First private Moon landing makes history
The launch of Nova-C Odysseus: A robotic lander made history on the Moon by Intuitive Machines
The company made history by becoming the first private company to land on the Moon. Following its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last Thursday, the robotic Nova-C “Odysseus” lander built by Intuitive Machines has now touched down — also making it the first US spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission.
The Odysseus launch is one of two that have taken place in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLSS) programme, which was established to encourage small companies to fly equipment to the Moon at low cost. NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to develop Odysseus, which is a fraction of the cost of a typical interplanetary mission.
Odysseus launched on 15 February from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and headed directly for the Moon. Along the way it transmitted pictures of the Earth and the Moon after firing its engine several times. It was circling the moon for 92 kilometres above the surface before making a landing attempt.
It has a laser retroreflector array to help other spacecraft make precision landings and a radio navigation beacon to provide geolocation data to landers, rovers, and eventually astronauts.
Embry-Riddle’s Eagle Cameo to Land on the Moon: A Failure of the Laser Rangefinders and Intuitive Machines
In a historic lunar accomplishment, the first private spacecraft to land successfully on the Moon touched down on 22 February. Since 1972, the US hasn’t had a lunar lander, but the Odysseus one was built in Houston, Texas.
After nine or 10 days, the solar-powered landers are expected to land on the moon.
Embry-Riddle’s Troy Henderson said his team will try to release EagleCam in the coming days, so it can photograph the lander from roughly 26 feet (8 meters) away.
A cube with four cameras was supposed to come off 30 seconds before the touchdown to catch Odysseus’ landing. But Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s EagleCam was deliberately powered off during the final descent because of the navigation switch and stayed attached to the lander.
Odysseus offered up some nail-biting moments in the hours before landing, such as the malfunction of the laser rangefinders that were supposed to help guide its autonomous journey down to the lunar surface. NASA provided a secondary laser instead of the software patch the mission engineers had to upload.
The navigation system on the landers did not work, which caused one of the NASA experiments to be pressed into service. Intuitive Machines caught the problem in advance when it tried to use its lasers to improve the lander’s orbit. Otherwise, flight controllers would not have discovered the failure until it was too late, just five minutes before touchdown.
Odysseus, Japan, a private lunar lander after Thursday’s touchdown failed to reach its intended landing destination at the South Pole
Odysseus’ mission was sponsored in large part by NASA, whose experiments were on board. NASA paid $118 million for the delivery under a program meant to jump-start the lunar economy.
After Thursday’s touchdown, the first private business to land on the moon was Intuitive Machines, previously achieved by only five countries. Japan was the latest country to score a landing, but its lander also ended up on its side last month.
The intended landing site for Odysseus is approximately 200 miles from the south pole. NASA wanted to get a better understanding of the area before astronauts showed up later this decade.
But some antennas were pointed toward the surface, limiting flight controllers’ ability to get data down, Altemus said. The antennas were stationed high on the 14-foot (4.3-meter) lander to facilitate communications at the hilly, cratered and shadowed south polar region.
Intuitive Machines initially believed its six-footed lander, Odysseus, was upright after Thursday’s touchdown. But CEO Steve Altemus said Friday the craft “caught a foot in the surface,” falling onto its side and, quite possibly, leaning against a rock. He said that it may have snapped a leg as it was coming in too fast.
A private U.S. lunar lander tipped over after touchdown and hit the side of the moon, which interfered with communications.
The exact state of the spacecraft remained unclear immediately after its landing, which occurred at 5:23 p.m. Houston time. But it was sending a faint signal back to mission control in Houston, indicating that at least some portion of it had survived the touchdown. “Odysseus has found its new home,” said mission director Tim Crain as the control room burst into cheers.
First Private Moon Landing touches down on lunar surface to make history – A NASA official confirms that the US return to the Moon is coming
“The US has returned to the Moon,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. “Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA’s commercial partnerships.”
Depending on how communications go, the first pictures from the moon are expected within a few hours. The data could be collected for up to seven days until night falls at the landing site and there is no more solar power left for operations.
Five of the last nine Moon landing attempts have failed. Among the failures is a mission launched last month by Astrobotic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which ran out of fuel within hours of launch due to a valve malfunction. The Japanese space agency put a SLIM lander near the Shioli crater last month, but it landed upside down.
The spacecraft went down to a lower altitude, then moved into an area where it started to look at the craters and boulders beneath. It made its way towards its intended landing site, and then fired its engines to slow down its descent.
The Challenge of Burning Methane Rocket Fuel in Space: The Case of ODYSSEUS, the First Space Launch to Become Green
The first craft to burn methane-based rocket fuel in space is Odysseus. Conventional rocket propellants including kerosene are less green than methane-based ones. But they can also be more difficult to work with because they need to remain at ultra-cold temperatures. Several other aerospace companies are planning to use methane fuels in the future.
