A privately built spacecraft on the moon has sent back new photos from the lunar surface. The images captured the spacecraft's much-lauded descent and the moment it rolled over shortly after landing.
The Odysseus lander, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, touched down on the moon on February 22, making it the first commercial ship to reach the moon's surface and the first U.S. ship to reach the moon in more than 50 years. It made history as a spaceship.
The next day, Intuitive Machines announced that Odysseus had overturned as it landed near a crater called Malapart A near the moon's south pole. Company officials said the 14-foot-tall lander was operational, but part of the rover's antenna was pointing toward the ground, limiting its ability to communicate with flight controllers on Earth. Ta.
Intuitive Machines said in an update Monday that it continues to communicate with the rover, adding that flight controllers “will continue to collect data until the lander's solar panels are no longer exposed to light.”
Company officials said they expect to be able to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning, based on the positions of the Earth and the moon. The lander was originally expected to spend about a week collecting data on the lunar surface before the lunar night begins and the spacecraft powers down.
In its latest update, the company announced that Odysseus' instruments detected nine safe landing sites within the target zone near the moon's south pole. The moon's south pole region has long intrigued scientists because water ice is thought to be relatively abundant in permanently shadowed craters.
Newly released images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirm Odysseus' location on the moon's surface, showing it to be near the south pole.
Intuitive Machines said the images sent back to Earth from Odysseus represent the “southernmost point ever to land on the moon and establish communication with ground controllers.”
Although successful, Odysseus' landing last week was painful. Hours before descending to the moon's surface, the spacecraft experienced a malfunction with its onboard laser equipment, which was designed to help assess the lunar terrain and find a safe, non-hazardous landing site. Instead, flight controllers scrambled to reuse sensors from NASA's scientific instruments on board the lander.
“After traveling more than 600,000 miles, Odysseus touched down within 1.5 kilometers of its planned Malapart A landing site using an unforeseen laser ranging system that was patched several hours before landing.” The company said in its latest update:.
The Odysseus mission is part of the Commercial Lunar Landing Services Program, established by NASA to help private companies develop lunar landers. NASA will eventually hire these companies to transport cargo and scientific equipment to the moon's surface as part of the agency's broader ambitions to return astronauts to the moon.
