It is confirmed by Intuitive Machines that the overturned car would run out of electricity within a few hours.
As of the previous week, Intuitive Machines achieved a significant milestone by being the first private business to successfully do a soft landing on the Moon. The win, however, could have been even more significant. In spite of the fact that it was able to reach the surface without any damage, the Odysseus lander has now toppled over and is resting on its side. The corporation has provided a report on the state of the lander, which indicates that this historic mission is drawing to a close. Even though Odysseus has transmitted scientific data back to Earth, it is quite likely that it will run out of power in a matter of hours.
Odysseus, also known as the IM-1 mission, beat the odds by successfully landing on the surface of the moon. It was not until Odysseus was already orbiting the Moon that Intuitive Machines realised that the navigation lasers of the vehicle had never been activated prior to the launch of the vehicle. One of the scientific payloads that it carried for NASA was, fortunately, a prototype of a laser navigation system. After switching over to the NASA system, the team was able to successfully guide the vehicle down to within a mile or so of its intended destination. When it comes to landing on a celestial body, that is an amazing level of accuracy.
Only after some time had passed did Intuitive Machines realise that the lander, which stood 14 feet tall, had not come to rest on its legs as it had been supposed to, but rather on its side. It was believed that one of the landing legs of the vehicle grabbed the surface, which caused it to topple over before coming to a stop. The image that can be seen above, which was taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, depicts the tipped-over lander. Although the IM-1 mission was not completely doomed as a result of this, it does indicate that the ladder is running out of time. Due to the fact that the solar panels are located closer to the ground than was anticipated, the rolling dunes of the southern polar area of the Moon are not ideal for their utilisation. In addition, some of the communication equipment on the ship is either concealed or oriented at the ground, which results in communication that is, at best, sketchy.
Odysseus continues to communicate with flight controllers in Nova Control from the lunar surface. After understanding the end-to-end communication requirements, Odysseus sent images from the lunar surface of its vertical descent to its Malapert A landing site, representing the… pic.twitter.com/CuCkOVvBqu
— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 26, 2024
Still, Intuitive Machines has confirmed that the lander has successfully completed its mission on the Moon. According to the corporation, Odysseus has demonstrated the ability to “efficiently” transmit scientific data and imagery from the surface. In the early hours of this morning, it was projected that the batteries of the lander would run out within ten to twenty hours. Consequently, Odysseus will be permanently shut down either late today or in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Odysseus isn’t missing out on anything, despite the fact that he is disadvantageously positioned on its side. Even if the solar-powered lander had landed without a hitch, the corporation did not anticipate that it would be able to withstand the lengthy lunar night that would begin in a few days.
But Japan’s SLIM lander recently surpassed expectations by successfully landing on the moon despite the freezing conditions of lunar night, which have caused several missions to fail. This mission also experienced a peculiar landing, as it came to rest on its nose when it landed close to the lunar equator a month ago. A confirmation has been made by the Japanese space agency JAXA that SLIM is now again alive, and the crew is hoping to collect additional data in the weeks to come.
Despite the fact that Intuitive Machines accomplished a remarkable feat with IM-1, each and every hour of operation on the Moon is extremely valuable. Considering that the planned Artemis III mission intends to bring people back to the Moon by landing close to the south pole, NASA is interested in gathering as much information as possible on this region of the Moon. This region is of importance due to the presence of enormous ice deposits that are located in craters that are perpetually shadowed. Every speck of information that comes from the International Mission to the Moon (IM-1) brings us one step closer to achieving our goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon.