Lunar Odyssey
A privately-owned space tech company successfully launched a mission to the Moon
Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based space private flight company launched its inaugural [IM-1] moon mission early Thursday morning. The Nova-C lander ‘Odysseus’ hitched a ride from Florida to space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
If the IM-1 is successful, it would be the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years.
Intuitive Machines’ flight controllers also successfully fired the first liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine in space, which demonstrates its “full thrust mainstage engine burn and throttle down-profile necessary to land on the Moon.”
Since Apollo’s glory days in the 1960-70’s, governments and private companies have made more than 50 attempts to land on the moon with mixed success.
Recently, Japan became the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia [then the Soviet Union], the U.S., China and India.
A few months ago, the private Japanese company ispace made an attempt to land on the moon.
The landing wasn’t successful, but ispace received enough data to figure out why:
The lander fully completed the entire planned deceleration process, slowing to the target speed of less than 1 m/s in a vertical position at an altitude of approximately 5 kms above the lunar surface. Although the lander did not complete a soft landing, the cause has been identified and improvements are being incorporated into Mission 2 and Mission 3.
On April 26, 2023, at 00:40 Japan Standard Time, the lander began the descent sequence from an altitude of approximately 100 kms above the lunar surface. At the end of the planned landing sequence, it approached the lunar surface at a speed of less than 1 m/s. The operation was confirmed to have been in accordance with expectations until about 1:43 a.m., which was the scheduled landing time.
During the period of descent, an unexpected behavior occurred with the lander’s altitude measurement. While the lander estimated its own altitude to be zero, or on the lunar surface, it was later determined to be at an altitude of approximately 5 kms above the lunar surface. After reaching the scheduled landing time, the lander continued to descend at a low speed until the propulsion system ran out of fuel. At that time, the controlled descent of the lander ceased, and it is believed to have free-fallen to the Moon’s surface.
The most likely reason for the lander’s incorrect altitude estimation was that the software did not perform as expected. Based on the review of the flight data, it was observed that, as the lander was navigating to the planned landing site, the altitude measured by the onboard sensors rose sharply when it passed over a large cliff approximately 3 kms in elevation on the lunar surface, which was determined to be the rim of a crater. According to the analysis of the flight data, a larger-than-expected discrepancy occurred between the measured altitude value and the estimated altitude value set in advance. The onboard software determined in error that the cause of this discrepancy was an abnormal value reported by the sensor, and thereafter the altitude data measured by the sensor was intercepted. This filter function, designed to reject an altitude measurement having a large gap from the lander’s estimation, was included as a robust measure to maintain stable operation of the lander in the event of a hardware issue including an incorrect altitude measurement by the sensor.”
They did get some awesome pictures.
With a toy camera …
The U.S. company Astrobotic also got its first moon mission off the ground but suffered a malfunction shortly after launch. The company suspected there was a failure within the spacecraft’s propulsion system, causing a fuel leak.
Intuitive Machines’ team hopes for a “lunar landing opportunity” on February 22. Mission updates should appear on [twitter] X and the IM-1 Mission webpage.
In related news, Intuitive Machines’ [Nasdaq – LUNR] stock is up.
Not bad for a toy camera!
Thanks for subscribing :-)