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Intuitive Machines' Odysseus goes to sleep forever after the first private lunar landing mission concludes
The private Odysseus moon lander owned by Intuitive Machines has faded permanenetly after being the first in history to set foot on the moon as a commercial spacecraft."
On February 22, the Odysseus expedition, directed by Houston-based Innovative Machines, became the first space mission with a private sponsor to land on the moon. However, the business claims that since the lander slept during the lunar light, it has not sent any messages, so the spacecraft's mission is now officially terminated.
Intuitive Machines confirm Odysseus Moonlander mission has come to an end
After working for seven Earth days on the lunar surface, Odysseus entered a power-saving standby mode as the Sun descended to the spot where it had landed. The mission was only intended to last that long, but Intuitive Machines developers hoped that after lunar daybreak, the lander might awaken when sunlight struck it once more.
The company waited for Odysseus to send out a wake-up call before formally confirming on Sunday that the spacecraft had permanently gone silent. The company wrote in its tweet on X, "Flight controllers decided their projections were correct, and Odie’s power system would not complete another call home. This confirms that Odie has permanently faded after cementing its legacy into history as the first commercial lunar lander to land on the Moon."
Odysseus' historic moon landing
On February 15, Odysseus lifted out atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and headed toward the moon with 12 payloads. On February 21, the 14.1-foot-tall (4.3-meter) Odie entered lunar orbit. A day later, it touched down close to Malapert A, a crater located approximately 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the moon's south pole.
It was quite a dramatic landing. Odie's laser rangefinder malfunction caused it to approach the landing zone a little faster than planned, damaging one or more of its six landing legs in the process. The spaceship consequently tipped onto its side. However, Odie could continue to operate in its supine form. All five of NASA's active missions returned data, the agency announced following the historic.
NASA's programs
NASA's CLPS program includes the Odysseus mission. NASA collaborates with commercial businesses to transport machinery and technology to the Moon under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. With the Artemis program, NASA intends to return to Earth's only natural satellite and maintain a long-term presence, in contrast to the Apollo missions that placed humans on the Moon.
The goal of programs like CLPS and the US Department of Defense's Luna10 plan is to create a "lunar economy"—an economy that orbits our planet by utilizing the Moon's resources and special location. It is possible that missions to remote regions of the solar system could use the Moon as a staging area.
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