US mission module is fine after landing on the Moon – 02/23/2024 – Science

The American company Intuitive Machines announced, this Friday (23), that the Odysseus probe is “alive and well”, after the successful landing on the Moon, the first by a private company and by a United States spacecraft in more than 50 years.

“Odysseus is alive and well”, published Intuitive Machines, on the social network X. “The flight controllers are communicating and commanding the vehicle to download scientific data.”

The American probe touched down at 23:23 GMT (20:23 in Brasília) on Thursday, despite setbacks such as a failure in its navigation system and complicated communication shortly after landing.

The company, founded in 2013 and based in Houston (Texas), is now trying to recover the first images captured of the lunar surface and scientific data.

The hexagonal module carries scientific instruments from NASA, which seeks to explore the moon’s south pole before sending astronauts on its emblematic Artemis mission.

Intuitive Machines confirmed this Friday morning that the probe’s solar panels, essential for its energy supply, are working correctly and that it continues to collect information about the position and orientation of the module.

The day before, the company reported that the spacecraft landed “in a vertical position”, as planned.

A new press conference is scheduled for this Friday.

In addition to the images captured by Odysseus, others are expected to be captured by a small spacecraft carrying a camera and developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which had to be ejected from the module at the last moment.

A university spokesperson told AFP on Friday that the device was transmitting data, but it was not known when it would be released.

Improvisation

The company received congratulations from around the world, including from competitors who also tried to land on the Moon without success, such as the Japanese ispace and Astrobotic, which failed in January.

The landing was also a great success for NASA, which signed a US$118 million (R$583 million) contract with Intuitive Machines to transport six scientific instruments on this mission called IM-1.

One of them probably saved the trip, as the landing module’s navigation system did not work as expected, forcing the company to improvise.

During an extra lap around the Moon, before descent, a NASA laser system was programmed at the last minute to guide the landing module.

This technique was planned to be tested during the mission to improve the accuracy of future landings, but ended up being used as the main navigation system.

Odysseus is scheduled to operate for about seven days, before turning to night at the lunar south pole.

Lunar economy

This is the first mission for Intuitive Machines, but the second of NASA’s new program with private companies, known as CLPS. The previous attempt, made by the American company Astrobotic, failed in January.

Instead of sending scientific instruments with its own vehicles, the American space agency is starting to outsource this service, a strategy that aims to allow more frequent and lower-cost travel, in addition to promoting the development of a lunar economy.

This Friday morning, the company’s shares rose around 22% on the New York Stock Exchange.

Four more American lunar missions are planned for this year as part of the CLPS program, including two from Intuitive Machines.