An unmanned, robotic lunar lander launched by a private U.S. company is scheduled to land on the moon Thursday evening.
If all goes according to plan, Odysseus, which is operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will touch down on the lunar surface at 6:24 p.m. ET — the second time the scheduled landing has been pushed back. An earlier landing time was projected for 5:30 p.m., but the company said it was making another orbit around the moon before touching down.
Intuitive Machines CEO Stephen Altemus estimates that the Odysseus spacecraft has an 80% chance of successfully landing on the moon, citing previous failed attempts as an advantage. “We’ve stood on the shoulders of everybody who’s tried before us,” Altemus said.
It would be the first American mission to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first private spacecraft ever to make a soft landing there.
While it is a private mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to deliver six instruments to the moon. And the U.S. space agency is providing streaming video of the landing.
🦅 Deployment of EagleCam
Before Odysseus reaches the moon’s surface, when it’s about 100 feet away, it will eject the EagleCam, a small box containing a system of cameras created by students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. The EagleCam will snap a series of photos — or selfies — of the spacecraft as it makes its final descent toward the moon.
⏱️ ‘The longest 15 seconds you’ll ever experience’
Intuitive Machines’ Chief Technology Officer Tim Crain warned that the final moments of Odysseus’s descent may be the most suspenseful, as there will likely be a 15-second delay in transmitting data from the lunar lander back to Earth.
“I can tell you just from doing our simulations, that’s the longest 15 seconds you’ll ever experience,” he said, “as you wait for the final light to turn green to indicate that you’ve landed on the moon.”
🚀 When did the Odysseus launch?
The Intuitive Machines moon lander was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., last week on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The company said Wednesday that the 14-foot-tall spacecraft had been pulled by the moon’s gravity into a circular orbit 57 miles above the lunar surface, as planned.
On Thursday, the spacecraft will drop to within about 6 miles of the lunar surface, coast for an hour and then begin its powered descent.
📡 What else is it carrying?
Aside from the six NASA instruments and the EagleCam, the Odysseus lander is also carrying a part for a future moon telescope and a project by American sculpture artist Jeff Koons.
🌕 Where is the spacecraft going to land?
The landing site is about 185 miles from the moon’s south pole.
According to a New York Times report, the Odysseus is “aiming for a spot in the south polar region, a flat plain outside the Malapert A crater.” The crater is named after Charles Malapert, a 17th century Belgian astronomer.
🛰️ How is it going to land?
“About 1.2 miles from the landing site, the spacecraft will pivot to an upright orientation, with sensors looking for a safe spot,” the Times explains. “For the last 50 feet or so of the descent, Odysseus will rely solely on its inertial measurement units, which act as the spacecraft’s inner ear, measuring the forces of acceleration. It will stop using the camera and the altitude-measuring laser to avoid being fooled by dust kicked up by the engine’s exhaust.”
