says Houston-based Intuitive Machines. Odysseus lander It landed on the moon today, becoming the first American spacecraft to land on the moon. moon landing This is the first attempt by a private company in more than 50 years.
After some adjustments in the final hours, touchdown was expected at 6:24 p.m. ET, but mission control in Houston remained tense for nearly 15 minutes as they awaited confirmation signals from the spacecraft. It became a state.
Finally, at 6:37 p.m. ET, controllers announced, “We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the lunar surface and transmitting.” However, the condition of the lander is not yet clear.
“Today, for the first time in more than half a century, the United States returned to the moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said after the landing was confirmed. “Today, for the first time in human history, an American company, a commercial company, set out and led the voyage there. And today is a day that demonstrates the power and promise of NASA's commercial partnerships.”
One day, Odysseus braked into an orbit tilted 80 degrees to the moon's equator and began a slow descent toward a point near the landing site, about 300 kilometers from the moon's south pole.
The start of descent was delayed by about two hours after Intuitive Machines chose to continue raising Odysseus toward a further orbit and switched the lander to a different set of navigation sensors.
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During the descent, onboard cameras and lasers were programmed to scan the ground below to identify landmarks, which provided steering input to the lander's guidance system to help fine-tune its trajectory. .
Approximately 12 minutes before touchdown, at an altitude of just under 20 miles, the main engines ignited, and Odysseus flipped from a horizontal to a vertical position and fell straight toward the surface.
Once the spacecraft drops below 100 feet, an innovative camera package known as the EagleCam, created by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, will drop and attempt to film the lander's final descent from the side. was. NASA's camera on board the spacecraft will take pictures of the ground directly below.
By the time Odysseus reached an altitude of about 33 feet above the ground, the main engines were to have slowed to the planned landing speed of about 2.2 miles per hour (the walking speed of an elderly person).
Touchdown was reached a week later near a crater known as Malapart A. Launched from Kennedy Space Center.
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Although images from the lander's onboard cameras and Eagle cams cannot be transmitted to Earth in real time, Intuitive Machines engineers at the company's Nova Control Center in Houston say the first photos will be available within about 30 minutes. I hope it can be sent.
If the moon landing is successful, it will be the first touchdown by an American spacecraft since Apollo 17 in 1972, and the first touchdown by a private spacecraft.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic had hoped to win that honor last month with its Peregrine lander, but the mission was derailed shortly after liftoff on January 9 when a propellant tank ruptured. by israel And the other thing is JapanIt also ended in failure.
Only the governments of the United States, Soviet Union, China, India, and Japan have successfully landed on the moon. Japanese lander “Slim” He was only partially successful, falling for a touchdown on January 19th.
Both Peregrine and Odysseus were partially funded by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Service Program (CLPS (pronounced CLIPS)). The program is intended to encourage private industry to develop transportation capabilities that NASA can use to transport payloads to the Moon.
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The agency's goal is to help kick-start the development of new technologies and collect the necessary data. artemis Astronauts plan to land near the moon's south pole later this year.
NASA paid Astrobotic $108 million to participate in the Peregrine mission and an additional $129 million for Odysseus' equipment and transportation to the moon.
What was on Odysseus' lunar module?
Odysseus carries six NASA instruments and six additional commercial payloads, including a small moon sculpture by artist Jeff Koons, proof-of-concept cloud storage technology, insulation blankets from Columbia Sportswear, and a small astronomical telescope. I did.
Some of NASA's experiments include instruments to study the charged particle environment on the moon's surface, instruments designed to test navigation techniques, and how the lander's engine exhaust disrupts the soil at the landing site. There is a downward-facing camera designed to capture what you want.
It also features an innovative sensor that uses radio waves to accurately measure how much cryogenic propellant is left in a tank in the zero-gravity environment of space, a technology that will help downstream moon missions and It is expected that it will prove useful for other deep space navigation.
Odysseus and its instruments are expected to remain on the ground for about a week, until the sun sets over the landing site. At that point, the lander's solar cells will no longer be able to generate electricity, and the spacecraft will come to a halt. Odysseus was not designed to survive the frigid moonlit nights.
