The IM-1 “Odysseus” lander in lunar orbit on February 21, 2024.
Intuitive machines
The lunar lander nicknamed Odysseus is “alive and well,” but resting on its side a day after its stunning landing as the first-ever private spacecraft to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the United States since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said Friday.
The vehicle is believed to have caught one of its six feet of landing on the lunar surface near the end of its final descent and overturned, coming to rest on its side, resting on a rock, according to an analysis of data by flight engineers . Based in Houston Intuitive machines.
However, all indications are that Odysseus “is stable at or near the intended landing site” near a crater called Malapert A in the Moon’s south polar region, said Stephen Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, which built and flew the plane. lander.
“We have communications with the lander” and mission control operators are sending commands to the vehicle, Altemus said, adding that they are working to obtain the first photographic images of the lunar surface from the landing site.
A brief mission status update posted late Friday on the company’s website described Ulysses as “alive and well.”
The company had said shortly after landing Thursday that radio signals indicated Ulysses, a 13-foot-tall hexagonal cylinder, had landed upright, but Atlemus said the incorrect conclusion was based on telemetry before landing.
While the lander’s horizontal position is less than ideal, company officials said that all but one of NASA’s six science and technology payloads were mounted on parts of the vehicle left exposed and receptive to communications, “the which is very good for us,” Altemus said. .
“We think we can meet all the needs of commercial payloads as well,” he added.
Less promising was the fact that two of the spacecraft’s antennas were left pointed toward the surface, a circumstance that will limit communications with the lander, Altemus said.
The functionality of a solar-power panel on top of the Odysseus, now facing the wrong direction, is also uncertain, but a second panel on the side of the spacecraft appears to be functional and the spacecraft’s batteries were fully charged. she said.
Intuitive Machines mission director Tim Crain said the spacecraft, burning a propulsion fuel composed of liquid methane and liquid oxygen for the first time in space, “performed perfectly” during its flight to the moon.
The uncrewed robot spacecraft reached the lunar surface Thursday after a challenging final approach and descent in which a problem emerged with the lander’s navigation system, requiring engineers on the ground to employ an untested solution to the eleventh Now.
It took time even after an expected radio blackout to re-establish communications with the spacecraft and determine its fate about 239,000 miles (384,000 km) from Earth.
When contact was finally renewed, the signal was weak, confirming that the lander had landed but immediately leaving mission control uncertain of the vehicle’s precise condition and location, company officials said during a webcast of the event Thursday evening .
Crain said he believes the payloads aboard the lander will be able to operate for about nine or 10 days, after which the sun will have set on the polar landing site.
Intuitive Machines shares plunged 30% in extended trading on Friday, erasing their entire rally in Friday’s market session after the company said its lunar lander had capsized.