The Odysseus lunar lander shares new images from its harrowing landing

CNN
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The Odysseus spacecraft has sent back new images it took of the lunar surface as the lander approached the moon. The vehicle landed quietly on the moon's surface on Thursday, becoming the first American-made lander to do so since the Apollo era.

The grainy images were shared by Intuitive Machines, the company that developed Odysseus, on Monday morning. The company had initially expected that the lander could deliver the first images taken from the lunar surface in the hours following landing, but communication with the spacecraft proved to be a challenge.

The mission team believes Odysseus tripped on lunar soil and landed on its side, leaning on a rock, which may have left some of the rover's antennas pointed in an inappropriate direction, Intuitive Machines revealed Friday.

In its update on Monday, the company also said it now expects to lose contact with Odysseus on Tuesday, days earlier than initially expected.

“Flight controllers intend to collect data so that the vehicle’s solar panels are not exposed to light,” the company said in the update posted on social media. X platform. “Based on the position of the Earth and Moon, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning.”

At that point, Odysseus will have worked less than five days on the moon's surface. The company had suggested in previous updates that the lander could do this Works for up to nine days.

An image published by the company on Friday showed a view of the Schaumburger Crater on the Moon that the spacecraft captured during its descent.

The photos shared on Monday give another glimpse into Odysseus's journey.

“Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after landing as it approached the landing site,” the company said of the two clearest images from the spacecraft shared Monday on X.

The spacecraft was expected to “yaw” — that is, flip itself upright after moving horizontally through space — just before landing.

“The camera is located on the rear right side of the lander at this point,” the Intuitive Machines post noted, referring to the right rear portion of the vehicle.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which has been orbiting the moon since 2009, captured an image of Odysseus' landing site from afar.

Intuitive Machines shared Odysseus's exact location: The spacecraft is located at coordinates 80.13 degrees south, 1.44 degrees east on the moon, resting at an altitude of about 2,579 meters (8,500 feet).

The company says the vehicle landed 1.5 kilometers (5,000 feet) from its intended landing site, “which represents the furthest south that any vehicle has been able to land on the lunar surface and establish contact with ground controllers.”

Aboard Odysseus are six science and technology demonstration payloads from NASA, which the space agency has paid Intuitive Machines — under a contract worth up to $118 million — to fly to the lunar surface.

Odysseus also carried a few pieces of private cargo, including artwork and a camera called EagleCam, which was designed to exit the lander and take a “selfie” of the spacecraft during its final descent.

However, EagleCam — designed by students at Embry-Riddle University in Florida — was not ejected due to last-minute navigation issues, which required the lander to rely on experimental hardware from NASA.

Teams on the ground are still working out how to deploy EagleCam after it became known that Odysseus was lying on his side.

“Telemetry data confirms that the Embry-Riddle CubeSat remains fully operational, and the team now intends to deploy its camera system to capture images of the lander in its current state, providing valuable data that can help Intuitive Machines improve its moving plans forward.” Embry-Riddle said in an update on Sunday.