A spacecraft, which was first released from the USA since 1972, has gently landed on the surface of the moon. And for the first time, this successful extraterrestrial landing was carried out with a spacecraft built and operated by a private industry instead of a government space program.
In 18:13, a 14.1 -meter landing EST, similar to a police cabin on Stills, landed on the surface of the moon in the balloon flame of a blue rocket exhaust. A few seconds later, Lander’s six legs entered the dark soil of Malapert A, a crater in the depths of the southern latitudes of the moon.
This robot Voyager, nicknamed Odysseus, has six scientific burden on NASA. But most importantly, the US space agency does not serve as: Odysseus is the first commercial spacecraft to safely descend to another celestial body.
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Odysseus, Intuitive MachineA private space aircraft company based in Houston, The company’s IM-1 mission. In addition to NASA equipment, Odysseus carries loads from special customers changing from a group of sculptures of artist Jeff Koons. A robotic “selfie” camera It was built by students of Embry-Russian Aviation University.
And Odysseus, like his names from ancient Greek epics, faced trials while sailing towards the surface of the moon. Only hours before the descent, two lasers on the two sides, which Odysseus plans to use to detect the surface of the moon, were broken. In response, intuitive machines improvised a software patch that allows Odysseus to command two laser an experimental navigation load It was built by NASA.
For more than 15 minutes from Touchdown, the task control of the intuitive machines in Texas, Houston waited in a tense silence while trying to contact the Odysseus. IM-1 Mission Director Tim Crain, Chief Technology Officer of Intuitive Machinery, said, ız We have a signal of life that we need to sign. ” “We haven’t died yet.”
Minutes later, Crain confirmed that Odysseus conveyed from the surface of the moon, albeit weak. In the press, the cause of the weakness of the signal remains uncertain.
IM-1 is the first US task to soft the moon surface. Apollo 17 In 1972. And unlike IM-1, Apollo 17 The crew was. The country’s last robotic soft landing on the month took place in January 1968 with a goal. NASA LANDER SURVEYOR 7.
“Odysseus took the month, Nas NASA manager Bill Nelson said in a previously recorded greeting message. “This success is a giant leap for all humanity.”
The task also reaches some technical firsts. The main engine of the spacecraft that burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen is the first example of the type used in the moon descent. The IM-1 also points to the southern moon landing in the south. Ay Lander, the first in India’s Chandayaan-3 mission in this general region. 69 degrees southern latitudeIt would be like going down to the Antarctic Peninsula on earth. However, IM-1 sits in more than 80 degrees of southern latitude-the moon equivalent of the inside of the Antarctica.
The settled NASA instruments of the IM-1 may provide measurements in the first place of this prohibitive environment in which the extreme angle of the sun on the horizon can create large oscillations at the surface temperatures, and may also be exposed to the “Sun Wind” of the loaded particles that are constantly ignored by our star. This will include data IMPORTANT RADIO MEASUREMENTS This will capture the interactions of the solar wind with the surface of the moon.
NASA targets the Moon South Pole, because some shadow-clogged areas contain water ice-a key source for long-term human catering. Your agency Artemis III Mission, which will start shorter than 2026, signed a contract with NASA SpaceX to make a two -person crew near the Moon South Pole.
“[IM-1] It is a technology demo if you want, but it will receive our first data about the surroundings of the south pole of the moon. This will be critical to design systems to allow people to survive and develop there, notre says Notre Dame University Moon Scientist Clive Neal.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the IM-1 is the precedent that it determines for the future of space research. For decades, the area was accepted as the opinion of only a handful of state institutions. However, thanks to falling costs and continuous technological progress march, it is cheaper than that countries and private companies build spacecrafts and even send them to inter -plans targets.
“[IM-1 is] It is a basin in the field of commercial development in the United States, Neal Neal says.
High risk, high reward
On February 15, Est IM-1 was released on one of the Falcon 9 rockets of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For the next few days, Odysseus traveled more than one million kilometers (621,000 miles) to add to his orbit success on February 21st. The spacecraft is expected to work on the surface of the month up to seven days.
The task is flying under NASA’s flag Commercial Lunar Load Services (CLPS) initiativeIn accordance with the CLPS, which has encouraged special investment to Lunar missions since its establishment in 2018, agency private companies reward its contracts to deliver NASA equipment and science tools to the surface of the month. So far, 14 companies have participated in the program that promised to pay up to $ 2.6 billion for delivery services until 2028.
Unlike traditional NASA programs, the space agency does not have CLPS spacecraft and does not operate – companies. In contrast, NASA hopes to gain lower costs and a higher task. To date, NASA has paid $ 118 million to intuitive machines within the scope of the IM-1 contract-less than that of the Ageans had spent on the robotic Landers in the past. And the IM-1 is the second of the five CLPS mission that can be released this year.
However, CLPS companies were given a steep peak to climb. Historically, only five of the nine -month posts were successful among the good -financed government space agencies. In August 2023, the Russian Moon Mission Luna-25 fell to the surface of the moon after an engine was incorrectly arriving. In January, a Japanese Ay Lander, known as Slim (smart descent to investigate Moon), safely touched at an unexpected angle that limits the ability to collect solar energy.
And in exchange for lower costs and more tasks, NASA took the risk of failure of any CLPS mission. NASA officials warned this from the establishment of CLPS Even 50 percent task success rate It was acceptable for the program.
So far this guess is exploding. In January, the Pittsburgh -based company Astrocotic tried the first task under Peregrine Mission 1, CLPS. However, Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft made a repulsive leak. The company managed to keep Lander alive in space for a week and a half, but the task ended with Peregrine’s burning in the world atmosphere.
“[NASA] Approximately 50 percent of a failure rate is expected and two people are this ratio. Prime. “[IM-1 proves] There is a ability to descend safely on the surface of the month at a lower cost of commercial ups. “
Peregrine and IM-1 are only first in the wave of a commercial lunar task with more ambitious targets. Later in this year, Astrocotic is at the faucet to deliver Viper (Vigrants investigating the Polar Discovery Rover), a water hunter trip built by NASA, to the South Pole. The planned IM-2 mission, which is planned later on this year, will present the Prime-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Test 1), a NASA exercise designed to dig on the underground face of the moon.
“These first tasks are more test tasks, Forczyk says Forczyk. “We want to make sure that the technology is proven and mature before putting higher betting loads on the ship.”
