Second US Moon Mission Expected to End Today

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after pitching over during its approach to the landing site. The camera is on the starboard aft-side of the lander in this phase. (Intuitive Machines)

Well, that was quick. Odysseus may run out of power today given its rough landing, prematurely ending the second US mission to the Moon this year, both of which had problems. It is really amazing that we landed humans on the Moon multiple times for days at a time when you consider the wreckage added to the Moon since then. I know the south pole is a different scenario, but this is where we want to be next. It is looking more and more difficult to do.

Intuitive Machines issued its latest update yesterday:

Odysseus continues to communicate with flight controllers in Nova Control from the lunar surface. After understanding the end-to-end communication requirements, Odysseus sent images from the lunar surface of its vertical descent to its Malapert A landing site, representing the furthest south any vehicle has been able to land on the Moon and establish communication with ground controllers…Flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light. Based on Earth and Moon positioning, we believe flight controllers will continue to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning.

It also appears that human error was at the center of the rough landing. Reuters reported yesterday that problems with the range finders related to Intuitive Machine’s decision not to conduct a test firing of the laser system. We learned that the range finders were “…inoperable because company engineers neglected to unlock the lasers’ safety switch before launch.” This may have saved some time and money, but we now see the results.

Mike Hansen, the company’s head of navigation systems, told Reuters:

There were certainly things we could’ve done to test it and actually fire it. They would’ve been very time-consuming and very costly…So that was a risk as a company that we acknowledged and took that risk.

The company made that decision with NASA funds on the line as well. I am not sure NASA would have been so cavalier about final testing. Human error is one thing. Commercial hubris is another. The company’s shortcut is already being reflected in its stock price.

One can certainly argue that progress is being made given that the first lander, Peregrine, never even made it to the Moon’s surface. Such trials and tribulations are to be expected. Yet I wonder if that is how all of the commercial partners see it. Both Moon missions were partially funded by private sector parties who saw their cargoes either burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere and stranded in the wrong position on the Moon. Will they continue to fund such ventures given the risks? Commercial involvement is a key part of the Artemis lunar program and it could be threatened by continuing problems.

The other question is whether these Artemis-related flights will delay the upcoming crewed missions. We should know more shortly, but you can be certain all of this is being factored into timelines being prepared by NASA.

Note: NASA had a press conference the other day on the Intuitive Machines Moon mission that can be found here.

A Day in Astronomy: The Mariner 6 Heads to Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Mariner 6 spacecraft. (NASA)

On this day in 1969, NASA’s Mariner 6 was launched from Cape Canaveral using the Atlas-Centaur AC-20 rocket. The mission of Mariner 6 was to conduct a flyby of Mars and analyze the Martian atmosphere and surface with remote sensors.

This mission, as well as the Mariner 7 launch the following month, provided solid evidence that the dark features on the planet’s surface were not canals (as astronomer Percival Lowell and other had proposed).

You can find NASA’s Mariner information here.

Image (Credit): Close up of Mars taken by Mariner 6. (NASA)

The Moon Landing: Imperfect, but Accomplished

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Odysseus lunar lander’s view of the moon’s Schomberger crater on Thursday, at about 6 miles altitude and approximately 125 miles uprange from the spacecraft’s intended landing site. (Intuitive Machines)

The United States is back on the Moon, even if the trip was bumpy. Plans to have pictures of the landing via the EagleCam were affected by a last minute switch to a NASA instrument that allowed Odysseus to safely land. The seems to be a fair trade, and the EagleCam can still be used to take pictures now that the lunar lander is stationary on the surface.

Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, which created the EagleCam, later noted:

…both the Intuitive Machines and EagleCam teams still plan to deploy EagleCam and capture images of the lander on the lunar surface as the mission continues. The time of deployment is currently unknown.

More importantly, Odysseus stumbled during the landing and is now tipped to one side. A tilted landing disabled the Japanese lunar lander earlier this year. Fortunately, the Odysseus’s solar panels are still catching the Sun’s rays and charging. This should allow the lander to conduct its work for about nine days until the Sun’s location will no longer charge the panels.

It seems the third try this year for the Moon’s south pole was precarious yet ultimately successful. That said, we are finding that the past successes are no guarantee of future success. This is the same region where NASA will be sending the Artemis astronauts. We need to get this right before we drop a crew on the Moon.

Space Stories: Satellite Returns to Earth, Watching the Moon Landing, and Kuiper Belt Surprises

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Remote Sensing satellite. (ESA/dpa/picture alliance)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—BBC: “Pioneering European ERS-2 Satellite Burns Up Over Pacific“

The two-tonne ERS-2 spacecraft burnt up in the atmosphere over the Pacific. So far, there have been no eyewitness accounts of the mission’s demise or of any debris reaching Earth’s surface. ERS-2 was one of a pair of missions launched by the European Space Agency in the 1990s to study the atmosphere, the land and the oceans in novel ways. The duo monitored floods, measured continental and ocean-surface temperatures, traced the movement of ice fields, and sensed the ground buckle during earthquakes.

—Forbes: “NASA To Live-Stream Spacecraft Odie’s Moon Landing Thursday. Here’s How To Watch“

Houston-based Intuitive Machines is targeting 5:49 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 22, to put its Odysseus lunar lander on the surface of the moon—and it will be streamed live on NASA TV on YouTube. The first U.S. commercial moon lander, Odysseus—also known by its nickname “Odie”—will touchdown near a crater called Malapert A in the south pole region of the moon. If successful, this IM-1 mission—which is taking a scientific payload to the moon—will be the first spacecraft from the U.S. to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

—Science Alert: “NASA’s New Horizons Discovered a Large Surprise in The Kuiper Belt“

There may be a lot more than we thought to the belt of icy debris that circles the outer Solar System. Data from the New Horizons probe as it sails serenely through the Kuiper Belt hints at unexpected levels of particles where dust ought to be thinning out, suggesting the donut-shaped field extends significantly farther from the Sun than previous estimates suggest.

More Terra-forming on Earth

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Changes in land levels on the U.S. East Coast between 2007 and 2020. (Virginia Tech’s EOI Lab).

NASA is funding missions looking near and far to understand planets. One such study issued by scientists at Virginia Tech’s Earth Observation and Innovation (EOI) Lab, who used satellite data and ground-based GPS sensors, shows some ongoing changes here on planet Earth.

In reference to this study, NASA noted:

…the team reported that more than half of infrastructure in major cities such as New York, Baltimore, and Norfolk is built on land that sank, or subsided, by 1 to 2 millimeters per year between 2007 and 2020. Land in several counties in Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia sank at double or triple that rate. At least 867,000 properties and critical infrastructure including several highways, railways, airports, dams, and levees were all subsiding, the researchers found.

The study notes a number of reasons for these changes, including the after effects from the last ice age, man-made dams, and efforts to pump water back into aquifers. For example, in the case of Charleston, South Carolina, which is one of the fastest sinking cities on the East Coast, groundwater pumping is though to be the primary cause of this elevated rate of sinking.

This gives new meaning to the idea of keeping your eyes on the heavens, but also watching where you are stepping.