Intuitive Machines’ private lander stumbled during its descent to the lunar surface, possibly leaning against a lunar rock. The company said the vehicle remains operational and flight engineers are working to collect more data about its less-than-ideal position.
Odysseus It landed on the moon Thursday, overcoming a glitch that jeopardized its ability to land safely. Although it has surfaced, Audi’s Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus revealed during a press conference on Friday that the landing was not so smooth and that one of the vehicle’s legs got stuck, causing it to roll over and possibly end up lying on its side. on the rocks.
“Yesterday we thought we were in the clear,” Artems said. “As we were pulling an all-nighter to acquire additional telemetry data, we noticed that in this direction [pointing downwards] This is where we see the remnants of the tank, so this tells us in fairly certain terms the direction of the vehicle. “
Artemus added: “This was a seven-day mission to the moon, and it was very difficult.” He was right. After a series of failures, Intuitive Machines is racing to land on the lunar surface and become the first private company to do so. in January, Celestial robot failed The Peregrine spacecraft was trying to reach the moon due to a valve problem. April 2023, Japan ispace Hakuto-R M1 crashed on the lunar surface, and Israeli SpaceIL Beresheet lander April 2019 suffered a similar fate.
This time, the moon still fought back. Just hours before scheduled landing, OdysseusA laser rangefinder designed to assess the lunar terrain to determine a safe landing site malfunctioned.To help guide the lander to the surface, flight engineers uploaded a software patch to repurpose auxiliary lasers onboard NASA instruments Odysseus.
The Houston-based company appeared to have broken the lunar curse with Thursday’s landing, although it wasn’t entirely perfect. Artemus said that when the lander is on its side, its horizontal solar panels are still receiving sunlight and all of its active payloads face away from the lunar surface, allowing it to operate on the moon.
Intuitive Machines got a weak signal from its lander, but it’s still waiting to download more data from the lander Odysseus. However, some of the lander’s antennas designed to communicate with Earth point downward, limiting the mission’s ability to transmit data.
The IM-1 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to keep private landers traveling to the moon to deliver government-owned and commercial payloads. On each private trip to the moon, NASA and its partner companies collect data for use on the next mission.
“When landers come down, we want them to land straight down,” Prasun Desai, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said at a news conference. “But because of errors in the operation of the system, you end up moving sideways. …[we’re trying to] Understand the lateral motion so that the system can counteract that motion and zero out the lateral motion so that it goes straight down. “
Odysseus It is designed to orbit the lunar surface for approximately one week, or until the sun sets over the lunar south pole region. Intuitive Machines hopes the lander’s solar panels will receive enough sunlight at its current location to power the lander in the coming days.
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