Update: On Monday officials with Intuitive Machines said that the Odysseus lander is expected to run out of power and shut down by Tuesday morning, several days short of the week of operations that was previously expected. The lander was not designed to survive lunar night, and may not wake up again after losing power.
The lander's descent, however, was far from smooth-sailing — after a malfunction with the lasers the spacecraft was using to land, company engineers urgently updated a NASA backup laser that guided it to the moon's surface. Related: 'Everything has changed since Apollo': Why landing on the moon is still incredibly difficult in 2024
NASA sent six payloads on board Odysseus, including a set of cameras designed to study how moon dust is displaced by spacecraft landings. Even with the spacecraft tipped, these cameras should be able to collect data until lunar night , which falls toward the end of the week. The lander arrived close to the Malapert A crater at the lunar south pole. The region has long tantalized scientists with the presence of water ice, which could one day be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, according to NASA.
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