Washington:
A Texas company is poised to attempt a feat that has so far been accomplished by only a handful of national space agencies but will soon become the norm in the private sector: landing on the moon.
If all goes according to plan, Houston-based Intuitive Machines will guide its spacecraft, called Odysseus, to a gentle landing near the moon’s south pole at 2249 GMT on Thursday and then conduct experiments for NASA that will set the stage for this year’s Paving the way for the return of astronauts at a later date. ten years.
An effort by another U.S. company failed last month, raising the stakes in proving that private industry can deliver a cosmic companion to Earth for the first time since the Apollo era.
“Accepting risk is America’s challenge to the commercial world,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said ahead of the launch. “Our shared goal is to return to the moon for the first time in 52 years.”
The company plans to broadcast live on its website, with flight controllers expected to confirm the landing around 15 seconds after the milestone is reached due to the time it takes for radio signals to return.
As it approaches the surface, Odysseus will launch an external “Eagle Camera” to capture images during the lander’s final seconds of descent.
Studying lunar haze
Odysseus was about the size of a large golf cart, hexagonal in shape, and stood on six legs.
It was launched on February 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and has a new supercooled liquid oxygen and liquid methane propulsion system, allowing it to quickly travel through space and take photos of our planet along the way.
Its destination, Malapert A, is an impact crater 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the moon’s south pole.
NASA hopes to eventually establish a long-term presence there and collect ice for drinking water and rocket fuel under its flagship Moon-to-Mars program, Artemis.
NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver scientific hardware to better understand and mitigate environmental risks to astronauts, with the first astronauts scheduled to land as early as 2026.
Instruments include a camera to study how the lunar surface changes due to plumes from spacecraft engines, and a device to analyze clouds of charged dust particles that hang on the lunar surface at dusk due to solar radiation.
mini moon
The remaining shipments were paid for by Intuitive Machines’ private customers, including 125 stainless steel mini-moons by artist Jeff Koons.
After landing, Odysseus is unable to operate due to a lack of solar energy, and the experiment is expected to operate for approximately seven days before the South Pole enters lunar night.
The mission, known as IM-1, is the second under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to entrust cargo services to the private sector to achieve savings and stimulate the broader lunar economy.
Four more CLPS launches are expected this year, making 2024 the busiest year ever for moon landings.
The first was launched by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic in January, but its Peregrine spacecraft suffered a fuel leak and was eventually pulled back into Earth’s atmosphere and burned up.
Spacecraft landing on the moon must navigate dangerous boulders and craters and, in the absence of an atmosphere to support a parachute, must rely on thrusters to control their descent. About half of the more than 50 attempts failed.
In February 1966, the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 spacecraft landed and sent back photos from the moon, becoming the first country to achieve a survival landing on a celestial body.
Next up is the United States, which remains the only country that also has people on the ground.
Since 2013, China has landed on the moon three times, while the United States has been absent for a long time. India landed on the moon in 2023, and Japan most recently landed last month.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
