A company based in Houston, Texas, is embarking on a historic journey to land the first US spacecraft on the moon in half a century. This mission, planned for Thursday, comes as part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to make commercial spacecraft the primary means of returning astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite before the decade comes to a close.
Intuitive Machines, the company behind the mission, will attempt to land its hexagonal robot, named Odysseus, near the Moon’s south pole. The landing is scheduled to occur at 11:30 p.m. Croatian time. If all goes as planned, the company will have achieved a significant milestone in the field of space exploration.
The Intuitive Machines team, along with flight controllers stationed on Earth, anticipates a successful landing. They should be able to confirm the landing approximately 15 seconds after it occurs. For those interested in witnessing this historic event, a live stream will be available on the company’s website. Prior to landing, Odysseus is programmed to release an external camera that will capture the final seconds of its descent.
The mission is particularly significant given the recent failure of a similar attempt by another US company last month. This failure has raised the stakes for private companies, as they strive to demonstrate their ability to replicate NASA’s last moon mission, Apollo 17, which took place in 1972.
Scott Pace, a former member of the National Space Council and current director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, spoke to Agence France Presse about the resurgence of lunar exploration in the US after a 50-year pause.
Pace addressed the common question, “if we did it in the past, why can’t we do it now?” He explained that each generation has to relearn and reapply the technology and strategies used in previous missions. While they have historical knowledge on their side, it’s not the same as having firsthand experience.
Lunar South Pole
Odysseus was launched on February 15 using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The robot’s destination is the Malapert A crater, located approximately 300 kilometers from the Moon’s south pole.
As part of its long-term goals, NASA hopes to establish a permanent presence on the moon and to extract water from lunar ice for drinking and rocket fuel. This is a key component of the Artemis program, which aims to establish a moon base as a stepping-stone for future human missions to Mars.
Odysseus is equipped with various instruments, including cameras to study the impact of the spacecraft’s exhaust gases on the lunar surface, and a device to analyze dust particle-charged clouds that hover above the surface at dusk due to solar radiation.
An exclusive club
NASA invested $118 million in Intuitive Machines to transport its new hardware to the moon. This is part of a broader initiative by the US space agency to delegate cargo transportation to the moon to the private sector, with the goal of saving money and stimulating the lunar economy.
The first private company to attempt this was Astrobotic, based in Pittsburgh. However, their Peregrine spacecraft encountered problems and began leaking fuel, which ultimately led to it burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Landing a spacecraft on the Moon presents numerous challenges. The spacecraft must navigate around dangerous boulders and craters, and without an atmosphere to support parachutes, they must rely on thrusters to control their descent. Half of the more than 50 attempts so far have been unsuccessful.
Thus far, only the space agencies of the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan have successfully landed on the moon.
