Moon may have 1st landing by a private company this Thursday (22) – 02/21/2024 – Science

With support from NASA, Intuitive Machines will attempt this Thursday (22) to become the first private company to land on the Moon. The landing is scheduled for 7:49 pm (Brasília time).

If the IM-1 mission fulfills its objective, it will also be the first landing of an American probe since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

The Nova-C model module, named Odysseus, departed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Florida (USA), last Thursday (15). It contains instruments for the American agency’s scientific experiments.

The Odysseus module’s propulsion system, crucial for a successful landing, has already been successfully tested in flight.

This Wednesday (21), the module will enter lunar orbit, 92 kilometers high, where it will remain for almost 24 hours before its final descent.

The landing process will be carried out in a fully automated way.

Upon reaching a height of 30 meters, it will position itself vertically at a speed of three meters per second, before braking at a meter per second for the last ten meters.

Intuitive Machines hopes to be able to confirm the landing about 15 seconds after the probe’s six feet touch the lunar soil.

The two recently completed landings were in the hands of government agencies.

The Slim probe (acronym for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landed on January 20 on the lunar surface. The initiative by Jaxa (Japanese space agency) made the Asian country the fifth in history to achieve the feat.

Shortly before, it was India’s turn to join the small group of nations — the United States, the Soviet Union (Russia) and China — with successful landings. The unmanned Chandrayaan-3 mission descended on the lunar south pole on August 23, 2023.

lunar south pole

The Texan company’s target is located approximately 300 km from the lunar south pole, a special point of interest due to the water in the form of ice, which could be explored.

Measuring just over four meters tall, the module carries six private payloads (including sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons that represent the phases of the Moon) and six NASA scientific instruments.

It also includes a camera system developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which will be ejected 30 meters above the lunar surface to capture the moment of landing, as well as devices located below the module to analyze the amount of dust raised during the descent, in order to to compare it with the Apollo program landings.

Another instrument will study the lunar plasma (an electrically charged layer of gas) and measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other planets.

The Nova-C class module will work with solar panels and is expected to operate for seven days from the moment of landing.

Reduce costs

The contract signed by NASA for this mission was US$118 million (R$587 million).

This is the second mission of NASA’s new CLPS program, which hired private companies to take its scientific material to the Moon. The objective is to reduce costs, but continue to develop the space economy.

A first mission, led by Astrobotic, failed on the way to the satellite. The reason was a fuel leak.

At least four more American missions are planned for this year, including two more from Intuitive Machines.

According to NASA, these projects serve as preparation for its goal of taking astronauts back to the Moon, in 2026, through the Artemis program.