After the moon landing: Hope for a second life for ‘Odysseus’

After the first successful commercial moon landing, the American company Intuitive Machines and the American space agency NASA hope for a second life for the ‘Odysseus’ lander. As expected, the lander’s solar batteries would likely run out on Thursday evening because the sun no longer reached the landing site, Intuitive Machines and NASA announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

However, it is hoped that it will be possible to make contact again with the “Nova-C” lander, nicknamed “Odysseus” or “Ody”, when the sun returns to its location in about two weeks.

“We’re wrapping ‘Ody’ up for the cold and seeing if we can wake him up again when the sun comes back,” says Steve Altemus, boss of Intutive Machines. Although this was not part of the original mission plan and was far from certain that it would work due to, among other things, the possible effects of the cold on the batteries, it was decided to try it anyway to possibly collect further data. be able to. Overall, it has been a “very successful mission” so far, Altemus said. “What an amazing job this robust and courageous lander has done.”

Last week, ‘Odysseus’, an American device, landed on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. However, according to Intuitive Machines, “Odysseus” tilted slightly when it landed and is now tilted.

However, data can still be collected and the lander has already sent images back to Earth. The recordings confirmed, among other things, that ‘Odysseus’ landed in a crater called ‘Malapart A’ within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from the originally intended landing site – and is therefore further south on the moon than any other spacecraft has ever been. Scientists suspect that there are numerous mineral resources in the area.

The ‘Nova-C’ lander is about the size of an old-fashioned British telephone box, has aluminum legs, weighs about 700 kilograms and can transport about 130 kilograms of cargo. NASA has used much of it for research equipment and other materials, while commercial companies have secured the rest for their projects. The American artist Jeff Koons also sent 125 miniature stainless steel sculptures.

The mission is part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. With this program, the American space agency wants to collect as much knowledge as possible relatively cheaply and efficiently on its own way back to the moon by awarding contracts for moon landings to private companies and working with them.

Moon landings are seen as technically very demanding and often go wrong. This year alone, two planned landings turned out differently than hoped. (sda/dpa)