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Private US Moon lander successfully launchs 24 hours after flight was delayed [thejournal.ie]:

A US PRIVATE Moon lander has successfully launched 24 hours after its flight was delayed due to fuel issues.

The Nova-C Odysseus lander, built by Texas-based space flight company Intuitive Machines (IM), could become the first private mission – called IM-1 – to land intact on the lunar surface.

The Moon lander had lift-off at 6.05am Irish time this morning atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, SpaceX posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Liftoff of IM-1! pic.twitter.com/Knl3Y1sGo2 [t.co]

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 15, 2024 [twitter.com]

It comes a month after another US spacecraft, Peregrine, failed to touch down following a fuel leak.

The failure of Peregrine, operated by US company Astrobotic, marked the third time a private company had been unable to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface.

The Beresheet lander, built by Israel’s SpaceIL, crashed during descent in 2019, while the Hakuto-R M1 lander, from Japanese company ispace, was destroyed while attempting to land in April last year.

Odysseus would be the first US Moon landing since the final mission of the Apollo programme – Apollo 17 – more than 50 years ago.

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Odysseus is a hexagonal cylinder about 13ft (4m) tall and 5ft (1.57m) wide and weighs 1,488lb (675kg).

It is part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which aims to involve commercial companies in the exploration of the Moon as the space agency focuses on getting astronauts back there through its Artemis programme.

If all goes to plan, Odysseus could attempt a lunar landing on February 22.

The landing site will be at Malapert A, a crater near the Moon’s south pole.

Once it is on the surface, Odysseus will operate for roughly two weeks, or one lunar day.

Onboard the lander are 12 payloads, which includes a Nasa instrument known as Scalpss (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies) – a four-camera system which aims to capture Odysseus’s descent to the lunar surface.

MDA UK, a Canadian space technology company with offices in Harwell, Oxfordshire, is developing landing sensors for three IM missions – the other two planned for later in the year – with funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA).

The UKSA has spent £3.4 million (€4m), spread across these three missions as part of its partnership with MDA UK.

The lander will also be carrying a sculpture – called Moon Phases – by American artist Jeff Koons.

Odysseus will be insulated with a lightweight fabric – a shimmery gold material that normally lines the insides of ski jackets – made by US sports apparel company Columbia Sportswear.

buy-your-dream-home-now dept.

The Man Who Sells the Moon | Op-Docs | The New York Times [youtube.com]:

This short documentary looks at Dennis Hope, a Nevada man who has made a living "selling" plots of land on the moon.Subscribe to the Times Video newsletter f...

The Man Who Sold the Moon (short story collection) - Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

1950 collection of science fiction short stories by Robert A. HeinleinAuthorRobert A. Heinlein [wikipedia.org]Cover artistHubert Rogers [wikipedia.org]CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishGenreScience fiction [wikipedia.org]PublisherShasta Publishers [wikipedia.org]Publication date1950Media typePrint (hardback)Pages299OCLC [wikipedia.org]1933095 [worldcat.org]

The Man Who Sold the Moon is the title of a 1950 collection of science fiction [wikipedia.org]short stories [wikipedia.org] by American writer Robert A. Heinlein [wikipedia.org].

The stories, part of Heinlein's Future History [wikipedia.org] series, appear in the first edition as follows:

• Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr. [wikipedia.org], editor of Astounding Science Fiction [wikipedia.org]
• Foreword by Robert A. Heinlein
• "Let There Be Light [wikipedia.org]" (1940; originally published in Super Science Stories [wikipedia.org])
• "The Roads Must Roll [wikipedia.org]" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon [wikipedia.org]" (1950; first appearance is in this collection)
• "Requiem [wikipedia.org]" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "Life-Line [wikipedia.org]" (1939; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "Blowups Happen [wikipedia.org]" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)

Early paperback printings omitted "Life-Line" and "Blowups Happen", as well as Campbell's introduction.

Reception[edit [wikipedia.org]]

Boucher [wikipedia.org] and McComas [wikipedia.org] praised the 1950 edition as Heinlein "at his superlative best".[1] In his "Books" column for F&SF [wikipedia.org], Damon Knight [wikipedia.org] selected The Man Who Sold the Moon as one of the 10 best science fiction books of the 1950s.[2]P. Schuyler Miller [wikipedia.org] said that "Heinlein is a master of concealed technology ... no other writer [has] worked out the scientific minutiae of his settings so fully or so unobtrusively", praising as well Heinlein's skill at crafting "the human engineering details of each situation".[3]

References[edit [wikipedia.org]]

1. ^"Recommended Reading," F&SF [wikipedia.org], February 1951, p.59
2. ^"Books", F&SF [wikipedia.org], April 1960, p.99
3. ^"Book Reviews", Astounding Science Fiction [wikipedia.org]. March 1951, p.144-45

Sources[edit [wikipedia.org]]

• Chalker, Jack L. [wikipedia.org]; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 593.

External links[edit [wikipedia.org]]

• The Man Who Sold the Moon [isfdb.org] title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database [wikipedia.org]
• The Man Who Sold the Moon [openlibrary.org] at Open Library [wikipedia.org]

Collections

• The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950)
• The Green Hills of Earth [wikipedia.org] (1951)
• Revolt in 2100 [wikipedia.org] (1953)
• Orphans of the Sky [wikipedia.org] (1963)
• The Past Through Tomorrow [wikipedia.org] (1967)

Novels

• Methuselah's Children [wikipedia.org] (1958)
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress [wikipedia.org] (1966)
• Time Enough for Love [wikipedia.org] (1973)
• The Number of the Beast [wikipedia.org] (1980)
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls [wikipedia.org] (1985)
• To Sail Beyond the Sunset [wikipedia.org] (1987)
• The Pursuit of the Pankera [wikipedia.org] (2020)

Short
stories

• "Life-Line [wikipedia.org]"
• "Let There Be Light" [wikipedia.org]
• "The Roads Must Roll [wikipedia.org]"
• "Blowups Happen [wikipedia.org]"
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon [wikipedia.org]"
• "Delilah and the Space Rigger [wikipedia.org]"
• "Space Jockey [wikipedia.org]"
• "Requiem [wikipedia.org]"
• "The Long Watch [wikipedia.org]"
• "Gentlemen, Be Seated! [wikipedia.org]"
• "The Black Pits of Luna [wikipedia.org]"
• "It's Great to Be Back! [wikipedia.org]"
• "—We Also Walk Dogs [wikipedia.org]"
• "Searchlight [wikipedia.org]"
• "Ordeal in Space [wikipedia.org]"
• "The Green Hills of Earth [wikipedia.org]"
• "Logic of Empire [wikipedia.org]"
• "The Menace from Earth [wikipedia.org]"
• "'If This Goes On—' [wikipedia.org]"
• "Coventry [wikipedia.org]"
• "Misfit [wikipedia.org]"
• "Universe [wikipedia.org]"
• "Common Sense [wikipedia.org]"

Characters

• Lazarus Long [wikipedia.org]
  • The Notebooks of Lazarus Long [wikipedia.org]
• Delos D. Harriman [wikipedia.org]
• Jubal Harshaw [wikipedia.org]
  • Competent man [wikipedia.org]
• Maureen Johnson [wikipedia.org]
• Andrew Jackson Libby [wikipedia.org]
• Hazel Stone [wikipedia.org]

Related

• The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein [wikipedia.org] (1966)
• Expanded Universe [wikipedia.org] (1980)

This article about a collection of science fiction [wikipedia.org]short stories [wikipedia.org] published in the 1950s is a stub [wikipedia.org]. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it [wikipedia.org].

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