News Excerpt:
A moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida. It is the first American lunar touchdown mission in more than half a century and the first mission by a privately owned spacecraft.
|
Intuitive Machines
|
ABOUT Programme:
- The lander uses a combination of liquid methane and oxygen for fuel, which had to be loaded into the craft before lift-off.
- The lander is about the size of an old British phone box, according to Intuitive Machines.
- It is carrying a range of scientific instruments for Nasa, which is paying Intuitive Machines $118m (£93m).
- Payloads:
- It is carrying commercial payloads, including 125 tiny sculptures made by US artist Jeff Koons.
- Another is a laser retroreflector array which will bounce back laser beams fired from Earth.
- And a camera will be thrown off the craft before landing to take pictures of the machine as it touches down on the Moon.
- Its journey to the Moon should take about a week. It aims to land about 186 miles from the south pole on the Moon's near side.
Significance
- If the spacecraft Odysseus's mission is successful, its owner Intuitive Machines will make history as the first private company to land on the Moon.
- The robotic craft will attempt to land on the lunar surface's south pole, where scientists hope there could be a source of water.
- It is the second commercial mission to be funded by the US space agency Nasa, as it seeks to encourage private missions to the Moon as a way to expand its reach in space.
- It would be the first time an American spacecraft has landed in that area, which is of interest to scientists because it could be home to frozen water.
Previous Attempts:
- Two other private companies have also tried to reach the Moon.
- Israeli company SpaceIL's Beresheet craft and ispace of Japan's Hakuto-R both crash-landed and were destroyed.
