Open in full screen mode Composite image of the Moon captured by the Galileo probe in 1992.< /p>Agence France-Presse Crash or soft landing? The Texan company Intuitive Machines will attempt on Thursday to carry out the first moon landing of an American probe in more than 50 years, and at the same time become the first private company to successfully complete the maneuver. The scheduled time of the moon landing has been moved forward to 3:24 p.m. Houston time, where the company's control room is located . A maneuver was carried out during the night from Wednesday to Thursday to correct the altitude of the probe relative to the lunar surface, explained Intuitive Machines. The Nova-C moon lander, which notably carries NASA scientific instruments, measures a little over four meters high. It took off last week from Florida and entered lunar orbit on Wednesday.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the LC-39A launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center with the Nova-C lunar lander from Intuitive Machines, Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 15, 2024.
The fully automated descent will begin approximately one hour before landing. The event can be followed live on the company and NASA websites.
Cameras and lasers will allow for the device to guide itself in real time. At 30 meters above sea level, the final, vertical descent will begin.
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Using its engine, Nova-C will have to reduce its speed from 1800 meters per second to 1 meter per second by the time its six feet touch the ground.
Success would mark not only a major milestone for the private space sector, but also the first landing of an American probe on the Moon since the end of the legendary Apollo program in 1972.
India and Japan recently managed to land there thanks to their national space agencies, becoming the fourth and fifth countries to do so, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China .
But several companies – Israeli, Japanese and American – have so far failed to reproduce the same feat.
Russia also missed a moon landing this summer.
The location Intuitive Machines is targeting is about 300 kilometers from the Moon's south pole. The crater which will serve as a landing strip is named Malapert A, named after a 17th century astronomer.
The Lunar South Pole is of interest, because there is water there in the form of ice, which could be exploited.
The astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission, Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. (Archive photo)
NASA wants to send its astronauts there from 2026 with its Artemis missions.
It is in particular to prepare for these missions that she seeks to study this region more closely.
To do this, it uses its brand new program, called CLPS (for Commercial Lunar Payload Services). Instead of developing ships for the Moon itself, the American space agency commissioned private companies to take its scientific equipment there.
Intuitive Machines is one of the selected companies, and its contract with NASA for this first mission, named IM-1, amounts to $118 million.
The objective is to reduce costs for the public agency, to be able to make the trip more frequently, but also to develop the lunar economy. And this, despite the risks of failure.
A first mission of the program, led by the American company Astrobotic, did not ;failed to reach the Moon last month.
The Intuitive Machines moon lander, whose device used for this mission was named Odysseus, is also carrying six private cargoes. Among them: sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons representing the phases of the Moon.
NASA's six scientific instruments on board are are focusing on first observations of this still little-explored region.
Cameras placed under the moon will analyze the quantity of dust projected during of the descent,
Another instrument will study the lunar plasma (layer of gas charged with electricity) and will measure the radio waves coming from the Sun and x27;other planets.
Odysseus, which is powered by its solar panels, must operate for approximately seven days from the moment of its landing , before night settles on the lunar South Pole.