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Universe Today

Odysseus moon lander is tipped over — but sending data

Selfie with Odysseus lander and moon
A space "selfie" shows the Odysseus moon lander and Schomberger Crater just before the Feb. 22 landing. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)

The bad news is that Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander is tipped on its side after getting tripped up during its touchdown near the south pole of the moon. The good news? The plucky robotic spacecraft is nevertheless able to send back data.

Mission managers at the Houston-based company and at NASA, which is paying $118 million to support Odysseus’ space odyssey, are working to maximize the scientific payback over the next nine or 10 days.

“The vehicle is stable, near or at our intended landing site,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said today during a post-landing briefing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “We do have communications with the lander … so that’s phenomenal to begin with.”

Just by surviving the descent a day earlier, Odysseus made it into the history books as the first commercial lander to arrive safely on the moon — and the first U.S.-built spacecraft to do so since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

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Odysseus moon lander makes a tenuous touchdown

Selfie view of Odysseus lander with moon in background
A "selfie" captured before Odysseus' landing shows the lander with the lunar surface in the background. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)

Intuitive Machines‘ Odysseus lander made space history today — becoming the first commercial spacecraft to survive a descent to the moon, and the first U.S.-built spacecraft to do so since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. But it wasn’t a trouble-free landing.

Ground controllers had a hard time establishing contact with the robotic lander just after the scheduled touchdown time of 6:23 p.m. ET (3:23 p.m. PT). Several minutes passed, and then Intuitive Machines mission director Tim Crain reported that there was a faint signal coming from Odysseus’ high-gain antenna.

“We’re not dead yet,” he said.

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Scientists confirm that our galaxy’s ‘wave’ is waving

Radcliffe Wave model
This illustration shows how the Radcliffe Wave moves through the backyard of our sun (shown as a yellow dot). The white line represents the wave's current shape and motion. Magenta and green lines show how the wave is expected to move over time. (Credit: Ralf Konietzka, Alyssa Goodman and WorldWide Telescope via CfA)

Astronomers say there’s a wave rippling through our galactic neighborhood that’s playing a part in the birth and death of stars — and perhaps in Earth’s history as well.

The cosmic ripple, known as the Radcliffe Wave, was identified in astronomical data four years ago — but in a follow-up study published today in the journal Nature, a research team lays out fresh evidence that the wave is actually waving, like the wave that fans in a sports stadium create by taking turns standing up and sitting down.

“Similar to how fans in a stadium are being pulled back to their seats by the Earth’s gravity, the Radcliffe Wave oscillates due to the gravity of the Milky Way,” study lead author Ralf Konietzka, a researcher at Harvard and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA, said in a news release.

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Odysseus moon lander takes selfies with Earth in view

Odysseus selfie with Earth in the background
A fisheye photo captured by a camera on the Odysseus lander shows the lander itself with Earth in the background. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)

Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander has beamed back a series of snapshots that were captured as it headed out from the Earth toward the moon, and one of the pictures features Australia front and center.

The shots also show the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the spacecraft, floating away as Odysseus pushed onward. The pictures were taken on Feb. 16, the day of the launch.

“Payload integration managers programmed the lander’s wide and narrow field-of-view cameras to take five quick images every five minutes for two hours, starting 100 seconds after separating from SpaceX’s second stage,” Houston-based Intuitive Machines explained in a posting to X / Twitter. “Out of all the images collected, Intuitive Machines chose to show humanity’s place in the universe with four wonderful images we hope to inspire the next generation of risk-takers.”

If Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission is successful, Odysseus is due to become the first commercial spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon, and the first U.S. spacecraft to do so since NASA’s Apollo 17 crewed mission in 1972.

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Intuitive Machines’ moon lander begins historic odyssey

SpaceX launch of Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad to send Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander spaceward. (NASA via YouTube)

Now it’s Intuitive Machines’ turn to try making history with a robotic moon landing.

Today’s launch of the Houston-based company’s Odysseus lander marks the first step in an eight-day journey that could lead to the first-ever soft landing of a commercial spacecraft on the moon. Odysseus would also be the first U.S.-built spacecraft to touch down safely on the lunar surface since Apollo 17’s mission in 1972.

The lander — which is as big as an old-fashioned British phone booth, or the Tardis time portal from the “Doctor Who” TV series — was sent spaceward from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 1:05 a.m. ET Feb. 15 (10:05 p.m. PT Feb. 14).

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Japan’s moon lander sleeps again after sending science

Picture of darkening lunar landscape
This is the last view captured by Japan's SLIM moon lander before lunar sunset. (JAXA Photo)

After a few days of wakefulness, Japan’s SLIM moon lander has gone dormant once more at the start of a 14-day-long lunar night.

The upended robot sent back a stream of data and imagery while its solar cells were in position to soak up sunlight, and its handlers hope they can get SLIM to wake up again and resume its work after lunar sunrise in mid-February.

