Intuitive Machines‘ artifact, ‘Odyssey‘, becomes the first of a private company to achieve a moon landing

The United States has made a return to the Moon more than half a century after the last Apollo mission. This achievement was accomplished by a private company, Intuitive Machines, marking the first successful lunar landing by a private entity. The company’s control center is based in Houston, Texas, the same city where Apollo 17, the last American spacecraft to reach the Moon, is housed. The Odysseus module landed on the Moon’s surface slightly behind schedule due to some technical issues, but still made a timely arrival for this historic event. Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, celebrated the achievement saying, «This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.» After the countdown to the lunar landing reached zero, there were a few minutes of uncertainty before communication was restored and confirmation of the successful landing was received. The mission director announced, «Our team is on the surface of the Moon,» amidst an atmosphere of tension and excitement in the control room. Although there was no immediate confirmation that everything was functioning as planned, NASA celebrated the landing, emphasizing the power and promise of NASA’s commercial partnerships. The seemingly successful landing of Odysseus comes after recent unsuccessful attempts by Japan and the United States, marking challenging times in the space race. The landing module of intuitive machines was launched into space by a SpaceX rocket, the company founded and run by Elon Musk. For the first time, the SpaceX Falcon 9 was fueled by methane, a fuel that China had previously successfully used. The spacecraft, a hexagonal prism with six landing legs, landed on a plain outside the Malapert A crater. The landing module ignited its engine on the far side of the Moon while out of contact with Earth, leaving flight controllers at the company’s headquarters in Houston in suspense until the craft re-emerged. On Thursday, controllers gradually lowered the spacecraft’s orbit from about 60 miles (around 100 kilometers) to six miles, a crucial maneuver on the far side of the Earth’s natural satellite. They then aimed for a descent near the Moon’s south pole. Just over a kilometer from the landing site, the craft pivoted to a vertical position and sensors searched for a safe landing spot. The original laser instrument intended to guide the landing failed, so another provided by NASA was used instead, causing the craft to orbit the Moon once more and delaying the landing by two hours. In the final 15 meters of descent, the craft stopped using the camera and altitude-measuring laser to avoid being misled by dust stirred up by the engine’s exhaust. The craft landed in a dangerous region full of craters and precipices, but of high value because it is believed that these permanently shadowed craters contain frozen water, near the Malapert A crater, 260 kilometers from the lunar south pole. This region is intended to exploit the vast resource of water ice for future space exploration. Future astronauts visiting the Moon could use the ice from these craters to obtain drinking water, oxygen, and even fuel. NASA has begun subcontracting much of its missions to private companies and plans to continue doing so. Intuitive Machines is one of the 14 providers selected to deliver payloads to the Moon through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which aims for American companies to carry scientific, exploration, and technological payloads to the lunar surface and orbit. In this mission, NASA is the main client, with half of the 12 payloads carried by Odysseus. It has paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to carry its working instruments to the Moon. These include a stereoscopic camera to observe the dust plume that rises during landing, a radio receiver to measure the effects of charged particles on radio signals, an experiment with functionalities for autonomous navigation in support of future surface and orbital operations, a set of eight retroreflectors that will serve as a permanent position marker on the Moon for decades, a Lidar-based descent and landing sensor, and a gauge that uses radio waves to determine how much propellant is left in the tanks in a low–gravity environment. Intuitive Machines makes history by becoming the first private company to successfully reach the Moon. Three previous non-governmental attempts failed. One was by an American company, another by a Japanese company, and a third by a non-profit Israeli private initiative. Japan became the fifth nation to land on the Moon in January, but its craft landed on its side, compromising its functions. The other countries that have reached the satellite through governmental initiatives are the US, the former Soviet Union, China, and India. With missions like the current one, NASA aims to gain new knowledge about the lunar environment to support future manned missions as part of the Artemis campaign. This mission was IM-1. Intuitive Machines plans to launch mission IM-2 later this year and IM-3 in 2025.