Having successfully landed its Nova-C lander named Odysseus on the Moon, the American company Intuitive Machine, on the night of February 22 to 23, checked three symbols. First of all, it marks the return of the United States to our natural satellite after an absence of more than half a century. A machine for the last time Made in America Its metal legs actually sank into the lunar regolith in 1972 with the Apollo-16 (in April of that year) and Apollo-17 (in December) missions.
Delays for the Artemis program, through which NASA wants to send humans back to the moon, while new players – China, India, Japan – have entered the exclusive club of countries capable of landing on the Night Star, it was time. To show the United States that they stayed in the race.
Another symbol is to look for operator identification. Among the list of successful moon landings, Odysseus is the first signed by a private company. What’s more, by a young company since Intuitive Machine was founded only in 2013. Others had tried their luck before and failed, the latest being American astrobiotic technology whose Peregrine mission was aborted shortly after takeoff in January due to a fuel leak.
However, it should be noted that the Odysseus and Peregrine landers, while designed and controlled by private companies, remain under the auspices of NASA precisely because their funding comes from NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. American Space Agency. It has actually decided to subcontract the booming robotic missions to the Moon to the private sector, just as it has entrusted Elon Musk’s company SpaceX with transporting its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Both a way to save money and stimulate “new space” players. Note in passing that Odysseus left Earth on February 15 on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket. For this mission, Intuitive Machines received $118 million from NASA under CLPS.
The third and final symbol of this landing is due to the location chosen: Odysseus, which looks like a container standing on six legs, landed in the Malapert-A crater, 300 kilometers from the lunar south pole.
This polar region has become the new El Dorado for space agencies due to its water ice deposits in the ground. If it can be harnessed, this water will be valuable for life in future bases but also provide the hydrogen and oxygen that will power the engines of refueling machines that take off from the moon. After India’s Chandrayaan-3 probe in 2023, the intuitive machine device is the second to set foot in the field.
Even if the symbols prove strong, Odysseus’ mission has only modest ambitions on land, quite simply because it will last only seven days. At the scientific level, the few on-board instruments will primarily study the craft’s immediate environment and the impact of landing on the ground. During this week of activity, the lunar night and its cooler than freezing temperatures should favor the machine.
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