时间：2025-06-15 02:32:46 来源：不由自主网

A small American company's robotic spacecraft has brought the United States back to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than a half-century.

Intuitive Machines,关键字3 a Houston-based space company, landed on Thursday, becoming the first commercial company to reach the moon intact. The unprecedented achievement is a win for NASA, which has invested $2.6 billion in contracts with Intuitive Machines and several other vendors to deliver instruments to the moon over the next four years.

It wasn't all smooth sailing. A few hours before the landing, flight controllers discovered the spacecraft's laser rangefinders, which help it avoid hazards on the ground, weren’t working. The team decided to take one more lap around the moon, which bought engineers a couple more hours to troubleshoot the problem. During that orbit, they uploaded a software patch to use onboard NASA lasers, which hadn't previously been tested in space.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

Then, there were some communication challenges, but NASA was quick to call the landing a success, even before a photo was beamed back to Earth.

"Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company — an American company — launched and led the voyage up there," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a pre-recorded message during the broadcast. "Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA's commercial partnerships."

SEE ALSO: NASA's blasting a new lander to the moon. It's wrapped in sportswear.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The moon lander dubbed Odysseus touched down on Malapert A crater, about 200 miles from the lunar south pole, just before 6:30 p.m. ET. Many nations and private ventures have set their sights on the region because of its ice, thought to be buried in the polar craters. The natural resource is coveted because it could supply drinking water, air, and rocket fuel for future missions, ushering a new era in spaceflight.

The success lends legitimacy to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative (CLPS), a private sector recruitment program to support NASA's lunar ambitions. Through several contracts, the U.S. space agency wants to establish a regular itinerary of moon missions to prepare for putting Artemis astronauts on the moon in 2026 or later.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's former head of science, once described each of the first CLPS endeavors as "taking a shot on goal." The sports analogy means not every attempt will be victorious, but overall the program will give NASA a lot of chances to achieve its moon-to-Mars goals. By outsourcing NASA's lunar deliveries — rather than fully owning each mission — the agency believes it will save money. The contract with Intuitive Machines for this mission was $118 million.

Odysseus, the Intuitive Machines spacecraft, passes over the near side of the moon on Feb. 21, 2024. Credit: Intuitive Machines

"We don't know how many of the early attempts will be successful," said Joel Kearns, NASA science's deputy associate administrator for exploration, during a news conference in November. "But I can tell you that these American companies are technically strong and rigorous, savvy, they're resourceful, and they're driven to be successful. They want to secure that first mover advantage in generating this new lunar economy."

But observers have questioned how cost-effective the initiative will truly be, given the riskiness of flying on inexperienced spacelines. In January, Astrobotic Technologies, the first of the CLPS vendors, tried to get to the moon, but never reached lunar orbit due to a detrimental fuel leak. NASA spent $108 million on that mission and lost five payloads in the process.

"If we're flying missions at one-tenth of the cost of a NASA mission, and we fail two of them, we still get eight missions for that same price," Kearns said in a pre-recorded statement during the landing broadcast. "Even with one or two or three failures, this is still a very economical proposition."

---

Related Stories

---

• Intrepid spacecraft beams back vivid photo before moon landing
• NASA is back in the moon business. Here's what that means.
• NASA won't fly astronauts to the moon in 2024 — for good reason
• Watch SpaceX gracefully release a moon lander into space
• NASA's blasting a new lander to the moon. It's wrapped in sportswear.

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander snaps a photo of Bel’kovich K crater, a 30-mile-wide pit with mountains in the center from lunar orbit. Credit: Intuitive Machines

The likelihood of success, especially for novice space programs, is still slim. Historically, less than half of all missions to land on the moon have arrived without crashing. The lunar exosphere — an extremely thin atmosphere of gasses barely held by the moon's gravity — provides virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Furthermore, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to compensate for these shortcomings from 239,000 miles away.

Over the past five years, the private sector has tried and failed. An Israeli nonprofit and company collaborated in 2019 on the so-called Beresheet moon mission, which crashed on the lunar surface after an orientation component malfunctioned. Last April, Japanese startup ispace ran out of fuel on its descent and ultimately crashed. Astrobotic's Peregrine lander never made it that far and ultimately broke apart as it crashed back to Earth.

But Intuitive Machines' landing could instill confidence in the burgeoning lunar economy.

"I know this was a nail biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting," said Stephen Altemus, Intuitive Machines' CEO. "Welcome to the moon."

上一篇：Hà Nội: Một phụ nữ bị tàu hoả tông tử vong
下一篇：犯罪悬疑电影《私家侦探》预售开启 古天乐撞破桃色连环血案

• ·[新浪彩票]足彩25086期盈亏指数：克罗地亚防平
• ·这5种癌症术后较易复发和转移，想要预防，做好3件事是关键！
• ·朱婷餐饮碧咸虾酱 日媒愤怒大谷翔平被注商标
• ·突现天量单选股技巧(图解)
• ·网购月饼被快递偷吃 管理落后频现内鬼
• ·法师：沉默传奇SF游戏里隐藏的潜力股
• ·《InvertedAngel》PC版下载 Steam正版分流下载
• ·SurplusGLOBAL将于6月2日启动半导体设备及零部件平台SemiMarket (www.SemiMarket.com)测试版 并计划于12月盛大启幕
• ·《狂野星球复仇记》玩家数量破百万 主创谈订阅制服务与未来计划
• ·山西西山煤电集团西曲矿
• ·GPT分区转换MBR分区和MBR分区转换GPT分区的方法
• ·如何选择高成长潜力股票
• ·明日方舟香草平原驯虫士皮肤一览 明日方舟香草平原驯虫士皮肤介绍
• ·I tried Samsung's new One UI 8 beta: Here are all the new features
• ·癌症晚期药无可用、治无可治时，可以选择安乐死？现实其实很残酷
• ·超解压《嘟嘟脸恶作剧》国服预约开启！抢先预约赢Switch2大礼！