A private US lunar lander tipped over at touchdown and ended up on its side near the moon’s south pole, hampering communications, company officials said on Friday.
Intuitive Machines initially believed its six-footed lander, Odysseus, was upright after Thursday’s touchdown, but CEO Steve Altemus on Friday said the craft “caught a foot in the surface,” falling onto its side and, quite possibly, leaning against a rock.
He said it was coming in too fast and might have snapped a leg.
Photo: AFP / Handout / Intuitive Machines
“So far, we have quite a bit of operational capability even though we’re tipped over,” he told reporters.
Some antennas were pointed toward the surface, limiting flight controllers’ ability to get data down, Altemus said.
The antennas were stationed high on the 4.3m lander to facilitate communications at the hilly, cratered and shadowed south polar region.
Odysseus — the first US lander in more than 50 years — is thought to be within a few kilometers of its intended landing site near the Malapert A crater, less than 300km from the south pole. NASA, the main customer, wanted to get as close as possible to the pole to scout out the area before astronauts show up later this decade.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter would attempt to pinpoint the lander’s location, as it flies overhead this weekend.
With Thursday’s touchdown, Intuitive Machines became the first private business to pull off a moon landing, a feat previously achieved by only five countries. Japan was the latest country to score a landing, but its lander also ended up on its side last month.
Odysseus’ mission was sponsored in large part by NASA, whose experiments were on board. It paid US$118 million for the delivery under a program meant to jump-start the lunar economy.
One of the experiments was pressed into service when the lander’s navigation system did not kick in. Intuitive Machines caught the problem in advance when it tried to use its lasers to improve the lander’s orbit. Otherwise, flight controllers would not have discovered the failure until it was too late, just five minutes before touchdown.
“Serendipity is absolutely the right word,” mission director Tim Crain said.
It turns out that a switch was not flipped before flight, preventing the system’s activation in space.
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