Odysseus has successfully landed on the moon, reminiscent of ancient mythological feats. However, like in the tales of old, he encountered numerous perils and obstacles along the way.
The Nova-C lunar lander appears to have stumbled during its touchdown and is now believed to be lying on its side with its ‘head’ resting against a rock.
This situation mirrors a recent trend in space exploration, where the Japanese SLIM moon lander also ended up upside down but managed to carry out many of its planned missions successfully.
Houston-headquartered Intuitive Machines has confirmed that the moon lander is in good condition, following its tense touchdown on the lunar surface. This marks a historic moment as the first private spacecraft to achieve this feat, and the first from the U.S. since 1972.
The company disclosed that a human error resulted in a malfunction of the spacecraft’s laser-based range finders. Fortunately, engineers identified this issue serendipitously just hours before landing and implemented an impromptu ’emergency fix’, preventing what could have been a disastrous outcome for the mission.
Reuters reported:
“Although the Odysseus made it to the surface intact on Thursday, analysis of data by flight engineers showed the six-legged craft apparently tripped over its own feet as it neared the end of its final descent, company officials said at a briefing the next day.
The spacecraft is believed to have caught one of its landing feet on the uneven lunar surface and tipped over, coming to rest sideways, propped up on a rock at one end, said CEO Stephen Altemus, whose company built and flew the lander.”
Odysseus ‘is stable near or at our intended landing site’, close to a crater called Malapert A in the region of the moon’s south pole, Altemus told reporters.
“‘We do have communications with the lander’, and mission control operators are sending commands to the vehicle, Altemus said, adding that they were working to obtain the first photo images from the lunar surface from the landing site. A brief mission status report posted to the company’s website earlier on Friday described Odysseus ‘alive and well’.”
All except one of the six NASA science and technology payloads are installed on exposed sections of the vehicle to allow for communication. However, two antennae were incorrectly positioned towards the surface, impacting communication with the lander.
The solar energy panel at the top of Odysseus is currently misaligned, but a functional second array on the spacecraft’s side is operational. Additionally, the spacecraft’s batteries have been fully charged.
“The uncrewed robot spacecraft reached the lunar surface on Thursday after a nail-biting final approach and descent in which a problem with its navigation system surfaced, requiring flight controllers on the ground to employ an untested work-around to avoid what could have been a catastrophic crash landing.
[…] Crain said the spacecraft, burning a propulsion fuel of liquid methane and liquid oxygen for the first time in space, “performed flawlessly” during its seven-day flight to and in orbit around the moon.”
The payloads on the lander are anticipated to function for approximately nine to ten days before the sun sets at the polar landing site.
BBC reported:
“Steve Altemus, the CEO and co-founder of IM, said it wasn’t totally clear what had happened but the data suggested the robot caught a foot on the surface and then fell because it still had some lateral motion at the moment of landing.
Another possibility is that Odysseus broke a leg as it came down. Certainly, inertial measurement sensors indicate the body of the vehicle to be in a horizontal pose.
[…] ‘We’re hopeful to get pictures and really do an assessment of the structure and assessment of all the external equipment’, Mr Altemus told reporters. ‘So far, we have quite a bit of operational capability even though we’re tipped over. And so that’s really exciting for us, and we are continuing the surface operations mission as a result of it’.”
Over the weekend, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite from the United States, will be on a mission to locate Odysseus and verify its current location.
“‘Once the Sun sets on ‘Oddie’, the batteries will attempt to keep the vehicle warm and alive but eventually it’ll fall into a deep cold and then the electronics that we produce just won’t survive the deep cold of lunar night. And so, best case scenario, we’re looking at another nine to 10 days (of operations)’, said Tim Crain, IM’s CTO and co-founder.”
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