The car-sized robot accomplished its primary mission on Jan. 20 (Japan time) when it landed within 100 meters of its target point near Shioli Crater. SLIM — which is an acronym standing for “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon” — was designed to demonstrate a precision landing technique that Japan hopes to use for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Unfortunately, the lander ended up in an upside-down position, with its solar cells pointing off to the side. Mission managers were able to get some data and pictures back — including a photo captured by a mini-robot that documented the lander’s predicament. But within hours, the lander’s batteries ran down to the point that SLIM had to go into hibernation. The mission team could only hope that as the sun moved westward in the lunar sky, enough light would eventually hit the panels to allow for a reawakening.

That’s exactly what happened on Jan. 28: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, a.k.a. JAXA, re-established contact with the charged-up SLIM and commanded the lander to transmit a set of multispectral images showing the area around the landing site — including a variety of rocks named after canine breeds, such as Bulldog, Toy Poodle and Aki Inu.

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Japan’s power-starved moon lander is lying on its side

View of SLIM lander from LEV-2 mini-probe
An image sent back by a mini-probe shows Japan's SLIM lander on the lunar surface. (JAXA / Takara Tomy / Sony Group / Doshisha Univ.)

Update for Jan. 30: The sideways solar cells on Japan’s SLIM moon lander soaked up enough sunlight to allow for the robot’s revival on Jan. 28. SLIM is gathering up science data, including a closeup image of a lunar rock called Toy Poodle, but the power drain is expected to resume Feb. 1 when the 14-day-long lunar night begins.

Now we know why Japan’s lunar lander wasn’t able to recharge its batteries after touching down on the moon last week: The spacecraft appears to have tumbled onto its side, with its solar cells facing away from the sun.

The good news is that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, achieved its primary mission of setting down within 100 meters (330 feet) of its target point — and that the mission’s two mini-probes, which were ejected during SLIM’s descent, are working as intended.

Scores of images were taken before and after landing. One of the pictures. captured by a camera on the ball-shaped LEV-2 mini-probe, shows the lander sitting at an odd angle with its thrusters facing upward and its solar cells facing westward.

To conserve battery power, mission managers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency shut down SLIM after the probes transmitted the imagery they collected. But there’s still a chance that the sun’s shifting rays could provide enough power to allow for further operations in the week ahead.

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Japanese robot lands on the moon but faces power drain

Illustration: SLIM lander on moon
An artist's conception shows Japan's SLIM lander on the moon. (ISAS / JAXA Illustration)

Update for Jan. 21: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it shut down its moon lander to conserve battery power, but added that the lander might be recharged and revived if sunlight hits the spacecraft’s solar cells at the right angle.

Japan has become the fifth nation to land a functioning robot on the moon, but the mission could fall short of complete success due to a problem with the lander’s power-generating solar cells.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, was launched along with an X-ray space telescope called XRISM from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center in early September — and after weeks of in-space maneuvers, SLIM touched down today at 1520 GMT (7:20 a.m. PT Jan. 19, or 12:20 a.m. JST Jan. 20).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency reported that the landing was successful. During a news briefing, Hiroshi Kuninaka, director general of JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said the achievement marked “a major milestone” in Japan’s effort to send spacecraft to the moon, and eventually to Mars.

Kuninaka said SLIM was able to communicate with Earth and respond to commands. “However, it seems that the solar cells are not generating electricity at this point in time,” he said. “And since we are not able to generate electricity, the operation is being done using batteries alone.”

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How far will NASA’s UFO studies go? Stay tuned

Starlink streak in night sky
A video captured by Dutch satellite-watcher Marco Langbroek shows Starlink satellites moving across the sky. (Marco Langbroek via X / Twitter)

BOULDER, Colo. — NASA says it’s going to play a bigger role in studying what’s behind unidentified anomalous phenomena, the newfangled name for what we used to call UFOs. But exactly how should NASA step into that role? The astrophysicist who helped get the ball rolling last year as NASA’s associate administrator for science is suggesting a quick and easy way to get started.

Thomas Zurbuchen, who left NASA at the end of 2022 and is now director of ETH Zurich Space, says his old employer could add unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, to a list of targeted research topics that’s due to be released in four months or so.

“You basically say, ‘Here’s opportunities,’ and you squeeze them in,” Zurbuchen said Oct. 7 in Boulder at the ScienceWriters 2023 conference. “Generally speaking, I think it’s a lot easier to do that.”

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NASA says it’ll take on a bigger role in UFO research

Milky Way above Rubin Observatory at night
The Milky Way spreads out in the sky over the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which could play a role in UFO research. (Credit: Bruno C. Quint)

In response to a new report from an independent panel, NASA says it has appointed a director in charge of research into UFOs — now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs — and will work with other agencies to widen the net for collecting UAP data.

“This is the first time that NASA has taken concrete action to seriously look into UAP,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said today during a news briefing at NASA’s headquarters in Washington.

NASA initially kept the name of its UAP research director under wraps, but later in the day, the agency identified him as Mark McInerney, who has previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Department of Defense on the UAP issue.

Nelson downplayed the idea that aliens were behind any of the anomalous phenomena recorded to date, but he pledged to keep an open mind.

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