NEW DELHI: The first US spacecraft to land on the Moon in half a century, Odysseus, lost power and entered dormancy on the lunar surface on Thursday. This development marks the conclusion of its core mission, marred by a lopsided touchdown that impeded operational efficiency and hindered scientific objectives.
Intuitive Machines, in a post on X (formerly X), bid farewell to their resilient creation, affectionately nicknamed “Odie” by its engineers, acknowledging its unexpected robustness.
The final transmission from Odysseus reached its ground control team before the spacecraft went dark in the moon’s south pole region. Intuitive Machines revealed that efforts would be made to revive Odysseus when it receives sufficient solar power to awaken, approximately three weeks later with the next lunar sunrise.
The company had initially projected the spacecraft to run out of battery power shortly after its sixth day on the moon, as solar energy regeneration dwindled. However, on Thursday morning, Intuitive Machines reported that Odysseus was still operational, providing an opportunity for flight controllers to download a final stream of data transmitted over the vast distance of 239,000 miles (385,000km) to Earth.
Despite the rollercoaster journey that saw Intuitive Machines’ shares experience drastic fluctuations during the mission, the company remains up by approximately 20% from its pre-launch value, securing a market valuation of around $600 million.
The Nova-C-class lander, shaped like a hexagonal cylinder and standing 13 feet (4 m) tall, was launched from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center on February 15 via a Falcon 9 rocket provided by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company.
After six days in lunar orbit, Odysseus made its groundbreaking descent to the moon’s surface, albeit in a tilted position due to an 11th-hour navigational glitch.
Intuitive Machines attributed the navigational issue to human error, specifically the neglect to manually unlock a safety switch before launch. This prevented the activation of the vehicle’s laser-guided range finders, prompting flight engineers to improvise an alternative during lunar orbit.
A released image revealed Odysseus touching down with visibly damaged landing gear, two knocked-out antennae, and misaligned solar panels. Despite these challenges, Nasa successfully extracted data from all six science payloads delivered by Odysseus, highlighting the achievement of a “soft” lunar landing – the first by a commercially manufactured and operated space vehicle.
Odysseus holds the distinction of being the first US spacecraft to make a controlled descent to the lunar surface since Nasa’s final crewed Apollo mission in 1972. The spacecraft was constructed and operated by Texas-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines under a $118 million contract with Nasa.
The article originally appeared on The Times of India.
