Feb 23, 2024 at 6:17 AM Update: an hour ago
The lunar lander Odysseus has successfully landed on the moon. It is the first American moon landing since 1972 and the first successful commercial moon landing ever.
An attempt with another commercial spacecraft failed after launch last month. The spacecraft eventually sank in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Odysseus landed just after midnight (Dutch time) near the south pole of the moon, the American company Intuitive Machines announced about two hours after landing. It marks the first American moon landing in more than half a century.
The spacecraft is over 4 meters high and weighs about 675 kilos. The launch took place last week from the Cape Canaveral Space Base in the state of Florida.
It was initially unclear whether the aircraft had survived the landing. Flight control did announce that it was on the moon, but initially nothing was reported about the condition of the lander.
It wasn’t until two hours later that good news arrived. The Odysseus “stands upright and begins transmitting data,” read a statement from Intuitive Machines. “The first photos of the moon’s surface are being downloaded.”
Weak signal could make Odysseus’ mission more difficult
The incoming signals would be weak. According to Thomas Zurbuchen, former NASA chief science officer, this could indicate that the spacecraft landed next to a crater wall or something else blocking the antenna. “Sometimes it’s just one rock, one big boulder, that gets in the way,” he told the news agency Reuters.
A weak signal could make the Odysseus’s main mission more difficult. This means using the equipment on board for scientific purposes.
The Odysseus spends about a week researching the effect of charged particles from the sun on the surface of the moon. People who travel to the moon are exposed to those particles. There is then hardly any protection from a magnetic field such as on Earth. The US also wants to experiment with more precise landings.
Americans also want to take people to the moon again
The US wants to take people to the moon and back in the coming years. The polar crater where the lander was supposed to land is a possible destination.
Space companies could help build bases on the moon. The space agency NASA has set up a program for this purpose: Commercial Lunar Payload Services. Through this program, companies can receive millions of euros to develop and build lunar devices.
2024-02-23 07:42:56
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