The primary U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon for the reason that Apollo astronauts fell silent Thursday, per week after breaking a leg at landing and tipping over close to the lunar south pole.
Intuitive Machines’ lander, Odysseus, lasted longer than the corporate anticipated after it ended up on its side with hobbled solar power and communication.
The top got here as flight controllers acquired one final photograph from Odysseus and commanded its laptop and power systems to standby. That approach, the lander can get up in one other two to 3 weeks—if it survives the bitterly chilly lunar night time. Intuitive Machines spokesman Josh Marshall stated these remaining steps drained the lander’s batteries and put Odysseus “down for an extended nap.”
“Good night time, Odie. We hope to listen to from you once more,” the corporate stated through X, previously Twitter.
Earlier than shedding energy, Odysseus despatched again what Intuitive Machines known as “a becoming farewell transmission.”
Taken simply earlier than landing, the image exhibits the underside of the lander on the moon‘s pockmarked floor, with a tiny crescent Earth and a small sun within the background.
The lander was initially meant to final a couple of week on the moon.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines turned the primary personal enterprise to land a spacecraft on the moon with out crashing when Odysseus touched down Feb. 22. Solely 5 international locations had achieved that for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, together with Japan, which made a sideways touchdown final month.
-
This picture supplied by Intuitive Machines exhibits a damaged touchdown leg on the Odysseus lander. The lander touched down close to the moon’s south pole on Feb. 22, 2024, however then fell over on its facet, hampering communications. Credit score: Intuitive Machines through AP
-
This picture supplied by Intuitive Machines taken on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, exhibits flight controllers commanding the Odysseus lunar lander to seize a brand new picture utilizing its narrow-field-of-view digicam. After efficiently transmitting the picture to Earth, flight controllers acquired extra perception into Odysseus’ place on the lunar floor. Credit score: Intuitive Machines through AP
Odysseus carried six experiments for NASA, which paid $118 million for the experience. The primary firm to participate in NASA’s program for business lunar deliveries by no means made it to the moon; its lander got here crashing again to Earth in January.
NASA views these personal landers as scouts that may pave the way in which for astronauts as a result of arrive in one other few years.
Till Odysseus, the final U.S. moon touchdown was by Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
© 2024 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
Quotation:
First US moon lander in half a century stops working per week after tipping over at landing (2024, March 1)
retrieved 1 March 2024
from https://phys.org/information/2024-03-moon-lander-century-week-touchdown.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Other than any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
