Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander Odysseus separates from a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage before heading toward the moon on Feb. 15.The Associated Press
It took 10 years for Odysseus to complete his epic voyage from the Trojan war to his home on Ithaca.
For the lunar lander named after Homer’s mythical seafarer, a mere six days is enough to get from Earth to the moon. But now comes the real peril as the 1,900-kilogram uncrewed vehicle, developed by Intuitive Machines Inc. of Houston, tries to become the first commercially built spacecraft to safely touch down on the moon’s surface.
If the mechanical version of Odysseus succeeds at the attempt, expected no sooner than 5:49 p.m. ET on Thursday, it will mark a new chapter in commercial space exploration. It will also signal the long-awaited return to the moon for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which has several payloads aboard the lander. The U.S. space agency has not had a presence on the lunar surface since the final Apollo mission concluded in 1972.
Canadian know-how is also represented on Odysseus, with seven systems and components provided by Canadensys Aerospace Corporation of Bolton, Ont. While the company has an established track record in space, Odysseus represents its largest involvement to date in the race to commercialize lunar exploration.
“Our centre of expertise is exploration missions and there’s a big emphasis on lunar surface activities right now,” said the company’s president, Christian Sallaberger.
If all goes well, the lander will set down on a smooth patch of lunar topography near the crater Malapert A, about 300 kilometres from the moon’s south pole. The area is considered ripe for scientific investigation because of the possible presence of lunar ice in permanently shadowed craters in the region. Artemis III, NASA’s first crewed mission to the lunar surface since the Apollo era, is similarly aiming for a landing somewhere near the south pole when it sets out for the moon in 2026.
Odysseus was launched on a Space X rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 15 and has had an uneventful trip so far. On Wednesday morning, Intuitive Machines announced the spacecraft has entered lunar orbit on a circular trajectory about 92 kilometres above the moon’s crater-scarred surface.
In doing so, it has already achieved more than the first U.S. commercial lander sent to the moon. Dubbed Peregrine, that device was built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology and launched on Jan. 8. However, the mission went awry a few hours after liftoff because of problems with the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Peregrine never left Earth’s orbit and was destroyed 10 days later in a controlled re-entry.
Both Odysseus and Peregrine are part of a NASA initiative known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS. Its ultimate goal is to hand off the task of ferrying material to the moon to the private sector. A similar effort involving flights to low Earth orbit was started in 2006 and opened the door to Space X and other private companies becoming the primary means of getting people and supplies to the International Space Station.
Christian Sallaberger, president and CEO of Canadensys Aerospace, stands inside the company’s lunar test environment in Stratford, Ont. on Aug. 15, 2022.Patrick Dell/The Globe and Mail
As part of CLPS, Odysseus is meant to help create a more robust and routine pathway to the lunar surface. This will aid the science that is needed to support the Artemis program but could also end up serving customers that are willing to pay for access to the moon. Along the way, the program’s leaders hope the effort will draw the moon firmly into the sphere of activity that comprises today’s space economy.
“With a commercial industry comes a competitive environment,” said Sue Lederer, NASA’s CLPS project scientist for the Odysseus mission, during a teleconference with reporters last week. “Being risk tolerant allows for high yield and high reward.”
Certainly the risk side of the equation will be front and centre during Odysseus’s descent to the moon.
Since 1966, four countries, the Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, have successfully soft-landed machines onto the lunar surface. On Jan. 19, Japan became the fifth with the caveat that its SLIM lander is thought to have rolled down a slope, ending up in an upside-down position.
That and other recent mishaps underscore how challenging the moon remains. So far, landing on the surface is a goal that has eluded every privately funded effort or company that has tried.
But each failure adds to a growing expectation that at some point, someone will succeed.
“We’re all cheering for all the missions,” said Dr. Sallaberger, whose company has worked with a number of lunar lander teams, including the one that built Japan’s upside-down craft. “The lessons learned by one also benefit others.”
In total, he said, Canadensys has worked with three customers to provide various elements for the Odysseus payload.
One that is particularly groundbreaking is a telescope built in Canada as a proof-of-concept test for the International Lunar Observatory Association, a Hawaii-based organization that aims to turn the moon into a remote, airless platform for astronomical studies of the distant universe.
If it survives Thursday’s landing intact, the telescope carried on board Odysseus will attempt to take the first images of the Milky Way’s galactic centre as seen from the moon.
While the view may not compare to the dazzling releases lately seen from the James Webb Space Telescope, the project’s aim is to see whether the moon can play host to many more telescopes that can perform large-scale surveys that Webb and other space observatories would never have the time to conduct on their own.
As Homer might say, it is a quest worthy of the gods.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
