Early on Thursday, a robotic spacecraft was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the moon, preparing it for a landing on February 22. Should the landing be successful, it would be the first commercial vehicle to set foot on the lunar surface and the first soft landing for the United States since the final Apollo missions.
Launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is where the Falcon 9 rocket took off at 1:05 a.m. Eastern time. This is the same pad from which a Saturn V rocket carried the astronauts of Apollo 17 on their mission to the moon in 1972. It carried a spacecraft built by the Houston-based business Intuitive Machines. Nobody was on board.
Under a contract with NASA, which is paying Intuitive Machines $118 million to send many payloads to the moon, the mission is being carried out. NASA views the project as a component of its Artemis campaign, which aims to return astronauts to the moon.
NASA program scientist Debra Needham stated in a pre-launch briefing that the Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, comes with instruments “to demonstrate technologies that will enhance the efficiency, precision and safety of future spacecraft landing as well as investigate the surface of the south polar region of the moon.”
However, NASA is really just a paying customer in a private sector-driven project that consists of a commercial spacecraft being launched by a commercial rocket. This is a model that NASA is depending more and more on for its exploration efforts both inside and outside of Earth orbit.
Joel Kearns, NASA’s deputy assistant administrator for exploration in the scientific mission directorate, stated that six years ago, American industry declared that they were prepared for NASA to hire them to perform robotic lunar landings as a service rather than having us do it ourselves. The initial missions “are an assessment of that.
The landing attempt by Intuitive Machines comes after that of Astrobotic, a private company that was contracted by NASA and launched its spacecraft to the moon last month. However, a propulsion system malfunction kept the spacecraft from reaching the moon, which foiled its effort to land.
NASA has stated that it is possible for some of the missions to fail. However, its founders assert that they plan to learn from even their mistakes and have arranged for businesses to attempt robotic landings, or as they put it, “take shots on goal.” As part of what it refers to as its Commercial Lunar Program, NASA officials have stated that they expect to have at least two robotic flights to the moon every year during the next few years.
Entering this… Since no American company has sent a robotic spacecraft to the moon since 1968 and the last Apollo mission took place in 1972, we didn’t think success was certain for these American firms making their first lunar landing, Kearns added. “I can assure you that with each endeavor, we gain knowledge and insight.
The goal of Intuitive Machines is thus a dangerous one. Furthermore, the launch of its fourteen-foot-tall, six-landing-leg Odysseus spacecraft is only the beginning of a dangerous, long head to the moon surface. If it is successful, it will land near the lunar south pole, an area NASA hopes to investigate with humans due to the potential existence of water in the form of ice in the craters that are continuously shaded there. Since water is necessary for human survival and because its constituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen, can be used as rocket fuel to enable further solar system research, it is essential to any extended lunar expedition.
China is also interested in exploring the area around the moon’s south pole, where NASA, unlike Apollo, hopes to establish a long-term presence.
Kearns stated, “We’re not trying to redo Apollo.” In an effort to address important scientific issues, we are pursuing technological and scientific research that was not even considered during the Apollo era, and we’re going to a section of the moon that neither humans nor robots have ever been, just for this mission with [Intuitive Machines] and Artemis, to really explore for new things, including whether there are actually useable volatiles like water ice on the moon’s south pole.
Furthermore, Odysseus is carrying NASA equipment made to take pictures of the particles the spacecraft’s engines create. The space agency wants to learn more about the impact of landings on the moon’s surface and ecosystem because it eventually hopes to land many spacecraft in close proximity to one another.
According to Susan Lederer, NASA’s project scientist for the Intuitive Machines mission, “it’s going to cause the dust to really churn up and create a big plume of dust.” “Therefore, it will involve utilizing a pair of cameras to observe the rising plume of dust.”
This will enable “future landers to be developed to better protect against the dust that’s being churned up,” according to her statement.
Additionally, the spacecraft is equipped with a camera system that was created by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University instructors and students. This camera system will be released from the spacecraft approximately 100 feet above the moon’s surface in order to capture pictures of the vehicle throughout the landing procedure.
