A robotic lunar lander launched by a personal U.S. firm is scheduled to achieve the moon Thursday afternoon.
If all goes in response to plan, the unmanned Odysseus, which is operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is scheduled to the touch down on the lunar floor at 6:24 p.m. ET — the second time the scheduled touchdown has been pushed again. An earlier touchdown time was projected for five:30 p.m., however the firm stated it was making one other orbit across the moon earlier than touching down.
It could be the primary American mission to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the primary non-public spacecraft ever to make a gentle touchdown there.
While it’s a non-public mission, NASA paid Intuitive Machines $118 million to ship six devices to the moon. And the U.S. area company is offering streaming video of the touchdown.
Yahoo News will carry a livestream on this web page starting at 5 p.m. ET.
🚀 When did the Odysseus launch?
The Intuitive Machines moon lander was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., final week on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The firm stated Wednesday that the 14-foot-tall spacecraft had been pulled by the moon’s gravity right into a round orbit 57 miles above the lunar floor, as deliberate.
On Thursday, the spacecraft will drop to inside about 6 miles of the lunar floor, coast for an hour after which begin its powered descent.
📡 What else is it carrying?
Aside from the six NASA devices, the Odysseus lander can be carrying a component for a future moon telescope, a digicam constructed by college students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a venture by American sculpture artist Jeff Koons.
🌕 Where is the spacecraft going to land?
The touchdown website 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 called after Charles Malapert, a seventeenth 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.”
