The dramatic photo shows the “last resort” lunar landing of the Odyssey, which is still alive on the moon.
The private probe that carried six NASA instruments to the Moon on February 22 for the first time since 1972 failed to land in the correct position after breaking its leg, but managed to operate. Engineers will try to revive it in two to three weeks, when it gets sunlight again.
Odyssey’s Odyssey continues on the Moon. Robotic ship produced by an American private company Intuitive machines It successfully landed on the Moon on February 22, albeit by accident, with six NASA instruments and continues to operate on our satellite. That’s despite engineers on the mission, called IM-1, expecting it to run out of power between Tuesday and Wednesday as the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light.
Since arriving on the satellite six days ago, those responsible for Intuitive machines They explained that it can operate for a maximum of 10 days, and despite their fears that it would shut down on Tuesday, February 27, Odyssey continued to generate solar power on the Moon today, Wednesday, allowing mission controllers to continue collecting data.
NASA and Intuitive Machines have proposed holding a joint press conference this Wednesday to summarize what the spacecraft has achieved and to reveal new images taken by the probe, the clearest we’ve seen yet. Among them stands out a spectacular photo taken just before the moment of landing, even with the engine running and part of the leg broken. Accidental lunar landing that prevented landing in the planned positionas reflected in another image that shows the probe tilted to the side as its left leg is broken.
The probe’s instrument, which was responsible for guiding the spacecraft during the lunar landing, did not work. However, collaboration with NASA engineers solved the problem, as it was decided to test an experimental system using the agency’s laser technology, which made it possible to land on the Moon, although not in the planned vertical position. The robot was supposed to descend vertically at a speed of one meter per second, but did it three times faster.
The fact that he fell on his side makes it difficult for his panel to send data and recharge power, but in any case, the place where he is will soon be in darkness, preventing them from charging. It will go into hibernation mode on Friday at the latest, but will do so in the next few hours to try to get it back up and running.
“We completed a very successful mission” said Steve Altemus, co-founder of Intuitive Machines, who raised eyebrows by saying that while that’s not the goal of this mission, they will try to wake the ship up again. “in two to three weeks” when he is again exposed to sunlight. And this despite the fact that the ship, in principle, is not designed to withstand the frost of moonlit nights.
“We will begin to listen when the sun rises again in the place where it is and we see yes, Oddie wakes up from sleep,” said Tim Crane, co-founder of Intuitive Machines.
Despite the setbacks, NASA Director Bill Nelson also considers the mission a “success.” And the probe, which was hired to carry scientific instruments to the Moon (the first on our satellite since 1972), has a place in space history for several reasons. Firstly, it was the first ship of a private company to successfully reach the Moon, which is still very difficult. Moreover, its landing zone, crater Malapert A, Approximately 300 km from the south pole, this is the southernmost point of the Moon, where a device landed that managed to establish communication with the Earth.
In addition to the six NASA instruments, which the agency spent 113 million euros to transport, the Nova-C module is also known. Height 4.3 meters, weight 675 kilograms, carries six private instruments.
Looking for Ice on the Moon
Mission IM-1 took off on February 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA) and arrived on the lunar surface a week later. As part of Odyssey’s descent to the lunar surface, navigation algorithms identified nine safe landing sites in the south polar region selected for the lunar landing. This is an area of great interest because it constantly contains shadowed regions that could be rich in resources, including ice, which could be used to produce fuel and provide oxygen and water for astronauts who will go to the Moon in the future.
In fact, the area in which Odiseo operates is one of those that NASA is considering for landing astronauts on the future Artemis 3 mission to the Moon, which, although planned for 2025, has been pushed back to September 2026.
In the meantime, robots will have to clear the way. Houston-based Intuitive Machines has two more lunar missions planned, the first of which will involve robotic training.
Difficulty reaching the moon
Reaching the Moon remains very difficult even for unmanned spacecraft, as evidenced by the failures of several probes in recent years. Israel’s Beresheet crashed in 2019, Japan’s Hakuto-R and Russia’s Luna 25 crashed in 2023, and last January a propulsion failure prevented the US private spacecraft Sapsan from reaching the Moon. -destruct returning to Earth.
Last January, Japan’s SLIM probe achieved partial success because although it managed to land on the Moon, it fell on its side, affecting the planned mission by making recharging with solar energy more difficult. Although it failed the first time, India made history with its Chandrayaan-3 probe, becoming the first country to land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole in August 2023.