The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center at 1:05 a.m. ET. This was the same launch pad from which the Saturn V rocket hoisted the Apollo 17 crew on their 1972 trip to the moon. It was developed by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines. There were no people on board.
The mission is being conducted under contract with NASA, which is paying Intuitive Machines $118 million to fly some of its payloads to the moon's surface and carrying the mission to astronauts. It is believed to be part of the Artemis campaign to return to the moon.
The Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, will carry instruments to “explore the surface of the Moon's south polar region, as well as demonstrate technologies that will improve the efficiency, precision, and safety of future spacecraft landings.” Debra Needham said. A NASA program scientist said this at a pre-launch press conference.
But NASA is primarily a paying customer in efforts led by the private sector, with private spacecraft launched by private rockets. This paradigm is one that space agencies increasingly rely on during exploration campaigns in and out of Earth orbit.
“Six years ago, U.S. industry said NASA was willing to buy robotic moon landings as a service rather than do it ourselves,” said NASA Deputy Deputy Administrator for Exploration, Science Mission Directorate. Joel Kearns said. These first missions are “a test of that.”
Intuitive Machines' landing attempt follows another private venture, Astrobotic, which launched a spacecraft to the moon last month, also under contract with NASA. However, that landing attempt was thwarted by a problem with the spacecraft's propulsion system, which prevented it from reaching the moon.
NASA acknowledges that some missions may fail. But its leaders are hopeful that learning can be learned even from failure, and are encouraging companies to attempt robotic landings, or, in their words, “shoot on goal.” He says he is partnering with the company. NASA officials said they hope to have at least two robotic missions to the moon a year over the next few years as part of what they call the Commercial Lunar Payload Service Program.
“Speaking of this… we didn't believe that success was guaranteed because these American companies would be the first to go to the moon. This is the first time anyone in the United States has done it with a robot since 1968. The last Apollo mission was in 1972,” Kearns said. “What I can say is that we are learning from every attempt.”
Intuitive Machines' mission is also risky. And the launch of the 14-foot-tall, six-landing Odysseus spacecraft is just the first step in a long and perilous journey to the moon's surface. If successful, they would land in the region of the moon's south pole, where permanently shadowed craters may contain water in the form of ice, so NASA will work with astronauts to explore this area. I'm thinking of exploring. Water is essential for sustaining human life, and its constituents hydrogen and oxygen are important for long-duration missions to the moon because they can be used as rocket fuel to enable further exploration of the solar system.
Unlike Apollo, NASA is seeking to build a permanent presence in and around the moon's south pole, an area China also has an interest in exploring.
“We're not trying to redo Apollo,” Kearns said. “What we are doing today is pursuing scientific and technological research and answering major scientific questions that were not even imagined in the days of Apollo. We are planning to go to the lunar realm, especially on this mission. [Intuitive Machines] And then to Artemis, where neither humans nor robots have ever been before — to really find out new things, like whether there really is usable volatile matter like water ice at the moon's south pole. ”
Odysseus also carries NASA equipment designed to take images of the dust plumes kicked up by the spacecraft's engines. The space agency expects to eventually land multiple spacecraft close together, so it wants to better understand how the landings will affect the moon's surface and environment.
“It's going to really kick up the dust and create a big plume of dust,” said Susan Lederer, project scientist for NASA's Intuitive Machine Mission. “So we're going to use a series of cameras to look down at the dust plume coming up.”
It will help “future landers be developed to be better protected from the dust they kick up,” she said.
The spacecraft also carries a camera system designed by students and faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that will be released from the spacecraft approximately 100 feet above the lunar surface and capture images of the spacecraft during the landing sequence. It's planned.
