Intuitive Machines 1 Mission IM1 US returns to the Moon for the first time in 50 years, Odysseus Nova C lands on the south pole of the Moon, NASA payload SpaceX

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Intuitive Machines 1 Mission: The United States returns to the Moon for the first time in 50 years. On February 23, 2024, Texas-based aerospace firm Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus moon lander, also known as Nova-C, was placed on Malapert A crater near the lunar south pole. The mission, called the Intuitive Machines 1 mission (IM-1), marks the first time that a commercial lander has landed on the Moon. Intuitive Machines wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that initially, flight controllers performed troubleshooting to restore communications. It has been confirmed that Odysseus is standing upright and sending data.

Launched on February 15, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Odysseus reached the Moon in eight days. It made a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon, making the US the second country to reach that region after India, which successfully soft landed Chandrayaan-3 on August 23, 2023.

The Odysseus Moon lander carried five NASA payloads and commercial cargo.

NASA selected Intuitive Machines to build a lander as part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative (CLPS), in which a commercial firm receives a contract.

All about IM-1 mission

Odysseus’ payloads will study the interaction between the moon’s surface and plumes, which are clouds of gas. They will also conduct radio astronomy experiments and study how the Moon’s surface interacts with space weather.

Odysseus will also demonstrate precision landing technologies, and demonstrate communications and navigation mode capabilities.

At first, Odysseus was placed in an Earth orbit of size 185 kilometers by 60,000 kilometers. This was followed by translunar injection. Next, a maneuver placed Odysseus into a 100 kilometer lunar orbit.

Odysseus’ mission life in the presence of sunlight will be 14 Earth days.

Its length is four meters, width is 1.57 meters and weight is 1,908 kilograms. With six erect legs, Odysseus is capable of carrying up to 100 kilograms of payload to the lunar surface.

The lander is equipped with solar panels that will allow it to generate 200 watts of electricity on the lunar surface.

The main engine located at the bottom of Odysseus required 3,100 Newtons of force to start before landing on the Moon. It used liquid methane as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer.

The IM-1 mission was the 18th flight of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster.