According to plans, Odysseus was scheduled to continue working on the lunar surface for seven to 10 days after landing, but he was forced to end the mission after five days, Intuitive Machines announced.
Intuitive Machines, a private company with NASA, launched its space probe called Odysseus, which successfully landed on the moon's surface last Thursday. Thus, the private American company entered history, as it became the first private spacecraft to land on the surface of the moon, and not least the first American probe to reach the surface of the moon since 1972.
The landing was successful, but not everything went smoothly. According to the researchers, the robot may have flipped over upon landing and is currently resting on a rock. Although the private company stated for the first time that none of this would affect the work of the probe, it appears that it will, as the spacecraft sent to the moon ended its mission prematurely.
Intuitive Machines announced that communication between Odysseus and ground control was expected to be lost Tuesday morning. He writes the Reuters. This is because the solar panels can no longer collect enough energy to keep the probe alive, so the team will not be able to communicate with the device. There is no information yet about how much data may be lost due to Odysseus' short lifespan.
Odysseus was launched as part of NASA's commercial lunar mission, whose first attempt, Peregrine, ultimately failed miserably, failing to reach the Moon. Commercial missions are key elements of the US space agency's Artemis programme, whose ultimate goal is to allow humans to walk on the moon again after the Apollo 17 astronauts.
