It turns out that Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus spacecraft didn’t land upright.
In a press conference with NASA on Friday evening, the company revealed that the lander was lying on its side after arriving slightly sooner than expected.
Luckily, Odysseus was positioned so that his solar panels still received enough sunlight to stay charged, and the team was able to communicate with him.
Although initial assessments indicated that Odysseus had landed correctly, further analysis showed otherwise.
Intuitive Machines CEO and co-founder Steve Altemus said “stale telemetry” was the cause of the earlier reading.
Also Read: Wow…Odysseus Reaches Moon Orbit
However, all the cargo except one static art installation – Jeff Koons’ Moon Phases sculpture – was in an upside-down position.
NASA’s science lander and payload have collected data from the ride, descent and landing, which the team will use to try and gain a better understanding of what happened.
However, if you look at it as a whole, everything seems to be going well.
The team plans to bring out EagleCam, developed by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, so it can take images of the lander and its surroundings perhaps as soon as this weekend.
Also read: Wow…Odysseus sends the first picture and the results are amazing
It was supposed to be released during descent to capture the moment of landing, but problems on the day of landing prevented its release.
While Odysseus was in lunar orbit and hours away from its landing attempt, the team discovered that the laser range finder, key to precision navigation, was not working — caused entirely by human error.
According to Altemus, someone forgot to press the safety button to turn it on, so it couldn’t turn on.
2024-02-26 00:22:00
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