After half a century, America’s triumphant return and landing on the Moon with Odysseus marked a significant event.

The year 1972 was the last time humans (and a spaceship from the United States) set foot on the Moon. Apollo 17 astronauts left a plaque on the Moon’s surface as they departed, inscribed with:

“Here man completed his first explorations of the Moon December 1972, A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind”

At that time, even the most pessimistic futurists of space programs could not imagine that more than half a century would need to pass before the United States could land a spacecraft on the Moon again.

A Historic Day for America and the Moon

Thursday, February 22, was a significant day for America, the private space industry, and the history of lunar exploration.

More than half a century ago, the United States, by conquering the Moon and sending humans to its surface, won the most important prize of the space race against the Soviet Union, effectively declaring the end of that competition in its favour. Since then, it has not sent humans beyond Earth’s orbit and has yet to land a mission on the Moon successfully.

Several attempts by the private sector had failed. However, the Moon has once again become a focal point of attention in recent years, sparking a new competition in the geography of space exploration.

NASA intends to return humans to the Moon with the international and intersectoral Artemis project. This time, not to plant a flag but to begin the process of permanent settlement and establish a permanent base in orbit.

China and Russia strive to win this competition with another alliance led by China. India, Japan, and other countries are not only eyeing participation in international programs to return to the Moon but are also designing their independent projects.

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A small step for America, a giant leap for the private sector

When the United States announced its decision to return to the Moon, it knew it needed its private sector’s cooperation to carry out this mission. During the peak of the Apollo program, NASA’s budget reached about four percent of the total federal government budget. The idea that the United States and today’s politically charged space would allocate such a budget again for NASA belongs more to the realm of science fiction than reality.

NASA’s budget today is less than half a percent of the federal budget, which includes manned and robotic exploration. Therefore, international collaboration and leveraging the capability and interest of the private space market was an indispensable consideration for NASA.

Some private sector partners were obvious choices. SpaceX launchers to assist with cargo delivery and its Dragon capsule for landing from and returning to lunar orbit. Considering their history, capabilities, and resources, Blue Origin, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were among the leading players.

However, NASA was looking to make space competitive to reduce costs. For this reason, it collaborated with smaller companies through a program called CLPS or Commercial Lunar Payload Services.

Intuitive Machines was one of these options. This company was set to take on the role of one of the service providers for transporting NASA’s required cargo to the Moon.

With financial support from NASA, the company took the first step by building its spacecraft known as the Nova-C system. The name of its recent mission was Odysseus (sometimes referred to simply as Ody), which began its journey atop a SpaceX Falcon launch vehicle (another private sector player). It began its descent after successfully entering lunar orbit with a few hours delay.

The Moon is still a challenging destination

But everything did not go smoothly and calmly. While telemetry data until the last seconds before the planned landing indicated a successful mission trajectory, no signal from Ody was received on Earth when the countdown reached zero. Approximately 13 minutes of agonizing time were passed for the control room staff before they could receive the first weak signs of Ody’s survival.

Though not what program managers expected, this weak signal carried a critical confirmation.

For the first time in the history of space exploration, a private company with technology developed in this sector has managed to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface successfully. It also marked the first time in over half a century that the United States has managed to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.

We must still discover the main problem in the spacecraft’s communication with Earth. Still, data from the first day after landing shows that two-way communication has been established. The spaceship can send data to Earth and receive its commands. A change in the orientation of the primary antenna caused the received signal to be weak.

Update: The latest data analysis indicates that the rover has landed on its six legs, not as expected, but has settled in a tilted position on the lunar surface.

However, this turbulent but successful landing reminded us that the Moon is not an easy destination for human travel and that technical challenges ahead should be noticed.

The South Pole, the Ultimate Destination

The Ody lander has landed in the southern region of the Moon, a place that has caught the attention of all actors returning to the Moon; a place where, in the always-dark shadows of impact craters, areas with water ice reserves exist that are intended to play a fundamental role in the future of human activities on the Moon.

Water on the Moon is not just about having water to drink. Water comprises oxygen and hydrogen, the main elements we need to produce fuel for spacecraft.

Next Steps

In this mission, several technologies were tested for the first time, and some of these technologies, including laser navigation, could help future human landings on the Moon. NASA has also sent a package of scientific instruments to the Moon with this spacecraft.

IM is set to launch another spacecraft to the Moon in the fourth quarter of this year, which, using the experiences of this time, will land more accurately and confidently on the Moon, and of course, this time closer to the Moon’s south pole.

Us and the Future Moon

The spark of enthusiasm for returning to the Moon has been ignited. The Moon is now not only an attractive and essential target for scientists, researchers, and politicians. Still, it has also become a source of future revenue generation for the private sector. This critical and hopeful event can reduce the cost and difficulty of travelling to the Moon and make the possibility of research and sending scientific experiments accessible to many universities, countries, and less wealthy companies.

However, at the same time, if we do not think now about how legal issues and how we are going to use resources on the Moon, soon this attractive horizon of human development in space, instead of what was written about the spirit of peace on the Apollo 17 plaque, may bring tension, greed, battle, and hostility to the Moon.