The spacecraft passed over the Moon’s near side after orbital insertion. (Image Credit: Intuitive Machines)
It’s been a long time coming, but the United States has finally landed on the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, a 51-year hiatus. On February 22nd, at 6:23 pm EST, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Odysseus robotic lander touched down on the lunar surface near the South Pole in the Malapert A crater. The mission team on Earth received a faint signal from the lander after it touched down, verifying everything went well.
The Odysseus mission launched on February 15th from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It also carried twelve payloads, and six are NASA science and technology instruments to conduct science. For example, it comes with a Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL), which uses LIDAR to gather data as it descends and lands. It has Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) to investigate the process behind the Moon’s dirt and rocks interacting with the engine exhaust. Another one, called Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator (LN-1), is designed to demonstrate autonomous positioning technology that may eventually work with a navigation system on the Moon.
The spacecraft carries Radio Observations of the Lunar Surface Photoelectron Sheath (ROLSES). This is a radio spectrometer that measures the electron density near the lunar surface to determine how it may impact radio observations.
Columbia Sportswear’s Omni-Heat Infinity insulative material is part of the payload as well, testing to see how it functions in space. Additionally, the lander features EagleCam, a camera developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students. The EagleCam will deploy 100 feet above the surface to capture images of the touchdown.
The Bel’kovich K crater in the Moon’s northern equatorial highlands captured by Odysseus’ Terrain Relative Navigation camera. (Image Credit: Interactive Machines)
After its six-day journey to the Moon, the spacecraft passed maneuvers on February 21st, allowing it to enter orbit around the Moon. A day later, the 13-ft tall carbon fiber and titanium lander descended and navigated to the surface to find a flat area on the craters and cliffs for a successful landing.
This mission only has a seven Earth day window because the sun shines in Malpert A during that time. Temperatures are expected to reach 212°F, but the radiators will keep the spacecraft from overheating. The downside here is that Odysseus doesn’t have any onboard heaters, so its electronics can’t run in the bone-chilling cold. The lander has a few hours left after sunset to keep going --- scientists believe that’s how long the battery will last. Future missions are expected to have spacecraft equipped with heaters to conduct science during the lunar night.
Malapert A became the second landing choice for the IM-1 mission, with the first one in Oceanus Procellarum, an area where the Artemis program may land. In 2023, the company decided to go with Malapert A instead because of contamination concerns in case Odysseus crashed in that area.
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