{"id":777987,"date":"2024-02-28T05:04:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T10:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777987"},"modified":"2024-02-28T05:04:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T10:04:58","slug":"us-moon-landers-battery-likely-has-hours-left-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777987","title":{"rendered":"US Moon lander’s battery likely has hours left: company"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Intuitive Machines said the images captured during the Odysseus lander’s descent represent the ‘closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon’
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An American lunar lander that tipped over during its historic touchdown last week likely only has hours left until its battery runs out, the private company operating it said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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The uncrewed Odysseus, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, made the first return by a US craft to the Moon in five decades\u2014and the first such successful mission by the private sector.<\/p>\n

But one of the lander’s legs caught on the surface as it came down near the Moon’s south pole, making it pitch over and come to rest on its side.<\/p>\n

The mission, partially financed by NASA, was originally projected to last around seven days.<\/p>\n

“Flight Controllers continue to communicate with Odysseus. This morning, Odysseus efficiently sent payload science data and imagery in furtherance of the Company’s mission objectives,” Intuitive Machines said Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

“Flight controllers are working on final determination of battery life on the lander, which may continue up to an additional 10-20 hours,” the update said.<\/p>\n

Intuitive Machines on Monday said it intended to “collect data” from Odysseus “until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light.”<\/p>\n

NASA is planning to return astronauts to the Moon later this decade, and paid Intuitive Machines around $120 million for the mission, as part of a new initiative to delegate cargo missions to the private sector and stimulate a “lunar economy.”<\/p>\n

Odysseus carries a suite of NASA instruments designed to improve scientific understanding of the lunar south pole, where the space agency plans to send astronauts under its Artemis program later this decade.<\/p>\n

Unlike during the US space agency’s Apollo missions, the plan is to build long-term habitats, harvesting polar ice for drinking water and for rocket fuel for onward missions to Mars.<\/p>\n

The company also published a new photo taken by the probe during its descent, some 30 meters (100 feet) above the Moon’s surface.<\/p>\n

“The images included here are the closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon,” the company said.<\/p>\n

Intuitive Machines joined an exclusive club of five countries that have achieved soft lunar landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan. Three prior private attempts failed, including by another American company, Astrobotic, last month.<\/p>\n

The Japanese space agency landed a craft on the Moon last month, but it also came down on its side.<\/p>\n

However, JAXA on Monday announced it was able to wake up the SLIM lander following the lunar night, which lasts around two Earth weeks.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Moon lander’s battery likely has hours left: company (2024, February 28)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 28 February 2024
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
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Intuitive Machines said the images captured during the Odysseus lander’s descent represent the ‘closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon’ An American lunar… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":777988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phys-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/777988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}