions, NASA kicked the year off embarking on a historic journey to the moon.
For the first time in fifty years, NASA plans to successfully land on the moon via its new $13 billion rocket, Peregrine.
Partially funded by NASA, Peregrine not only figures to make America's first moon landing in five decades, but will also be the vessel behind the world's first moon burial, as the rocket will carry the human remains of 330 notable individuals.
The creator of the "Star Trek" television series Gene Roddenberry and former presidents George Washington, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan are among the most well-known space burial recipients aboard the spacecraft.
The plans to bury human remains on the moon were heavily protested by the Navajo Nation, who described the moon burials as "deeply disturbing" and "unacceptable" in a letter penned to NASA last week.
The nation noted the moon's spiritual importance to its culture and petitioned for NASA to discontinue the mission.
The moon holds a sacred place in Navajo cosmology," Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, wrote. "The suggestion of transforming it into a resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people and many other tribal nations."
Despite the Nation's pleas, NASA launched Peregrine at approximately 2:18 a.m. ET on Monday on top of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket.
We are so excited to see this vision become a reality. CLPS is an innovative way of leveraging American companies to send important science and technology payloads to the Moon,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Moon is a rich destination for scientific discovery. Studying and sampling the lunar environment will help NASA unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our solar system for the benefit of all.”
Peregrine, which was delayed eight months and surged $6 billion beyond its initial budget, aims to arrive on the moon's surface on February 23 and will spend approximately 10 days collecting scientific data on Earth's lunar neighbor.
Other than the hair follicles of former presidents, here are a few things the inaugural CLPS flight will include for research, according to an official NASA press release:
- Laser Retroreflector Array: A collection of approximately half-inch (1.25 cm.) retro-reflectors – a mirror used for measuring distance – mounted to the lander. This mirror reflects laser light from other orbiting and landing spacecrafts to precisely determine the lander’s position.
- Neutron Spectrometer System: This system will search for indicators of water near the lunar surface by detecting the presence of hydrogen-bearing materials at the landing site as well as determining bulk properties of the regolith there.
- Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer: This radiation sensor will collect information about the lunar radiation environment and any solar events that might occur during the mission. The instrument relies on flight-proven hardware that flew in space on the Orion spacecraft’s inaugural uncrewed flight in 2014.
Though the moon burials will likely continue to be a divisive topic, it will be interesting to see if NASA's mission to land on the moon will prove successful.
For more information on America's latest moon quest, click here.
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