Space: a new American probe lands on the Moon, a first for a private company
This is a first for a private company.
A probe from the American company Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon on Thursday February 22, marking the first moon landing of an American device in more than fifty years.
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft passes over the far side of the Moon after entering lunar orbit on February 21, 2024, in this image released on February 22, 2024. © Intuitive Machines / Reuters
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This is a big step for
the space industry
.
An American probe landed on the Moon on Thursday February 23.
“
We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and that we are transmitting
” a signal, Tim Crain, manager at Intuitive Machines, said during the company's live video.
The latter then confirmed on X that the lander had indeed landed “
upright
” and started “
sending data
”.
The moon landing took place at 5:23 p.m. Houston time, Texas, where the company's control room is located (i.e. 11:23 p.m. UT).
The Nova-C lander, which notably transports NASA scientific instruments, measures a little over four meters high.
He took off last week from Florida.
The descent was the most feared stage of the mission, codenamed IM-1.
Lasers which would normally allow the device to guide itself did not work.
But a backup solution was able to be used thanks to a NASA instrument on board which was originally only to be tested during the mission.
About ten minutes before landing, a significant thrust from the engine was used to slow down Nova-C, which was previously traveling at no less than 1,800 meters per second.
During the final descent, the probe was completely autonomous.
Images are now awaited, including those of a small camera-equipped craft, developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which was to be ejected from the lunar lander at the last moment to capture the moon landing from the outside .
After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data.
Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.
— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 23, 2024
Une première pour une entreprise privée
Un appareil américain n'avait pas atterri sur la Lune depuis la fin du mythique programme Apollo, en 1972. « Pour la première fois en plus d'un demi-siècle, les États-Unis sont de retour sur la Lune », s'est félicité dans une vidéo le patron de la Nasa, Bill Nelson. Et « pour la première fois dans l'histoire de l'humanité, une entreprise privée, une entreprise américaine, a décollé et mené le voyage jusqu'à là-haut ».
Today, for the first time in half a century, America has returned to the Moon 🇺🇸.
On the eighth day of a quarter-million-mile voyage, @Int_Machines aced the landing of a lifetime.
What a feat for IM, @SpaceX & @NASA.
What a triumph for humanity.
Odysseus has taken the Moon. pic.twitter.com/JwtCQmMS2K
L'Inde et le Japon ont récemment réussi à alunir grâce à leurs agences spatiales nationales, devenant les quatrième et cinquième pays à le faire, après l'Union soviétique, les États-Unis et la Chine. Mais plusieurs entreprises, israélienne, japonaise et américaine, avaient jusqu'ici échoué à reproduire la même prouesse.
L'endroit qui était visé par Intuitive Machines se trouve à environ 300 kilomètres du pôle sud de la Lune, un cratère nommé Malapert A. Le pôle sud lunaire intéresse, car il s'y trouve de l'eau sous forme de glace, qui pourrait être exploitée.
La Nasa souhaite y envoyer ses astronautes à partir de 2026 avec ses missions Artémis, et c'est notamment pour les préparer qu'elle cherche à étudier de plus près cette région encore peu explorée. « Quel type de poussière ou de terre s'y trouve ? À quel point fait-il froid ou chaud ? Quelles sont les radiations ? Ce sont des choses que vous voulez savoir avant d'envoyer de premiers explorateurs humains », a expliqué Joel Kearns, responsable à la Nasa.
Sept jours d'activité
Une fusée Falcon 9 de SpaceX décolle pour la mission IM-1 avec l'atterrisseur lunaire Nova-C, construit et détenu par Intuitive Machines, depuis le Centre spatial Kennedy à Cap Canaveral, Floride, États-Unis, le 15 février 2024. © Joe Skipper / Reuters
Pour cette phase d'exploration, la Nasa utilise son tout nouveau programme, nommé CLPS. Au lieu de développer elle-même des vaisseaux pour la Lune, l'agence spatiale américaine a chargé des sociétés privées d'y emporter son matériel scientifique.
Intuitive Machines is one of the companies selected and the amount of its contract with NASA for this first mission amounts to 118 million dollars.
The objective is to reduce costs for the public agency, to be able to make the trip more frequently, but also to develop a lunar economy.
And this despite the risks of failure.
A first mission of the program, led by the American company Astrobotic, failed to reach the Moon last month.
The Intuitive Machines moon lander, the copy of which used for this mission is called Odysseus, also contains six private cargoes.
Among them, sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons represent the phases of the Moon.
NASA, for its part, has six scientific instruments on board.
One of them must, for example, study lunar plasma (the layer of gas charged with electricity), and measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other planets.
Odysseus, which is powered by its solar panels, should now operate for around seven days, before night sets in on the lunar south pole.
(
With
AFP)
Also read Space: the astonishing discovery of a black hole that “swallows” one sun per day
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