A company of Texasin USAwill try on Thursday to become the first private company in land on the moon, after several failed attempts by competitors in that sector.
If the company Intuitive Machines achieves its feat, it would not only mark an important milestone for the space sector, but it would also achieve the first moon landing of an American probe since the end of the program Apollo in 1972.
The US seeks to land on the Moon: the lunar landing module has already taken off
He Nova-C lunar landing modulewhich transports scientific experiments from the NASA, took off from Florida last week. In this way, the lunar landing attempt is scheduled for 4:49 p.m., Houston, Texas time, where the company’s control room is located.
The ship’s propulsion system has already been successfully tested in flight. However, this Wednesday he will have to overcome an important stage, since It will have to enter orbit at about 100 km altitude.
Then, It will remain there for about 24 hours before its final descentwhich will be fully automated and can be followed live on the NASA website.
From an altitude of 30 meters, the lunar landing module will descend vertically at a speed of three meters per second, before braking at one meter per second for the last ten meters. Intuitive Machines hopes to confirm the moon landing some 15 seconds after the six feet of the probe touch the ground.
Intuitive Machines’ goal on the Moon
The truth is USA carry more than 50 years without landing on the Moonto which they intend to send astronauts starting in 2026. None of the private companies that have tried have succeeded, therefore, all eyes will be on the Intuitive Machines attempt.
For its part, India and Japan They managed to land on the moon recently, becoming the fourth and fifth country to do so after the Soviet Union, USA and China.
Intuitive Machines’ target is located about 300 kilometers from the south pole of the Moon and the crater that will serve as the lunar landing runway is called Malapert A, in honor of a 17th century astronomer.
The lunar lander, just over four meters high, carries six private cargoes and six NASA scientific instruments. In addition, it includes a camera system developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which will be ejected 30 meters above the lunar surface to capture the moment of landing from the outside.
Among the embarked material there are also cameras located under the lunar lander that will analyze the amount of dust thrown away during descent to buy it with the Apollo moon landings. Another instrument will study the lunar plasma and will measure radio waves from the Sun and other planets.
Mission details of NASA’s new program
The contract signed by the US space agency for this first Intuitive Machines mission amounts to US$118 million. This is the second mission of the new NASA CLPS programwhich has commissioned private companies to take its scientific material to the Moon, instead of developing vehicles to do so itself.
The objective of the program is reduce costs for the public agency but continue developing the space economy. Last month, they carried out a first mission led by the American company Astroboticbut it failed.
For this year, at least another four American missionswhich also include two more from Intuitive Machines.
Source: Ambito
