2024-02-23 00:06:22
Read also: A company prepares to attempt the first American moon landing since the Apollo program
Lasers that didn’t work
Lasers on the lander which would normally allow the device to guide itself did not work, but the Intuitive Machines teams were able to use as a replacement a NASA instrument on board, which was only to be tested during the mission. About ten minutes before the moment of landing, a significant thrust from the engine served to brake Nova-C, preparing it for its final descent, vertically from an altitude of 30 meters. The lander was then completely autonomous.
A small machine equipped with cameras, developed by the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, then had to be ejected from the moon to capture the big moment from the outside. Nova-C had to reduce its speed from 1800 meters per second to one meter per second by the time its six feet touched the ground.
“Odysseus has a new home” https://t.co/oVgLobxH8T
— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 22, 2024
This is the first landing of an American probe on the Moon since the end of the legendary Apollo program in 1972. India and Japan recently succeeded in landing there thanks to their national space agencies, becoming the fourth and fifth country to do so, following the Soviet Union, the United States and China. But several companies – Israeli, Japanese and American – had so far failed to reproduce the same feat. Russia also missed a moon landing this summer.
300 kilometers from the South Pole
The location that Intuitive Machines was targeting is regarding 300 kilometers from the south pole of the Moon. The crater serving as a landing strip is named Malapert A, following a 17th century astronomer. The lunar South Pole is of interest because there is water there in the form of ice, which might be exploited. NASA wants to send its astronauts there from 2026 with its Artemis missions. It is in particular to prepare for these missions that she seeks to study this region more closely.
To do this, it uses its brand new program, called CLPS (for “Commercial Lunar Payload Services”). Instead of developing ships for the Moon itself, the American space agency commissioned private companies to take its scientific equipment there. Intuitive Machines is one of the companies selected, and the amount of its contract with NASA for this first mission, named IM-1, amounts to 118 million dollars.
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The objective is to reduce costs for the public agency, to be able to make the trip more frequently, but also to develop the lunar economy. And this despite the risks of failure. A first mission of the program, led by the American company Astrobotic, failed to reach the Moon last month.
Six cargoes aboard Odysseus
The Intuitive Machines moon landing craft, the example of which used for this mission was named Odysseus, is also carrying six private cargoes. Among them: sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons representing the phases of the Moon. The six NASA scientific instruments on board are focusing on initial observations of this still little-explored region.
Read also: A Japanese space module lands on the Moon, but risks quickly running out of energy
Cameras placed under the moon were to analyze the quantity of dust projected during descent, in order to compare it to the Apollo moon landings. Another instrument must study the lunar plasma (layer of gas charged with electricity), and will measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other planets.
Odysseus, which is powered by its solar panels, should normally operate for regarding seven days from the time of its landing, before night sets in on the lunar South Pole.
Read also: Artemis missions postponed, the United States postpones the return of astronauts to the Moon until 2026
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