The U.S. spacecraft Odysseus, the first to land on the moon in more than half a century, has overturned, according to the latest information from NASA and Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operated the lander.
The robotic lander descended into the moon's south pole region Thursday at 6:23 p.m. ET. However, several minutes passed before flight controllers were able to receive a signal from the lander's communications system.
Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, said Odysseus “tripped in the water and fell over” as he landed and ended up on his side.
Still, the lander is “near or at the planned landing site,” he said. NASA and Intuitive Machines said they are receiving data from the lander and believe most of its scientific instruments are in working order.
“It was a truly magical, magical day,” Intuitive Machines chief technology officer and co-founder Tim Crane said at a press conference Friday.
The area where Odysseus landed is near the Malapart A crater near the moon's south pole, a treacherous and pockmarked terrain that scientists believe is frozen and could help maintain a permanent base on the moon's surface. This area was chosen because they believe it has an abundance of water. future.
Images and a reconstruction of the landing will be available within the next few days.
NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to undertake the journey as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which awards contracts to private partners. This mission is part of the Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon.
Odysseus' seven-day mission will be powered by solar power until the landing site moves into Earth's shadow, where NASA wants to analyze how the soil there responded to the impact of landing. ing. The agency also sent other equipment, including communications equipment, as part of the lander's payload.
The 14-foot (4.3-meter) hexagonal six-legged lander used NASA's experimental laser navigation system to guide its descent after Intuitive Machines' laser equipment failed.
An instrument called EagleCam, a cube equipped with a camera designed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, was scheduled to take off 30 seconds before touchdown to take pictures of Odysseus' landing, but during the descent it was scheduled to take off from the navigation system. The device was intentionally powered off because it needed to be powered off. Switched.
Embry-Riddle's Troy Henderson said his team will attempt to release the Eagle cam in the coming days, allowing it to photograph the lander from about 26 feet (8 meters) away.
While uncertainty remains about Odysseus' location on the moon, “getting the final picture of the lander on the surface remains a very important challenge for us,” Henderson told The Associated Press. Ta.
