The spacecraft Odysseus sent new images it captured of the lunar surface during its risky landing . The vehicle gently touched the Moon last Thursday (22), becoming the first module landing site since the manned mission, Apollo.
The images were shared this Monday morning (26) by Intuitive Machines , a private company that developed Odysseus. Initially, the module had been designed so that the landing could provide the first photos captured of the lunar surface in the hours following landing, but the Communication with the device has proven to be a challenge .
The mission team believes that Odysseus stumbled on the ground and landed on its side, resting on a rock, which may have left some of the vehicle's antennas pointed in the wrong direction, Intuitive Machines revealed last Friday (23).
In its update, the company also said that it now hopes to lose contact with Odysseus in Tuesday (27) — days earlier than expected.
“Flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light,” the company said in the update posted on social media. “Based on the positioning of the Earth and Moon, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning.”
At that point, Odysseus will be less than five days on the lunar surface. The company had suggested in previous updates that the lander could operate for up to nine days .
What do the images of Odysseus reveal?
On Friday, the company released an image that showed the Schomberger crater captured by the module during its descent.
The photos shared give another glimpse of Odysseus' journey.
“Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after tilting during its approach to the landing site”, said the company about the two photos shared on X (formerly Twitter).
The spacecraft was expected to “tilt” — positioning itself upright after moving horizontally through space — just before landing.
“At this stage, the camera is on the rear right of the lander,” the Intuitive Machines post noted.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009, also captured an image of the Odysseus landing site in the distance.
Intuitive Machines shared the precise location of the module: the spacecraft is located at coordinates 80.13°S and 1.44°E on the Moon, at an altitude of about 2,579 meters.
The company claims that the vehicle landed 1.5 km from its intended landing site, “representing the furthest south that any vehicle has been able to land on the Moon and establish communication with ground controllers.”
Six NASA science and technology demonstration payloads are aboard Odysseus. The space agency paid Intuitive Machines — through a contract worth up to $118 million — to take to the lunar surface.
Odysseus also carried some private sector payloads, including a piece of art and a camera, called EagleCam, designed to detach from the lander and capture a “selfie” of the spacecraft during its final descent.
EagleCam — which was designed by students at Embry-Riddle University in Florida — was not ejected due to last-minute navigation issues, which required the lander to use experimental NASA hardware.
Teams on the ground are still working on how EagleCam can be deployed now that Odysseus is known to be lying on his side.
“Telemetry data confirms, however, that Embry-Riddle's CubeSat is still fully operational, and the team now intends to deploy its camera system to capture images of the lander in its current state, offering valuable data that could help Intuitive Machines to refine its future plans,” Embry-Riddle said in an update on Sunday (25).
Source: CNN Brasil
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