NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)
Astrobotic Lunar Lander
Peregrine Mission One
Lead EPS Architect
Payload Interface Integrator
Harness Design & Routing
Real-Time Collaboration Across Disciplines
Fault Isolation & Protection Strategy
Project Overview / MIssion Objectives
The Peregrine Lunar Lander is Astrobotic’s flagship vehicle under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, designed to deliver a suite of government and commercial payloads to the lunar surface. As part of a new wave of commercial access to the Moon, Peregrine had to combine cost-efficiency, rapid development, and flight-grade reliability—on an unforgiving deadline.
With payloads from multiple international customers and a fixed delivery schedule, the program demanded rapid iteration, real-time design decisions, and extreme attention to systems integration across power, data, and avionics.
Roles and Responsibilities
I served as Lead Electrical Power Systems (EPS) Architect for the Peregrine lander, responsible for defining, implementing, and validating the full power distribution architecture—from solar array input to regulated bus distribution and payload interfaces.
This role encompassed both high-level system design and deep detail work: requirements definition, power budgeting, harness routing, connector selection, and interface documentation. I worked closely with mechanical, thermal, software, and avionics teams to ensure every watt had a traceable path and every component played well together.
My contributions also extended to customer payload integration, where I helped onboard external clients’ hardware into the spacecraft’s power and data system—balancing limited resources with reliability, heritage, and safety.
Legacy
The Peregrine lander marked a turning point in commercial space delivery—blending private innovation with lunar-grade performance. While the initial flight faced challenges, the system architecture I developed laid the foundation for future flights and next-gen landers.
This was one of the fastest-paced, most integrative projects I’ve worked on. It forced rapid synthesis of requirements, immediate problem-solving, and engineering decisions that would either fly—or fail—on the Moon. I walked away with not just a stronger technical skillset, but a sharper instinct for what “flight-ready” really means in the commercial era.
Highlight: Payload Power Integration Under Constraint
With limited solar array real estate and tightly defined bus voltages, integrating a diverse set of customer payloads pushed the EPS system to its limit. I led the payload power interface strategy, working directly with external partners to characterize their hardware, define safe interface boundaries, and mitigate risk in an environment with no margin for error.
This included:
Negotiating power allocation across high-priority payloads while preserving system headroom
Implementing overcurrent protection and fault isolation schemes tailored to unknown customer hardware
Designing connector pinouts and redundancy paths to meet both Astrobotic and NASA interface requirements
Documenting all interface contracts in traceable, testable ICDs under shifting timelines
The result: a clean, testable power system that scaled across a volatile customer mix—without compromising core lander operations.