America's own spacecraft reached the moon on Thursday, marking the start of a new era of lunar missions since NASA's Apollo program ended five decades ago. But the vehicle's side landing led to death.
Odysseus, an American commercial spaceship, makes a historic landing on the moon
The Odysseus rover, an American-made lunar lander, made a historic landing for the first time in more than five decades.
Flight controllers are expected to lose contact on Tuesday or Wednesday with the Odysseus lunar lander — just days after it capsized while completing the historic lunar landing.
America's own spacecraft arrived at the moon last Thursday, marking the beginning of a new era of lunar missions since NASA's Apollo program ended five decades ago.
Then things went sideways.
Intuitive Machines, the Houston aerospace company that built Odysseus, said the 14-foot-tall lander likely flipped over when it landed on the moon after its foot struck a rock. Fortunately for Intuitive Machines — and for NASA, the mission's primary customer — the lander maintained limited functionality even though its antennas were not pointed toward Earth.
The company's mission controllers scrambled to collect as much data as possible, but they knew time was not on their side. Now, the power-deprived spacecraft is expected to soon stop working as its batteries die and the sun moves across the sky away from its solar panels. He said on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, the company said the spacecraft had between 10 and 20 hours before it lost contact.
Giant black hole: Massive sun-devouring quasar with black hole 'hiding in plain sight' found
Why did the lunar spacecraft land on its side?
Odysseus was able to enter lunar orbit last Wednesday after separating from a SpaceX rocket, establishing communications with ground controller and proceeding to the moon.
When it finally came time for the landing attempt on Thursday evening, the spacecraft failed to land on its six legs and instead flipped onto its side.
Intuitive Machines said NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later confirmed the exact location of Odysseus's landing site, which is the southernmost location any vehicle has ever landed on the moon. Based on orbiter images, Odysseus landed about a mile from his intended target near Malapert A crater, just 185 miles from the moon's south pole.
Officials at Intuitive Machines believe the vehicle descended too quickly and may have gotten stuck on one of the six landing pads on the moon's surface, forcing it to flip. The landing strut may also have come off. Intuitive Machines said the upside-down lander covered some antennas and left others near the ground, delaying the data reception rate on Earth.
Lander sends images and collects data before death
As of Monday, Odysseus was still in contact with flight controllers in Houston and was able to transmit the first images from the lunar surface, Intuitive Machines said.
Visuals: Odysseus flipped over and landed on his side on the moon
The company said flight controllers intended to collect data so that the lander's solar panels would not be exposed to sunlight and the vehicle died, which was initially expected to be Tuesday morning. Even if he landed upright, Odysseus would only have one week to work on the surface before the long lunar night replaced the sun and brought negative temperatures.
“Flight controllers intend to collect data until the vehicle's solar panels are no longer exposed to light,” Intuitive Machines said He posted Monday on the social media site X.
NASA sent a cargo aboard Odysseus for its own lunar missions
As the lead customer for the lunar mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to transport its science payloads to the Moon for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program.
The US space agency has a budget of $2.6 billion in contracts Available until 2028 to pay private companies like Intuitive Machines to transport scientific payloads on special robotic landers like Odysseus bound for the moon's surface.
Among the shipments were instruments to test plume-surface interactions and measure radio astronomy and space weather interactions with the lunar surface.
NASA had hoped that scientific instruments would be able to collect valuable data as it prepared to send astronauts to the surface of the moon to participate in the Artemis program, which has been delayed since then. Now that the mission has been shortened by a few days, it's unclear how much valuable information NASA has been able to obtain.
“This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. statement The day after landing. “Moreover, this success opens the door to new missions under the command of Artemis to send astronauts to the Moon, and then to Mars.”
Odysseus landed near the south pole of the moon
The unmanned Odysseus spacecraft touched down late Thursday on the moon's surface, one week after it was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Named after the Greek hero in Homer's epic poem “The Odyssey,” this spacecraft became the first spacecraft built by a private company to reach the Moon. As indicated by the decline America's return to the moon For the first time since NASA's Apollo program ended in 1972.
Intuitive Machines built and operates Odysseus to transport cargo for NASA and other private customers to the lunar surface for its mission. IM-1 mission. Officially called Nova-C, the lander is a Hexagonal cylinder With six legs that space company I worked From Mission Control in Houston.
It landed near Malaparte AIt is a small crater about 190 miles from the moon's south pole, where water ice is believed to be abundant.
Having the material will be vital as NASA looks to establish a permanent human presence on and around the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars. Water ice will not only keep astronauts on the surface, but will also be a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.
The landing came about a month after another American company, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, attempted an unmanned lunar landing using its Peregrine lander. However, the ill-fated mission encountered a serious fuel leak that ended with the spacecraft burning up in Earth's atmosphere days later.
Eric Lagata covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected]
“Explorer. Unapologetic entrepreneur. Alcohol fanatic. Certified writer. Wannabe tv evangelist. Twitter fanatic. Student. Web scholar. Travel buff.”
