For the first time since 1972, a spacecraft fell quietly from the United States on the surface of the moon. For the first time, this successful decline was achieved outside the planet by a spacecraft built and managed by the private industry instead of the government space program.
At 6:23 pm EST, the floor of 14.1 feet resembled the police booth on the surface of the moon on a blue flame from the missile exhaust. After seconds, the six feet were destroyed in the dark soil of Malamert A, a hole located deep into the southern latitudes of the moon.
This Voyageer carries the proper nickname Odysseus, six scientific bathrooms on behalf of NASA. But decisively, the American Space Agency does not manage the task: Odysseus is the first commercial spacecraft ever landing safely in the form of another heavenly.
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Odysseus was built and operated Intuitive machinesAnd it is a private spacecraft company based in Houston, as part of IM-1 mission for the company. In addition to NASA equipment, Odysseus carries a load of private customers ranging from a group of statues by artist Jeff Konz to A automatic “personal photo” camera It was built by students at the University of Genet University.
Like bearing the same name from ancient Greek epics, Odysseus faced experiments while sailing towards the moon. Just hours before landing, two of the lasers were on the plane that Odysseus planned to use to detect the moon’s surface. In response, the intuitive machines have prepared the correction of programs that allow Odysseus led by Laser on board Experimental transmission load Built by NASA.
For more than 15 minutes after landing, I waited to control the mission of intuitive machines in Houston, Texas, in a tense silence, as aviation controllers tried to establish a communication with Odysseus. “Life signs-we have a return signal that we follow,” said Tim Crane, chief technology official in technology intuitive IM-1. “We also have not yet noted.”
Minutes later, Crane confirmed that Odysseus was transported from the moon, albeit weak. In the press, the reason for the weak signal is still unclear.
IM-1 is the first American mission to quietly touch the moon since then Apollo 17 In 1972, unlike IM-1, Apollo 17 The crew was. Another robot robot in the country on the surface of the moon in January 1968, with a decline NASA Lander 7.
“I took Odysseus the moon,” Bill Nelson, NASA, said in a previously recorded congratulatory message. “This achievement is a giant leap forward for all humanity.”
The task also achieves some technical first. The main engine of the spacecraft – which burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen – is the first of its kind to be used to drop the moon. IM-1 The decline in the far south is the end of the moon. The moon’s landing fell on the Chandrian 3 mission, the first in this public region, 69 degrees south of the latitudeAnd that will be on the ground like landing on the peninsula in Antarctica. IM-1, however, sits more than 80 degrees southern latitude-equivalent to the moon for the inner in the deep Antarctic.
IM-1 tools on NASA will provide the first site measurements on the site of this banned environment, where the intense angle of the sun on the horizon can create huge fluctuations in surface temperatures, as well as in exposure to the “solar wind” of the charged molecules continuous by the stars. This data will include Decisive radio measurements This will capture some solar wind reactions with the moon.
NASA targets the lunar southern pole because some areas that are closed in shades there contain water ice-a major source of human access in the long term on the surface of the moon. For the agency Artemis 3 Mission, which will not be launched early in 2026, NASA contracted SPACEX to land the crew of two people near the southern pole.
“[IM-1] It is an experimental offer for technology, if you want, but it will get our first data about the southern pole environment of the moon. The world of the moon at the University of Notre Dame says: Clav Neil.
The biggest contribution of IM-1 may be a precedent for the future of space exploration. For decades, space was considered a scope of a handful of government agencies only. But thanks to the low costs of launch and the process of fixed technological progress, it is now cheaper than ever for countries and private companies to build and operate space vehicles – and even send them to destinations between planets.
“[IM-1 is] Neil says:
High reward and high risk
At 1:05 am US East US time on February 15, IM-1 was launched at the top of one of the Rockets Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in NASA in Florida. Over the next few days, Odysseus has traveled more than a million kilometers (621,000 miles) to include himself in the orbit of the moon, which he did successfully on February 21. The spacecraft is expected to operate on the surface of the moon for up to seven days before it leaks into darkness and brutal cold in Lunar Night.
The mission fly under the NASA logo CLPS CDS initiative (CLPS)Which has encouraged private investment in the tasks of the moon since its foundation in 2018. 14 companies have joined the program, which is promising to pay up to $ 2.6 billion for delivery services until 2028.
Unlike the traditional NASA programs, the Space Agency does not have and runs the CLPS spacecraft – the companies you are doing. On the other hand, NASA hopes to achieve lower costs and a higher rhythm than tasks. So far, NASA has paid offspring machines $ 118 million under the contract that created IM-1-a lower flee than the agency spent on robotic land in the past. The IM-1 is the second of five of the CLPS tasks that may eventually end the launch of this year.
However, CLPS companies have been granted sharply to climbing. Historically, only five out of nine missions in the moon succeeded, even between those well -funded governmental space agencies. In August 2023, the Russian Luna-25 mission collided on the moon after the engine difference. In January, the Japanese moon, known as SMART Lander, fell safely but at an unexpected angle, which limited its ability to collect solar energy.
In exchange for low costs and tasks, NASA has taken a greater risk than the failure of any one CLPS mission. From the beginning of ClPs, NASA officials warned that Even the mission success rate of 50 percent It was acceptable to the program.
So far this prediction comes out. Again in January, the company, which is based in Pittsburg, attempted to the first task under CLPS, Mission Peregrine 1. Nevertheless, the peregrine spacecraft originated from Astrobotic fuel leakage. The company managed to keep Lander alive in space for a week and a half, but the mission ended with burning peregrine in the Earth’s atmosphere.
“[NASA] Laura Forsik, Executive Director of the Space Industry Consulting Company says, says, mobile. “[IM-1 proves] There is the ability to decline in the commercial landing safely on the surface of the moon at a lower cost. “
Peregrine and IM-1 are the first in a wave of commercial satellite tasks with increasingly ambitious targets. Once the year, Astrobooth is in the tap to connect VIPER (flying materials looking at Rove Rover Polar Exploration), a NASA water hunting game, to the lunar southern pole. The next IM-2 mission will be presented for intuitive machines, which were also identified later this year, Prime-1 (ICE Polar Resources 1), NASA training is designed to excavate the moon.
“These initial tasks are more test tasks,” says Forczyk. “We want to make sure that the technology is installed and ripened before we put a high load on the risk.”