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After half-century absence, U.S. returns to moon as lunar lander Odysseus touches down:
America has returned to the moon after a 52-year absence. The unmanned Odysseus spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface shortly before 6:30 p.m. EST Thursday.
"We can confirm without a doubt that our equipment is on the surface and we are on the moon. Odysseus has found a new home," said Dr. Tim Crain, mission director of the IM-1, the first American private venture to send a module to the moon.
It's the first time the United States has had a new presence on the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 11 in July 1969.
The Intuitive Machines Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed "Odie" or "IM-1," settled on the moon's surface after a day's long trek but immediately began experiencing communication problems, preventing the transmission of data.
The general tone of this story here and elsewhere seems to be that this heralds a new era of a commercial space industry, but until one can show that there is any commercial value to being on the Moon besides directly supporting NASA/ESA/etc., is this a watershed moment, or is this just slightly expanding the potential NASA/ESA/etc. contractor pool? --hubie
Previously: Private US Moon Lander Successfully Launches 24 Hours After Flight Was Delayed
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday February 23 2024, @02:39PM (8 children)
This must be a bit of a headache for all those fake moon-landing people. Or is this one fake to? Also are all the things where we left the last time around or have the ancient aliens been there and moved things around?
(Score: 3, Funny) by GlennC on Friday February 23 2024, @02:56PM
LOL...you're one of those people who believes in the Moon!....LOL
/sarc
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Friday February 23 2024, @03:33PM (4 children)
<no-sarcasm>
I've come to accept that we now live in a world where some people simply cannot distinguish reality from outlandish fantasy or outright lies. I just don't engage with them, except to make fun of them.
</no-sarcasm>
I would point out the impossibility of landing something on the moon. Some people mistakenly believe that the phases of the moon are caused by the Earth's shadow falling on the moon. That is impossible because the moon's gravity is only 1/6 of Earth's gravity and therefore the moon is unable to pull Earth's shadow to the lunar surface. If the moon cannot pull the Earth's shadow to the lunar surface, how could it possibly exert any force upon a spacecraft.
Q. Why do we have phases of the moon?
A. Because when the moon is full and bright, it shines all its light out until it is empty. Then the moon must sit on the charger for a while until it charges back up to a full moon again. During this cycle, the light within the moon has plenty of time to ferment properly. (so don't look at the moon for too long!)
Don't put a mindless tool of corporations in the white house; vote ChatGPT for 2024!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2024, @03:38PM (3 children)
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 23 2024, @04:16PM
I started to reply here, but then thought better of it.
I decided it might be more important to spread the word in this journal article. [soylentnews.org]
Don't put a mindless tool of corporations in the white house; vote ChatGPT for 2024!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 23 2024, @04:19PM (1 child)
I change out my sigs very regularly.
I only worry that if SN were to disappear I have so many future sigs that would never see the light of day.
Thank goodness new keyboards are only about $4 at Micro Center in an aisle end cap basket.
Don't put a mindless tool of corporations in the white house; vote ChatGPT for 2024!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 23 2024, @04:51PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 23 2024, @04:47PM
(Score: 3, Touché) by DadaDoofy on Sunday February 25 2024, @06:53PM
Have you cooked up a new conspiracy theory in which all the unmanned missions to the moon were faked? The only conspiracy theories I've ever heard or seen about faked moon landings involve NASA's Apollo program, which consisted entirely of manned missions.