An American probe sent its first images of the south side of the Moon

The Odysseus Probe from the American company Intuitive Machines has sent its first images of the southernmost spot on the Moon where no spacecraft has ever landed, the private company ©e shared two photos on the social network X on Monday.

The more than four-meter-tall craft landed on the moon at 11:23 GMT on Thursday, the first for the United States in more than 50 years. This is also a first for a private company.

But twists and turns, particularly the failure of its navigation system, complicated the final landing and the probe was seen lying on its side instead of landing vertically. “Odysseus Continues to Communicate with Nova Control Flight Controllers from the Lunar Surface”Intuitive Machines said Monday, releasing two photos on X, one of the spacecraft’s descent and another taken 35 seconds after it fell, that reveal the reality Golite from Malapert Crater.

According to Jonathan McDowell “Success with small flaws”.

The device specifically carries scientific instruments from NASA, which wants to explore the moon’s south pole before sending astronauts there, as part of its Artemis mission. The American space agency has decided to order this service from private companies. This strategy should allow him to travel more often and for less money. But it is also capable of supporting a sustainable human presence on the Moon, to stimulate the development of the lunar economy, one of the goals of the Artemis program.

That one “Success with Small Defects”Astronomer and space mission expert Jonathan McDowell commented for AFP, speculating that,“Certainly have things to sort out for the next mission”, the NASA project is going in the right direction. Japan’s SLIM probe, placed on the moon since late January, has been activated once again, the country’s space agency, Jaxa, announced on Monday. It was also placed at an angle and its photovoltaic cells, which were oriented towards the west, did not receive sunlight.

For Jonathan McDowell, these two falls may indicate that the upper parts of current probes are too heavy and therefore the current generation of machines are more likely to flip over in low gravity conditions.