Why Intuitive Machines’ landing on the Moon is historic – 02/23/2024 – Science

An American company made history this Thursday (22) by becoming the first commercial company to place a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines has landed its Odysseus lander near the lunar south pole.

It took a few minutes for controllers to confirm that the module had landed, but eventually a signal was received.

“What we can confirm, without a doubt, is that our equipment is on the surface of the Moon and that we are transmitting”, announced flight director, Tim Crain.

The company’s employees applauded and were moved by the news.

It was an important moment not just for commercial space exploration but for the US space program in general.

Intuitive Machines broke the United States’ half-century absence from the surface of the Moon.

It is necessary to go back to the last Apollo mission, in 1972, to remember the most recent occasion in which American equipment gently approached the lunar soil.

The US space agency NASA purchased space on Odysseus for six scientific instruments, and its administrator, Bill Nelson, was quick to congratulate what he described as a “triumph”.

“The US has returned to the Moon,” he said. “Today, for the first time in human history, a commercial company, an American company, launched and led a mission there. Today is the day that shows the power and potential of NASA’s commercial partnerships.”

The Odysseus landed at 23:23 GMT (20:23 in Brasília). At first, there was no confirmation signal from the robot, and the controllers had to wait several minutes before they picked up one — and it was weak.

Over the next few hours, engineers will analyze precisely what happened — and will also check whether Odysseus is standing and collecting energy properly through its solar cells.

The planned landing site was cratered terrain near a 5km-high mountain complex known as Malapert. It is the southernmost point on the Moon ever visited by a spacecraft.

An important investigation by NASA will be the analysis of the behavior of lunar dust, which the Apollo astronauts considered a serious nuisance, as it scratched and obstructed equipment.

Among the six pieces of equipment supported by NASA is a camera system from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that theoretically should have come loose from Odysseus when it was still 30 meters from the lunar surface.

The system was designed to take photos while the module landed.

American artist Jeff Koons also attached a box to the side of the lander containing 125 small stainless steel balls to represent the different phases of the Moon over the course of a month.