A private spacecraft called Odysseus accomplished a pioneering feat Thursday by becoming the first commercial vehicle to softly land on the moon’s cratered surface. The successful touchdown marks the first US craft to land on the moon since NASA’s Apollo program concluded in 1972.
Odysseus was developed by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines under a NASA program seeking to scout the lunar terrain using contracted robotic explorers. These commercial partnerships will pave the way towards NASA’s goal of returning astronauts to the moon later this decade under its Artemis program.
“Today for the first time in over fifty years, the US has returned to the moon,” celebrated NASA chief Bill Nelson, hailing the agency’s commercial strategy. “This shows the power and promise of NASA’s partnerships.”
After a nail-biting journey covering over 600,000 miles in a week, Odysseus fired its onboard methane engine around 6 pm Thursday to rapidly shed speed for a delicate landing within the Malapert A crater near the moon’s south pole. Confirmation of touchdown signals and initial data transmission were delayed almost two hours while controllers anxiously awaited visual confirmation that the lander sat upright on its four legs.
The lead-up to the historic landing was dramatically shaken by an apparent issue with Odysseus’ navigation instruments. With mere hours until expected lunar arrival, the team improvised by reassigning guidance duties to a laser-beaming NASA experiment dubbed Navigation Doppler Lidar.
The payoff for pushing ahead with this last-minute workaround was a pinpoint moon landing in a region of active international interest thanks to suspected stores of water ice in the southern polar craters.
In achieving this spaceflight first for private enterprise, the diminutive NASA-sponsored Odysseus lander carries various experiment payloads to demonstrate communications, mapping, and landing precision technologies crucial for future lunar missions. Sensitive equipment to measure rocket plume effects and lunar surface composition will provide vital data to NASA scientists seeking to understand the mysterious lunar environment’s harsh challenges more deeply.
Additionally stowed aboard the lunar trailblazer are several commercial items symbolizing this breakthrough era in public-private space exploration. Insulating material tailored by clothing outfitter Columbia Sportswear will guard electronic gear against extreme temperature swings on the moon which exceed 500 degrees Fahrenheit between sunlight and darkness. Also packed is an artistic moon phase sculpture from renowned artist Jeff Koons and a student-built camera to capture images of the first private moon lander in history.
With touchdown now confirmed within the targeted Malapert A crater, the intrepid Odysseus lander transitions to gathering as much priceless data as possible during an ambitious week-long surface mission. But the clock is already counting down to when two weeks of frigid lunar night will sweep over its landing zone, likely freezing the spacecraft into inoperability after its history-making exploits.
This trailblazing yet dicey commercial moon shot comes on the heels of fellow NASA contractor Astrobotic waving off its initial lunar landing attempt last fall after an untimely fuel leak. Achieving the immense technological challenge of soft-landing on the moon after a nearly one million mile voyage through space without human intervention remains extremely formidable even 50 years after Apollo.
But now the first private moon landing is in the books thanks to the teamwork, ingenuity and perseverance of NASA and Intuitive Machines visionaries. Their success sparks hopes that such commercially-built robotic explorers can provide valuable lunar reconnaissance services to NASA if schedules for returning American astronauts to the moon face further delays.
With this giant leap for private enterprise now achieved, a new moonrush era led by the innovation and problem-solving grit of US commercial space companies has officially commenced.
Source Historic Odysseus moon mission marks a milestone in reaching the lunar surface. Published in CNN by Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland.