It has been four days since the first private moon landing took place; This event was shrouded in various emotions. We’ll get into this in a moment. First, a few hours ago, we received brand new images of this feat, as well as a sad but inevitable update on the fate of the lander.
For a brief explanation, on February 26, Intuitive Machines Announced on X (formerly Twitter) said Odysseus was still communicating with ground control, despite tipping slightly onto its side after a while risky moon touch. Better yet, Odysseus is a a couple of pictures from the moon. One of the photographs, called Malapert A, was taken while approaching the landing site, and the other appears to be the first close-up angle we have seen on the lunar surface.
It also seems that NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiterscanning moon From lunar orbit since 2009 I saw Odysseus (as have many previous moon landings) from an altitude of approximately 56 miles (90 km). He dutifully beamed back his bird’s eye view. Soil. “Pictures NASA“The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team confirmed that Odysseus completed its descent at 80.13° S and 1.44° E at an altitude of 2579 m,” Intuitive Machines explained in the Intended Malapert A landing site using a conditional laser ranging system patched hours before landing.”
Relating to: Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander crashes on moon during ‘spicy’ lunar landing
But in addition to this month’s gallery, mission controllers also offered a more practical update on the mission. “Based on Earth and lunar positioning, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus through Tuesday morning,” the team said in a statement on the company’s website.
If you’re a little dismayed by the quality of Odysseus’ images (not the LROs, which are always surprisingly high-resolution), you can blame the messy, almost twisty landing situation the lander had to endure on February 22.
Drama
When the Geometric Odysseus spacecraft reached the lunar surface, its success was not immediately greeted with joy. The team was: shocked.
This was because the lander did not call home at first; Even the company’s public broadcast of the incident was marked by radio silence, nervous laughter and stalling. The estimated landing time had passed, but where was the hard evidence that Odysseus had not crashed? Moreover, a dramatic situation that occurred just a few hours ago further increased tensions; Odysseus’ laser rangefinders, which were supposed to tell the spacecraft where it was and how fast it was going, stopped working. Since the problem occurred just hours before the landing window opened, engineers had to scramble to fix it; this window was ultimately postponed due to the accident.
Brilliantly, the team found a way to reuse one of Odysseus’ 12 pieces. loads It is known as the Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precision Speed and Range Detection to serve as the mission’s new compass. Luckily, NDL had its own laser software that could replace it. GPS.
But even when Odysseus finally sent a communication signal, the signal was extremely weak.
Finally, after examining what was going on inside the spacecraft, scientists were able to confirm that Odysseus was. Alive and well on the moon. But they also noticed that somewhere along the way to the landing, Odysseus had accidentally tipped over and ended up on his side during his journey. This landing image, captured by a camera on the starboard side of the lander, was captured approximately 35 seconds after Odysseus tilted before landing, according to Intuitive Machines.
All is not lost, as the team says there is still scientific research on board that can be used. For example, according to the February 26 “It will also be used for propulsion and life support.”
Odysseus also appears to have gotten slightly stronger over time compared to the original sensitive communications signal. Still, there was an experiment in a key visual component of the mission. decline.
Originally, a camera called EagleCam was supposed to be deployed when Odysseus touched down and capture spectacular images of the entire scene. However, Mike Cavaliere, director of news and media relations at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, said: “The decision was made to turn off EagleCam during the landing and not use the device during Odysseus’ final descent.” wrote in an update February 23. This is the university behind the design of EagleCam. However, Cavaliere assured that EagleCam would be opened for photography at a later date.
According to Intuitive Machines’ latest update, the team also confirmed that Odysseus represents “the southernmost location where any vehicle has been able to land on the moon and communicate with ground controllers.” This is a big deal because space Organizations including the Indian Space Research Organization have recently been racing to reach the south pole of the Moon. Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s (failed) Luna-25 effort.
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— Intuitive Machines lands on the moon with the thrilling landing of the private Odysseus lander, the U.S.’s first since 1972
— Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander did not deploy the camera during the historic landing
And at the end of the day, despite his sobs, Odysseus is a landman who will surely go down in history. It is the first private spacecraft to reach the lunar surface and the first successful proof of principle for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, aiming to revolutionize the way we view the accessibility of lunar exploration in the future. Unfortunately, we will have to say goodbye soon.
“Flight controllers plan to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light,” Intuitive Machines said in the X post. Without sunlight, Odysseus will have to endure the cold lunar night, which most of our robot explorers will not survive.