The IM-1 Nova-C lunar lander in Houston in October, 2023. Intuitive Machines revealed Friday, Feb. 23, that the Odysseus lander is positioned horizontally at its landing site near the moon’s south pole.The Associated Press
The Odysseus lunar lander, alive but off-kilter, is transmitting data from the moon as engineers try to make the most of the spacecraft’s limited lifespan and communication capabilities.
On Friday, Intuitive Machines Inc. of Houston, Tex., revealed that the lander is positioned horizontally at its landing site near the moon’s south pole.
Temperature readings and other data suggest it may be resting on a rock rather than completely tipped over. While it is receiving enough sunlight on its solar panels to maintain power, its high-gain antenna cannot point toward Earth.
Instead, the lander’s radio signals are likely skipping off the lunar surface, and quite weak by the time they are received. Constrained by the reduced bandwidth, photos that could reveal more about the condition of Odysseus can only be relayed back slowly.
“What’s clear is that the lander is not in the orientation that had been anticipated,” said Christian Sallaberger, president of Canadensys Aerospace. The Ontario-based company supplied several cameras for the mission including those that showed the spacecraft during its departure from Earth and approach to the lunar surface.
Prior to landing, Odysseus was expected to survive about ten days before the moon’s rotation shifted the sun below the horizon, exposing the spacecraft and its electronics to the deep cold of space.
It is not yet known how many of the experiments that are on board Odysseus can be conducted and return data in that time frame given the lander’s sideways stance and communications bottleneck. That includes a telescope that was built by Canadensys for the International Lunar Observatory Association, a research group based in Hawaii that aims to use the moon as a platform for astronomers.
On Sunday, Dr. Sallaberger said initial indications suggested that the telescope, which is fixed near the top of the 4.3-metre-tall lander, is not directed skyward as planned.
“We’re fearful that it might not be pointing towards the stars, but rather at the surface,” he said.
Odysseus touched down on Thursday after a seven-day journey that began with its Feb. 15 launch aboard a Space X rocket at Florida’s Cape Canaveral. It is the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the lunar surface and the first American mission to do so since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Along the way, the lander’s flight team faced a variety of challenges including the discovery that a laser range finder built at the British facilities of MDA, Canada’s largest aerospace company, could not be used to determine the altitude of the spacecraft above the moon.
The cause was an electrical lock that prevents the laser from firing inadvertently during testing as a safety feature. At a news briefing in Houston on Friday, Intuitive Machines flight director Tim Crain said that his company had not deactivated the lock before launch and that there was no way to do so remotely.
Mike Greenley, MDA’s chief executive officer, said that the flight team immediately reached out to MDA when they realized there was a problem.
“The teams were able to share real-time telemetry from the sensor in space so that they could be able to quickly diagnose the issue,” Mr. Greenley told The Globe and Mail.
During the briefing, participants described how flight controllers had to rapidly rewrite software for the landing sequence, substituting the MDA range finder with a NASA-built experimental lidar system that happened to be on board Odysseus as a technical demonstration.
The substitution worked but it also meant that a device called EagleCam, which was to have been ejected seconds before the landing in order to capture images of Odysseus touching down, had to be taken offline.
“If you think back from Apollo days, there wasn’t one mission that went absolutely perfectly, so you have to be adaptable, you have to be innovative and you have to persevere, and we persevered right up until the last moments,” said Steve Altemus, a former NASA engineer and the chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines.
During the briefing, the company revealed how close the spacecraft came to disaster on its way to setting down on the lunar surface – a feat that has previously defeated all private entities as well as some of the countries looking to establish a presence on the moon.
Odysseus began its descent travelling at about 40,000 kilometres an hour and had to shed velocity as it approached its intended landing site near the crater, Malapert A.
Data show that the lander was upright until the final moments before it came to rest. However, as it descended vertically it was also travelling somewhat horizontally, relative to the surface, at about walking speed, Mr. Altemus said. This accounts for why it may have ended up tipped on its side if one of its legs struck an obstacle just before the spacecraft came to rest, he added.
Despite tripping over the threshold, the mission has unquestionably made history as the first of several lunar landings planned by various companies in the next few years.
“It’s an expensive enterprise, but it continues to be increasingly achievable and affordable, which means that there’s a business opportunity there,” Mr. Greenley said.
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.
