The lunar lander, named Odysseus, is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after becoming the first civilian spacecraft to reach the moon’s surface and the first U.S. lunar landing since 1972. There is. he said Friday.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines also revealed that human error led to the failure of the spacecraft’s laser-based range finder, and how engineers discovered the malfunction by chance hours before landing time. He revealed what he discovered and how he made an impromptu emergency fix to save the mission from a possible crash. .
Odysseus reached the surface unscathed on Thursday, but aeronautical engineers analyzed the data and found that the six-legged craft apparently tripped as it neared the end of its final descent, the company said. Officials said this at a press conference the next day.
Stephen Altemus, CEO of the company that built and flew the lander, said one of its landing legs got stuck on the uneven surface of the moon and it tipped over, leaving one end standing on a rock. It is thought that it came to rest horizontally.
Still, all signs point to Odysseus being “stabilized near or at the proposed landing site” near a crater called Malapart A in the moon’s south polar region, Artemus told reporters. Told.
“We are in communication with the lander,” Artemas said, noting that control operators are sending commands to the lander and are working to obtain the first photographic images of the lunar surface from the landing site. he added.
A brief mission status report posted on the company’s website early Friday said Odysseus was “alive and well.”
The company announced shortly after Thursday’s touchdown that radio signals showed Odysseus, a 13-foot-tall hexagonal cylinder, had landed in an upright position, but Artemus said the erroneous conclusion He said it is based on measurements.
Disadvantages of horizontal orientation
Although the lander’s sideways position is far from ideal, all but one of NASA’s six science and technology payloads were mounted on a portion of the craft that was exposed and able to receive communications, the company said. “This is very good for us,” Artemus said. .
“We think we can also meet all your commercial payload needs,” he added.
However, two of the rover’s antennas remain pointed toward the surface, a situation that will limit communication with the lander, Altemus said.
Also, while the solar energy panels on top of Odysseus are currently facing the wrong direction and their function is unknown, a second array on the side of the spacecraft appears to be working properly, and the spacecraft’s battery was fully charged, he said. He said.
An unmanned robotic spacecraft reached the moon’s surface on Thursday after a nail-biting final approach and descent, where problems with its navigation system surfaced and flight controllers on the ground averted what could have been a catastrophe. An untested workaround had to be employed to do so. Crash landing.
Altemus said engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida inadvertently failed to unlock a safety switch on the lander’s original laser-powered rangefinder before it launched into space last Thursday. It is said that it has stopped working.
“That was an oversight on our part,” he said, likening the overlooked switch to a firearm safety.
The problem was discovered by chance a week later, while flight controllers were troubleshooting another problem while in lunar orbit, just hours before landing.
Otherwise, mission director Tim Crane said, he might have realized the safety lock was still engaged only when he turned on the rangefinder during the final five minutes of descent. .
Tensions escalated after engineers determined that the spacecraft’s existing software could not override the safety lock and activate the rangefinder, company officials said.
Ultimately, engineers scrambled to create software to control the lander instead of relying on an experimental NASA Lidar payload. This is a remote sensing system that uses fast pulses of laser-like light and their reflections to determine the distance between objects.
NASA’s Lidar, intended only as a technology demonstration and potential backup, saved the day, even though it was used under extreme duress.
“This is a very high-stakes gamble,” said former SpaceX mission director Abhi Tripathi. “The mission director is like a conductor, making sure everyone is doing their job and doing it perfectly.”
Crane said the spacecraft was the first in space to burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants and “operated flawlessly” during its flight to the moon and seven days in lunar orbit.
Immediately after landing, Odysseus’ condition was unclear. After the anticipated radio interference, it took some time to reestablish communications with the spacecraft and determine its fate, some 339,000 miles from Earth.
When contact was finally reestablished, the signal was weak and confirmed that the lander had landed, but controllers were unable to immediately determine the lander’s exact status and location, company officials said. he said during a webcast of the event Thursday night.
Crane said he believes the payload on board the lander will be operational for about nine to 10 days, after which the sun will set on the polar landing site.
Intuitive Machines stock fell 30% in extended trading on Friday, erasing all gains from Friday’s market trading after the company announced that its lunar lander had tipped over.
