Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission, CLPS mission with NASA and commercial payloads Options

[Phil Stooke]

Could be, John.

Here is the location of the site in an image I posted earlier, showing different targets mentioned before landing.

Phil

[ollopa]

The LROC blink image also shows a new bright patch next to the lander- arrowed here. Could that indicate a bounce?

[attachment=54671:odysseus...oc_annot.png]

John

I inerpret that as the descent plume. But there is also a suggestion of a much wider and much fainter fan-shaped disturbance in the blink image that may or may not mean something.

IM-1 in the Moon

[Phil Stooke]

Great observation. I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/ILOA_Hawaii/status/1762203591962767780

ILO has images on the ground, hi-res apparently, and will be shared soon.

Phil

[mcaplinger]

FWIW, DSS-56 Madrid is receiving data at 50 kbps from Lunar Node 1 right now.

[JTN]

Various of the outlets reporting on IM's prognosis of going dark today suggest EagleCam won't get a chance to deploy (dunno if based on an actual source).
E.g., Space News, which links to the EagleCam team's update page (last updated Sunday), which has some details of how it will/would deploy:

We are currently running simulations which show that EagleCam should deploy a total distance of somewhere between 3 to 5 meters, with a best guess at about 4.1 meters

The imagery would then be transferred via Wi-Fi back to the lander and then transmitted down to engineers on Earth for analysis

[Explorer1]

FWIW, DSS-56 Madrid is receiving data at 50 kbps from Lunar Node 1 right now.

62.6 now. Better late than never!

[JTN]

Update from IM's update page dated <2h ago:

Lunar Surface Day Five Update

Flight Controllers continue to communicate with Odysseus. This morning, Odysseus efficiently sent payload science data and imagery in furtherance of the Company’s mission objectives. Flight controllers are working on final determination of battery life on the lander, which may continue up to an additional 10-20 hours.

The images included here are the closest observations of any spaceflight mission to the south pole region of the Moon. Odysseus is quite the photographer, capturing this image approximately 30 meters above the lunar surface while his main engine throttled down more than 24,000 mph. Another day of exploration on the south pole region of the Moon.

2/27/24 0845 CST

Has five small images in a carousel; full-resolution versions (by hand-hacking the URLs) linked here individually for convenience: UPDATE-CSYS-1, -2, -3, -4, -5.

[mcaplinger]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/it-tu...altimetry-data/ has some interesting items. Apparently more images will be released tomorrow.

As for whether this was a success -- I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes about the Scott expedition:

I now see very plainly that though we achieved a first-rate tragedy, which will never be forgotten just because it was a tragedy, tragedy was not our business. -- Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

[JTN]

The article mentions a press conference tomorrow. IM's site confirms that will be at 2pm ET (19:00 UTC).

[JTN]

Pre-press-conference "day six update" from a little over four hours ago. Not much info beyond "Odysseus continues to generate solar power on the Moon" and implication it was still talking.

Yesterday I set up logging for GHY-6 (aka 'DSS-59', apparently) status (should have thought of it earlier). Haven't fully digested logs yet, but so far I can see that in last night's IM-1 session, GHY-6 was transmitting on S-band between 0300 and 0710 GMT (possibly not continuously, haven't checked), and at no point did the GHY-6's S-band receiver show as being 'in lock'.
(Yesterday's Eric Berger article talked about them using IM-1's 'powerful Quasonix transmitter' for the first time; dunno if/how that would affect the reported status.)

[Explorer1]

Wow, now that's a broken leg!

[Huguet]

More upright that they initially thought...
Tilted 45o?

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Explorer1]

Eaglecam was ejected, but no images yet....

[JTN]

Bits and pieces I took away from the press conference not already mentioned:

• The reason the patched-in NDL altimetry data was not used during landing was that they forgot to hardcode an accompanying 'data valid' bit to 1, to match the production laser's behaviour, so the nav algorithm just ignored the new data so they landed on opnav/IMU alone. Didn't realise they had landed without lidar until day 3 after landing, when they started getting telemetry data down. (In response to Jeff Foust, Irene Klotz)
• Fair amount more detail on postmortem of the laser safety cutoff business, differences between engineering and flight units, etc. (Which I didn't catch will enough to summarise, except to note that there was a range safety requirement not to have an active laser before launch, as well as general eye safety.) Class IV laser.
• On landing, they saw a 'spike' [pressure I assume] in the engine combustion chamber, implying that the engine bell was contacting the surface. (It was sat upright with the engine firing for 'a period of time' after.)
• Trajectory was described as fastest transfer from earth to lunar orbit since 1972 (if I heard that right; in response to question from WSJ).
• There's a US flag mounted on the lander described as 'certified flight hardware' from the 1970 Apollo programme, on the Moon 'like it should have been 53 years ago'. [Implying it's from Apollo 18 or something? Bearing rule 1.6 in mind.]
• They've got all (or at least most?) available data on the ground. ~350 megabytes of science and engineering data. The 8h/day that Parkes' 64m receive-only antenna can operate is their high data pass, when most of it comes down. Antennas facing away from earth; no use of HGA after landing.
• Tim Crain gave verbal description correlating features on the new landed image where horizon is visible to features on LROC image (in response to question from Eric Berger).
• They've 'collected a ton of multipath data', including on how multipath effects change as the lunar surface cools.
• EagleCam powered up and ejected this morning; they think it landed ~4m away; but 'either in the camera, or WiFi to lander, something not working correctly'. Vague talk of flying another one on a future mission.
• SCALPSS (plume cameras) not active during landing (due to: 'hardware failure in serial port', and also lack of trigger [similar to EagleCam maybe?]), so provided no data on plumes, but they got instrument working this morning; plus they think images from other cameras will provide useful insights on plume anyway.
• On ROLSES (a radio instrument), excess heat during cruise caused a frangibolt to pop out an antenna earlier than planned; they got some bonus science from this. Rest of antennas deployed on surface as planned, and returning useful data.
• They think LRO's LOLA should be able to make use of the retroreflector. [I don't know where this is on the vehicle, hence how the unplanned orientation will affect it]
• Sue Lederer confirmed that NASA science data will go in PDS.
• "Projected end this evening" "within about 5 hours from now" [implying roughly midnight UTC]. They'll deliberately shut it down to some extent ('we'll tuck Odie in'), in such a way as to allow it to wake up if possible next lunar day. The one solar panel facing upward is favourably positioned to catch lunar sunrise.
• Talking about changing future missions to have more cameras and antennas, in response to experience with this one.