Space travel
First commercial moon landing: “Nova-C” sends images
Although it may have tipped over during landing, the Nova-C lander sent images of the moon. photo
© Uncredited/NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University/AP/dpa
After the first commercial moon landing in space history, the “Nova-C” lander is probably lying on its side, but is sending data to Earth – and now also the first images.
A few days after the first successful commercial After landing on the moon, the lander “Odysseus” sent images of the surface of the Earth’s satellite for the first time. The company Intuitive Machines published several images that “Odysseus” took during the landing on Friday night and which, among other things, show the surface of the moon.
The recordings confirmed, among other things, that “Odysseus” landed in a crater called “Malapart A” within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from the originally targeted landing site, it was said – and is therefore further south on the moon than any other spacecraft has ever been. Scientists suspect numerous mineral resources in the area.
The lander is still communicating with the control center, it was said. Data will now be collected until the sun no longer reaches the landing site and charging the solar batteries is no longer possible.
Last week, the “Nova-C” lander, nicknamed “Odysseus” or “Ody,” landed a US device on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. However, according to Intuitive Machines, when it touched down, “Odysseus” tipped over and is now lying on its side. However, data could still be collected.
Nova C
The “Nova-C” lander is about the size of an old-fashioned British telephone booth, has aluminum legs, weighs around 700 kilograms and can carry around 130 kilograms of cargo. NASA has used a large part of it with research equipment and other material, while commercial companies have secured the rest for their projects.
NASA supports private companies in lunar missions
The mission is part of NASA’s “CLPS” (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program. With this program, the US space agency wants to collect as much knowledge as possible on its own way back to the moon comparatively cheaply and efficiently by awarding contracts for lunar landings to private companies and working with them.
Moon landings are considered to be technically extremely demanding and often go wrong. This year alone, two planned landings have turned out differently than hoped.