Odysseus moon mission to be cut short after 'tumble' on rock during landing

27 February 2024 , 17:50

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The private space lander tumbled upon landing (Image: Intuitive Machines/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

The Odysseus moon mission is reportedly being cut short after a 'tumble' caused the lunar lander to tilt sideways.

Space engineers expect the lunar probe Odysseus to stop working on Tuesday, having landed too quickly and fallen sideways onto the moon's surface. The privately built, unmanned craft has already sent images from the farthest point south that any craft has ever landed on the moon, however it's awkward touchdown has significantly cut its lifespan on the Moon.

Built by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, the spacecraft's flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels lose light. "Based on Earth and moon positioning, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning," the company has said.

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Odysseus is solar powered lunar lander (Intuitive Machines/AFP via Getty)

The mission had been due to last up to ten days but due to it's positioning it is now due to be cut to five days. The tumble it took upon landing has substantially diminished the amount of sunlight that could reach Odysseus' solar panels to power the mission. Sadly communication will be more challenging too as two of the lander's antennae were pointed to the ground.

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The company posted on X that Odysseus had sent images from the lunar surface of its vertical descent to the landing site by the moon's Malapert A crater, as well as a snap taken right after the ill-fated landing.

Due to engineers' failure to unlock a safety switch before launch on February 15, Intuitive Machines says laser range finders — to direct altitude and forward-velocity values to the craft's autonomous navigation system — were inoperable.

The acceleration of the spacecraft on landing was about twice as fast as engineers had hoped, and company executives say it may have been a factor in it's failure to land correctly. An improvised software "patch" helped the craft to avoid a crash landing that would have destroyed the probe.

Images sent back from the mission (Intuitive Machines/Twitter)

Despite the glitches, Odysseus has still become the first US spacecraft to land on the moon since NASA's last Apollo mission, which carried astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt to the lunar surface 52 years ago.

This is also the first moon landing by a commercially made and operated spacecraft after three failed attempts, with the most recent being a mission by another US company, Astrobiotic, just last month.

NASA paid $120 million towards the mission, providing a whole host of instruments to increase scientific exploration of the moon's south pole, touted as a good site for any future lunar base. NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the Moon in the next ten years.

Imy Brighty-Potts