Odysseus has exceeded engineers’ expectancies all the way through its odyssey at the moon. NASA showed that the spindly solar-powered robot lander, constructed and operated via the Houston-based non-public U.S. corporate Intuitive Machines, has been alive and accumulating information because it touched down, and toppled over, at the lunar floor on February 22.
“What a powerful process that lander did,” mentioned Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus all the way through a NASA information briefing on February 28. “Such a lot information and knowledge and science. It’s simply an unbelievable testomony to how tough that little spacecraft is, so we’re truly proud of that.”
The spacecraft, which carried payloads from universities, trade and NASA, was once the primary American spacecraft to accomplish a cushy touchdown at the moon in additional than 50 years (SN: 2/22/24). Odysseus, or Odie because it’s nicknamed, is slowly operating out of energy, and scientists be expecting to place it into sleep mode February 28, after kind of six days at the lunar floor. They’re going to attempt to reawaken Odie in about 3 weeks when the solar hits the lander’s photo voltaic panels once more.
Similar to its namesake, the epic hero from the Greek vintage The Odyssey, the spacecraft Odysseus underwent trials and tribulations in its adventure. Its self sustaining touchdown device’s laser vary finder malfunctioned, inflicting engineers to scramble for an answer that concerned two further hours in orbit and reconfiguring a pair backup lasers on a NASA payload. After a nail-biting descent, Odysseus’s touchdown equipment stuck at the sloped floor or perhaps a crevice, breaking the equipment and sending the spacecraft gently tipping over on its aspect.
Regardless of the mishap, “our navigation device landed us with precision and the surprise absorbers took the weight,” Altemus mentioned. “The touchdown equipment did what it was once meant to do and give protection to the lander because it landed at the floor.”
The spacecraft was once firstly meant to perform for roughly every week, although all the way through a Feb. 23 briefing with newshounds project director Tim Crain, leader generation officer of Intuitive Machines, mentioned that below the most productive case state of affairs it would ultimate for 9 to ten days.
As an alternative, after six days at the moon, the lander was once anticipated to expire of energy. “We’re going to tuck Odie in for the chilly night time of the moon,” Crain mentioned all the way through the Feb. 28 briefing. “We’re going to depart the computer systems and the ability device in a spot the place we will be able to wake it up … as soon as it will get energy once more.”
The primary proscribing issue as to if Odysseus comes again on-line shall be its batteries; their chemistry-based generation will combat with the extraordinary temperature plunge of lunar night time. “We’re assured that after the solar comes again up, the photo voltaic arrays will energize they usually’ll ship energy,” mentioned Crain. “The actual query is, ‘Are the batteries there to obtain that energy and cross it on?’”
Odysseus, which stands about 4 meters tall and 1.5 meters huge, got here down at a web site kind of 300 kilometers clear of the lunar south pole at the slope of a crater referred to as Malapert A. Astronauts with NASA’s crewed Artemis program might land at a an identical web site or within reach within the coming a long time (SN: 12/1/22).
One of the vital spacecraft’s quite a lot of payloads have had their very own little adventures all the way through the project. For example, a digital camera constructed via scholars at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical College in Daytona Seashore, Fla., was once meant to detach all the way through descent and take photos because the spacecraft touched down. Because of the issues with touchdown, the digital camera, referred to as EagleCam, was once no longer deployed, however Crain mentioned he and others are running on getting it able for ejection.
However the World Lunar Observatory Affiliation, a personal corporate founded in Kamuela, Hawaii, has gained pictures from a telescope it despatched on Odysseus named ILO‐X. The tool is a precursor to a bigger telescope the corporate hopes to deploy at Malapert A someday and is meant to habits clinical observations of the Milky Method from the moon. The affiliation showed that ILO-X was once in a position to snap pictures all the way through the project, which display parts of the lunar panorama, the solar and the Odysseus lander. The photographs are anticipated to be launched February 29.
The entire NASA tools that Odysseus carried were transmitting helpful information, mentioned Sue Lederer, mission scientist for NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Products and services at Johnson House Heart in Houston. Engineers had been in a position to troubleshoot preliminary issues of the spacecraft’s antenna that avoided complete transmission, and feature since gained a flood of knowledge.
“We went from mainly a cocktail straw of knowledge coming again to a boba-tea-sized straw of knowledge,” Lederer mentioned. “We’ve gotten over 15 megabytes of knowledge.” This shall be helpful for figuring out the spacecraft’s landing series in addition to informing long run missions to the moon and Mars, she mentioned.