Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, The Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, and I'm your host, Will Walden. If you want uninterrupted episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please go to clubelon.supercast.com to find out how. There's a link in the show notes the historic Odysseus Lander which achieved the soft landing on the moon last Thursday. It's facing a critical countdown.
The company behind the space venture, Intuitive Machines, has indicated communication with the spacecraft might only be possible until Tuesday morning due to its compromise position and limited solar power collecting facilities. Now the Landers predicament stems from its unintended orientation flying on its side in some portion of position.
Amperage, Edibility. The harvest solar energy efficient intuitive machines initially even for the Lander to operate on the lunar surface for at least a week, but it's goal is now unattainable. The diminishing sunlight as the lunar night approaches spells absolute doom. Protecius The prolonged darkness of the lunar night lasting 2 weeks will deprive the Lander of necessary solar power, leading
to its inevitable demands. Now, the root cause of the short mission duration lies in the lander's landing dynamics. Intuitive Machine CEO Steve Altimas revealed that while the descent speed was within the design tolerances, an unexpected lateral move then complicated the landing, possibly causing the land in the tip went down pretty slow, 6 miles an hour downwards in, two miles an hour across.
So it didn't have a modest speed, but since there's not a lot of gravity on the moon, it tipped right over. Now Altimas speculated that the lunar surface might have stagged one of the Landers leg, leading to potential damage and a subsequent toppling of a spacecraft.
This scenario suggests the Lander is not fully horizontal, but slightly elevated, allowing for some solar and collection efforts to reorient the Lander. Solar panels for better sunlight exposure seem to have been unsuccessful. With the available solar panels only able to provide power until Tuesday morning and missions operational window is critically limited and assistance from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter proved invaluable in pinpointing the Landers exact
location. This collaboration helped ascertain the Landers challenging landing terrain with a crater tilted at 12°. Now despite the compromise position, intuitive machines remained optimistic about fulfilling most of the Landers scientific objectives. The company's executives believe that significant mission data could still be transmitted back to Earth now. The uncertainty now lies on whether there is sufficient time to download all the planned data before the Lander loses power.
The latest updates from intuitive machines on this matter have been a little bit sparse, and the prospect of retrieving images from Odysseus remain uncertain. Today. No surface images have been shared, but there's hope that a student developed Cubesat camera might capture and transmit images before the lander's power is depleted. Now the mission's success is the
subject of debate. Odysseus represents a groundbreaking endeavor as the first privately developed spacecraft to achieve a soft landing. Now, particularly near the challenging terrain of a lunar pole, and despite not meeting all of its mission objectives, the initial successful landing of Odysseus on the Moon is a huge milestone. This achievement underscores the capabilities of intuitive machines marks an important moment in private lunar exploration. Other challenges faced by Odysseus?
They're complex. Lunar landings are hard, especially in less explored regions like the lunar poles, and the mission's difficulties provide valuable lessons for future lunar exploration missions. Intuitive Machines and NASA have collaborated here and through the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It's an important partnership. They can see the Lander.
Such collaborations can enhance mission success and provide critical support in unforeseen circumstances on the lunar surface, and the potential loss of Odysseus due to its power constraints shows the importance of robust landing strategies in the need for contingency plans in space missions. This incident may influence the design and planning of future of
lunar Landers now. The outcome of this mission, whether it deemed a success or partial failure, contributes to the broader knowledge base of lunar exploration. Every mission, regardless of its end result, offers insights that can inform and improve subsequent endeavors. And the fate of Odysseus serves as a reminder of how harsh and unforgiving spaces the challenges encountered by the Lander show the need for resilience and adaptability in
space technologies too. How This mission with this historic soft lunar landing is a huge milestone, very important in space exploration. And despite its one day operational period, the experiences and data gathered from this mission will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement of lunar exploration and the future of space travel. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your support.
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