American company Intuitive Machines’ private Nova-C Odysseus lander crashed while landing on the Moon on February 22. However, it was reported that the device remained operational and important systems were not damaged. portal Space.com quotes Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus.
According to Altemus, Odyssey operators noticed before landing on the moon that the module’s laser rangefinders were not working properly. So the team took an alternative route to obtain altitude and speed data by deploying an experimental NASA device called Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precision Speed and Distance Measurement (NDL).
The team delayed the planned landing by two hours, requiring corrected software to be downloaded to Odyssey.
During landing, the device had to move exactly perpendicular to the lunar surface at a speed of approximately 3.2 kilometers per hour. However, the data showed that Odyssey flew to the surface three times faster than expected (10 km/h) and drifted sideways at 3.2 km/h.
Steve Altemus suggested that the module might catch one of its landing legs in a crack or other part of the lunar surface as it descended along a non-standard orbit. As a result, the Odyssey likely broke its undercarriage and capsized.
Odysseus landed within a mile or two of the target landing site near a crater called Malapert A.
The head of Intuitive Machines ensured that all major Odysseus subsystems and scientific equipment were working and that the solar panels were charging the module’s batteries to 100%.
happened before known About the safe landing of the Odysseus module on the Moon.