Odysseus Moon Lander Intuitive Machines NASA sends final images of lunar south pole before mission ends, see photos

Odysseus, the moon lander that made history by landing the farthest south of any spacecraft on the lunar surface, is all set to bid goodbye to the world on February 28, 2024. Before the mission ends, Odysseus sends his final close-up. South pole of the Moon. The images are the closest observations of the lunar south pole ever made by any spacecraft, according to Intuitive Machines, the Texas-based aerospace firm that built Odysseus.

The lander’s main engine has shut down badly, yet Odysseus took stunning selfies of the moon from about 30 meters above the moon’s surface.

Here are some spectacular images of the Moon’s south pole captured by Odysseus.

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Why is Odysseus’ mission ending prematurely?

Odysseus landed near the Malapert A crater on the moon’s south pole on February 23, 2024. The mission, called the Intuitive Machines 1 mission (IM-1), is expected to end about five days after landing because of an in-flight error of Odysseus’s laser-guided range finder prior to landing on the moon, causing flight controllers to had to implement a solution, resulting in the spacecraft overturning and landing sideways on the Moon. As a result, communication with Odysseus is likely to be lost. There is also a possibility that the lander’s payloads will no longer be exposed to sunlight.

If Odysseus had not landed sideways due to human error and a pre-launch test shortcut that resulted in an in-flight failure of the lander’s laser-guided range finder before lunar descent, the spacecraft would have operated on the Moon for approximately 14 Earth days. Presence of sunlight.

The Moon takes about 28 Earth days to rotate on its axis, which is why the difference between lunar sunrise and subsequent lunar sunset is about 14 Earth days.

According to a Reuters report, Mike Hansen, head of navigation systems for Intuitive Machines, said the in-flight failure of the laser-guided range finders occurred because the firm decided to cancel pre-launch test-firing of the laser system. Save time and money during pre-flight checks.

On the day of Odysseus’s moon landing, Intuitive Machines revealed that the laser range finders, whose job was to provide extremely accurate velocity and range (distance to the lunar surface) during the lunar descent, were inoperative because the mission teams had not unlocked the laser range finders. did. Safety switch before the launch of Odysseus on February 15. A report by the Guardian said that the security lock could only be disabled manually.

Ground control teams discovered this anomaly hours before touchdown, resulting in them having to use an improvised navigational solution to avoid a crash landing. The solution involved employing an experimental system supplied by NASA on the lander.

However, according to Hansen, the company has not yet discovered whether this was the solution to why Odysseus made the sideways landing.

Odysseus’s objectives include demonstrating communications and navigation mode capabilities, studying interactions between the lunar surface and plumes, conducting radio astronomy experiments, and understanding how the lunar surface interacts with space weather.

Whether Odysseus will be able to accomplish all of his goals is not known as the life of the mission remains uncertain.

However, it is likely that Odysseus has already collected a large amount of data that scientists can analyze even after the mission ends to obtain interesting information.