For the first time since 1972, a spacecraft launched from the United States has landed softly on the surface of the moon. For the first time ever, this successful extraterrestrial landing was achieved by a spacecraft built and operated by private industry rather than by a government space program.
At 6:23 p.m. EDT, a 14.1-foot-tall lander resembling a police booth on stilts descended to the moon’s surface on puffy blue flames from the rocket’s exhaust. Seconds later, the lander’s feet hit the dark soil of Malapert A crater, located deep in the moon’s southern latitudes.
This robotic traveler, nicknamed Odysseus, carries six scientific payloads on behalf of NASA. But more importantly, the US space agency is not managing the mission: Odysseus is the first commercial spacecraft to land safely on another celestial body.
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Odysseus was built and operated by Intuitive machinesa private spaceflight company based in Houston, as part of Company mission IM-1. In addition to NASA equipment, Odysseus carries payloads from special clients ranging from a collection of sculptures by Jeff Koons to… Robotic selfie camera It was built by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Like his namesake in the ancient Greek epics, Odysseus faced trials while sailing toward the surface of the moon. A few hours before landing, two lasers on board that Odysseus had planned to use to detect the moon’s surface broke. In response, Intuitive Machines improvised a software patch that allows Odysseus to control two lasers on board Pilot navigation payload Built by NASA.
For more than 15 minutes after landing, Intuitive Machines mission control in Houston, Texas, waited in tense silence as flight controllers tried to establish contact with Odysseus. “Signs of life — we have a return signal that we’re tracking,” Tim Crane, chief technology officer at Intuitive Machines and IM-1 mission manager, joked. “We’re not dead yet either.”
Minutes later, Crane confirmed that Odysseus was broadcasting from the moon’s surface, albeit weakly. In the press, the reason for the weak signal remains unclear.
IM-1 is the first American mission to land quietly on the moon’s surface since then Apollo 17 In 1972. Unlike IM-1, Apollo 17 It was her crew. The nation’s last soft robotic landing on the moon occurred in January 1968, with the satellite landing NASA Lander Surveyor 7.
“Odysseus has taken the moon,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a pre-recorded congratulatory message. “This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.”
The mission also achieves some first technical achievements. The spacecraft’s main engine — which burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen — is the first of its kind to be used for a lunar landing. IM-1 also marks the southernmost lunar landing ever. The lunar lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, the first in this general area, touched down in Latitude 69 degrees southWhich would be on Earth like landing on the Antarctic Peninsula. However, IM-1 is located at a latitude of more than 80 degrees south, which is the lunar equivalent of the deep interior of Antarctica.
The IM-1 instruments aboard NASA will provide the first in situ measurements of this forbidding environment, where the Sun’s extreme angle to the horizon can create huge fluctuations in surface temperatures, as well as in exposure to the “solar wind” of charged particles constantly belched by our star. This will include data Crucial radio measurements Which will capture some of the interactions of the solar wind with the lunar surface.
NASA is targeting the Moon’s south pole because some shadow-covered areas there contain water ice, a key resource for long-term human residence on the Moon. For the agency Artemis III For the mission, which won’t launch until 2026, NASA has contracted with SpaceX to land a two-person crew near the moon’s south pole.
“[IM-1] It’s a technical demonstration, if you like, but it will get our first data about the environment of the Moon’s south pole. “This will be critical for designing systems that allow humans to survive and thrive there,” says the lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame. Clive Neil.
Perhaps IM-1’s greatest contribution is the precedent it sets for the future of space exploration. For decades, space was considered the purview of a few government agencies. But thanks to falling launch costs and the steady march of technological progress, it is now cheaper than ever for countries and private companies to build and operate spacecraft, and even send them to interplanetary destinations.
“[IM-1 is] “It’s a turning point in commercial development within the United States,” Neal says.
High risk, high reward
At 1:05 a.m. EDT on February 15, IM-1 was launched aboard one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the next few days, Odysseus traveled a total distance of more than 1 million kilometers (621,000 mi) to insert itself into lunar orbit, which it successfully did on February 21. The spacecraft is expected to operate on the moon’s surface for up to seven days. Before succumbing to the darkness and bitter cold of the lunar night.
The mission flies under the NASA banner Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Initiative.which has encouraged private investment in lunar missions since its founding in 2018. Under CLPS, the agency awards contracts to private companies to deliver NASA equipment and scientific instruments to the lunar surface. So far, 14 companies have joined the program, which promises to pay up to $2.6 billion for delivery services through 2028.
Unlike traditional NASA programs, the space agency does not own or operate the CLPS spacecraft, but rather companies do. In return, NASA hopes to achieve lower costs and higher mission frequency. So far, NASA has paid Intuitive Machines $118 million under the contract that created IM-1, far less than what the agency has spent on robotic landers in the past. IM-1 is the second of five CLPS missions that may eventually be launched this year.
However, CLPS companies were given a steep hill to climb. Historically, only five out of nine lunar missions have been successful, even among well-funded government space agencies. In August 2023, the Russian Luna-25 lunar mission crashed on the lunar surface after an engine malfunction. In January, a Japanese lunar lander known as SLIM (Lunar Exploration Intelligent Lander) landed safely but at an unexpected angle, limiting its ability to collect solar energy.
In exchange for lower costs and more missions, NASA faced a greater risk of failure of any CLPS mission. Since the beginning of CLPS, NASA officials have warned about this Even the mission success rate reaches 50 percent It was acceptable to the program.
So far this prediction is coming true. Last January, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic attempted the first CLPS mission, Peregrine Mission 1. But shortly after launch, Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft developed a propellant leak. The company was able to keep the lander alive in space for a week and a half, but the mission ended with Peregrine burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
“[NASA] “We expected a failure rate of about 50 percent, and one in two is that rate,” says Laura Forczyk, CEO of the space industry consulting firm. astral. “[IM-1 proves] That there is the ability for commercial landers to land safely on the moon’s surface at a lower cost.
Peregrine and IM-1 are just the first flight in a coming wave of commercial lunar missions with increasingly ambitious goals. Later this year, Astrobotic will be ready to deliver VIPER (Volatile Polar Exploration Orbiter), a water-hunting rover built by NASA, to the lunar south pole. Intuitive Machines’ upcoming IM-2 mission, also scheduled for later this year, will deliver the PRIME-1 experiment (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1), a NASA drill designed to drill beneath the lunar surface.
“These initial missions are more testing missions,” Forczyk says. “We want to make sure the technology is proven and mature before we put high-risk payloads on board.”