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Half a century after the last Apollo flights to the moon, a private space probe successfully landed on the moon for the first time on Friday evening.

Because the unmanned American lander named “Odysseus” did not report for several minutes, it was initially assumed that the mission had failed. Only after 15 minutes did the response come from Tim Cairn, Chief Technology Officer of Intuitive Machines:

This means that the landing will go down in history, because all previous attempts by private companies failed miserably.

The mission

“Odysseus” landed very close to the moon’s south pole, in the crater Malapert A. This region has never been visited by humans and now needs to be explored in more detail. The instruments on board the lander will take temperature and radiation measurements and explore the ground.

These studies serve NASA’s long-term goal of sending manned flights to the moon in the future. A manned circumnavigation of the moon should take place as early as 2025 and humans should set foot on the moon again a year later. The aim of this ‘Artemis’ moon mission is to establish a permanent base on the moon, which will be used as a starting point for flights to Mars.

But the lander didn’t last long. In a week’s time, night will fall at the South Pole, and with it temperatures of up to minus 200 degrees Celsius. Because it is far too cold for the sensitive measuring equipment, ‘Odysseus’ is put out of action and shut down.

Water on the moon

The deciding factor for a permanent moon base is the presence of water nearby. The landing site of “Odysseus” was carefully chosen. There could be frozen water in the depths of such polar craters. The theory is that oxygen and drinking water can be extracted from this and rocket fuel can be produced. (anb)