During its final operational hours, Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander encountered an unforeseen setback: a broken leg resulting from an overlooked safety switch that remained inactive before its launch.
Odysseus passes over the near side of the Moon after entering lunar orbit insertion on February 21.
Intuitive Machines: IM-1 Breaks its Leg Literally
According to New Atlas, the IM-1 mission initially appeared to soar towards success with a seemingly flawless liftoff on February 14. It was heralded as the first successful American moon landing in over 50 years, a notable feat for being privately owned and operated and the pioneer in utilizing cryogenic fuels.
However, the mission took an unexpected turn when the lander toppled over upon landing, ending up on its side. Subsequent investigations revealed a series of oversights, with the primary misstep traced back to Earth, where a crucial safety switch for activating the spacecraft's laser landing navigation system was left in the 'off' position, according to Intuitive Machines.
Despite efforts to rectify the situation post-launch by implementing a software patch to activate NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar experiment, a critical data flag was overlooked, rendering the system incapable of validating data.
Consequently, the lander relied solely on its inertial guidance system and optical navigation algorithms, devoid of an altimeter, to gauge its altitude during the descent.
This critical error led to Odysseus landing short of its intended target site on elevated terrain, causing it to descend too rapidly and laterally. The impact upon landing resulted in one of the lander's legs snapping. However, the broken leg mitigated some of the impact, allowing Odysseus to gently tilt and rest on its helium tank at a 30-degree angle.
While Odysseus managed to sustain operations through its solar panels, powering all payloads except for one camera experiment, the incident compromised its high-gain radio antenna.
As a consequence, Mission Control had to resort to utilizing the low-gain antenna and high-powered Earth-based receivers, significantly slowing down data and image transmission.
Despite these challenges, Intuitive Machines reported that Odysseus is approaching the end of its operational lifespan. With the solar panels soon to be shrouded in shadow and the impending onset of the freezing lunar night, the lander's chances of survival are slim.
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Odysseus Completes its Scientific Operations
Intuitive Machines declared the completion of scientific operations and data transmission for all NASA and commercial payloads aboard Odysseus on February 29, following its successful soft landing on the moon's south pole region on February 22.
Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, expressed satisfaction with the mission's achievements, highlighting the validation of the company's liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion system, the successful transmission of scientific data, and the firm's role in fundamentally reshaping the economics of lunar landings.
"Before this mission, we had an absolute sense of humility and relied on our technical excellence and years of experience to triumph and persevere throughout all the challenges we faced during the mission," Altemus said in a statement.
"Following our unequivocal success, I am emboldened for the future of the U.S. and international lunar economy and Intuitive Machines' future as we believe we can win, execute, and pioneer the future of the cislunar market," he added.
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