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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 Thexalon on Friday February 23 2024, @03:55PM (1 child)
And when the lunar residents get mad at the financial exploitation the Earthlings are imposing on them, what are they going to do, throw rocks at us [wikipedia.org]?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2024, @04:28PM
So the trick is to get them to throw the right kind of rocks, you know, the rocks that we want. And then the robots just have to go round and pick them up. I've got a business idea.....
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