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

[Explorer1]

A very informative (and dramatic!) press conference, all without any photos. Now we wait for images.

Hopefully the Nova-C, with its drill, goes fine, so it doesn't just drill vacuum...

[Phil Stooke]

"Looks like landing sideways is a trend for landers in 2024...good thing there's solar panels on multiple sides! How do they know it's a rock keeping it propped up, with no photos? "

The legs stick out at the bottom so if it was just resting on a flat surface and the legs were intact the body would be tilted down, with its intended top on the ground. But they have a measure of the gravity vector and also information on the position of the residual fuel in the tanks, which apparently tells them the body is horizontal. The model they showed had its head up on a rock, but he also said it might be that the legs are in a depression. Either could give a horizontal body. He said something about a leg hitting the rock and toppling over. When i think about the geometry of that it seems to work better if the legs hit the side of a crater and it falls over on the rim with the legs still in the crater. But all speculation until we get some pics.

Phil

[MichaelJWP]

Interesting press conference, though I heard there was a 2m/s lateral velocity that was meant to be nulled, I didn't pick up an explanation as to why it wasn't, did anyone?
It would seem that this is even more important if you design a lander with the apparent C of G higher than the landing leg attachments (unlike Surveyor with it's wide stance)

[Paolo]

"Looks like landing sideways is a trend for landers in 2024...

Luna 23 was ahead of its time... Landing sideways 50 years ago

[AJAW]

Interesting press conference, though I heard there was a 2m/s lateral velocity that was meant to be nulled, I didn't pick up an explanation as to why it wasn't, did anyone?

My understanding was that they didn't yet have the telemetry for the last 200m or so of the descent, so they didn't know. Everything had looked nominal up to that point. It was an excellent and informative press conference, as has been said. The small team means that the top guys know the lower-levels details. And they didn't mind sharing them.

[StargazeInWonder]

With these new AI video tools, it should be easy to make a simulated blooper reel of failed planetary landings. A lunar lander tipping over; Venera trying to probe the surface right where its lens cap popped off; a Soviet Mars lander touching down perfectly, then being covered by its parachute; the Galileo probe missing the clouds that cover 99% of Jupiter, the Genesis return capsule smacking into the desert. We've definitely established that Murphy's Law applies everywhere in the universe.

[Pando]

They should design these things with landing legs like a tetrahedron so that it doesn't matter what orientation the craft ultimately ends up at after it lands. All instrumentation would be on a gimbal in the center that keeps itself oriented.

[Phil Stooke]

"a Soviet Mars lander touching down perfectly, then being covered by its parachute;"

If the HiRISE identification is correct, that parachute hypothesis is not true.

https://www.uahirise.org/ESP_031036_1345



Phil

[HSchirmer]

They should design these things with landing legs like a tetrahedron so that it doesn\'t matter what orientation the craft ultimately ends up at after it lands. All instrumentation would be on a gimbal in the center that keeps itself oriented.

IIRC, Hasbro already did with a Weeble Astronaut- "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down"

[Phil Stooke]

https://iloa.org/ilo-x-instruments-are-on-t...d-lunar-images/

The astronomy instrument has some news and a thumbnail image from the cruise.

Phil

[ollopa]

https://iloa.org/ilo-x-instruments-are-on-t...d-lunar-images/

The astronomy instrument has some news and a thumbnail image from the cruise.

Phil

That release had a cryptic "our instruments may have also taken an image of the Moon", which may be explained by this morning's Globe and Mail:

Globe and Mail

[centsworth_II]

"Prior to landing, we believe one or both of our instruments may have also taken an image of the Moon"

The Moon image they refer to is "prior to landing," but given the orientation, I wonder if they may get a look at the horizon.

[Marz]

"Images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team confirmed Odysseus completed its landing at 80.13°S and 1.44°E at a 2579 m elevation."

https://7c27f7d6-4a0b-4269-aee9-80e85c3db26...d63081b5d23.pdf

It looks like it may have landed on the edge of a very small crater? The last 2 images from the above pdf I presume are from LRO. Also, the comm window is limited; perhaps only 24 more hours left before contact is lost. From the press conference, it would be considered fortunate for IM1 to survive the lunar night.

[JTN]

(that rather opaque PDF URL being linked from the IM-1 mission updates page; as well as the LROC image, it includes a rather washed-out image from the surface, and another from approach)

Here's the LROC release, confirming that's the source of the orbit image, and with blink comparison etc.
Includes "Odysseus came to rest at 80.13°S, 1.44°E, 2579 m elevation, within a degraded one-kilometer diameter crater where the local terrain is sloped at a sporty 12°."

(I've been watching the GHY-6 antenna status page on and off. When the S-band status suggests it's transmitting to IM-1, the S-band "downlink receiver" status has been sometimes "in lock" but often not, whereas when the antenna's talking to Aditya-L1 it seems steadily "in lock". Dunno whether much can be read into that, such as whether they got IM-1 out of the cycling-between-antennas-etc mode. I guess AMSAT-DL might have been paying closer attention, but I don't have easy access to Twitter/X to check what they might have said.)

[john_s]

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



John