The first private probe to land on the moon, Odysseus, has shut down for good after almost a month on the star, American company Intuitive Machines on X (formerly Twitter) announced. After 7 days on the moon, the probe fell asleep at the end of its main mission, but Intuitive Machine engineers had to try to contact it again at the end of the lunar night, once the sun reappeared.
It ultimately didn’t turn back on, explained the young Texan company on Saturday that confirmed its investigation using a pseudonym: “Odi has been erased forever.” In any case, it was highly uncertain whether the device’s batteries would survive the freezing cold of the lunar night. On February 22, Odysseus became the first private probe to land on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to do so since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
However, it was found tilted on the lunar surface, in the south polar region, after an uneventful landing due to the failure of its navigation system. But some of its solar panels were still able to continue working and supplying it with energy. Odysseus transmitted photos and scientific data, particularly those collected on board by NASA instruments. Both NASA and Intuitive Machines have hailed this probe’s lunar investment as a success.
