Moon lander likely has 10 to 20 hours of battery life left

Odysseus, the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon since 1972, has roughly 10 to 20 hours of battery life left, according to flight controllers who are still in contact with the robot lander.

Texas-based Intuitive Machines said on Tuesday its flight controllers were in touch with the Odysseus moon lander and the spacecraft had relayed payload science data and imagery in the morning. NASA paid Intuitive US$118 million to build and fly the spacecraft to the moon, carrying science instruments for the U.S. space agency and several commercial customers.

The craft landed on Friday but its timetable for seven to 10 days of operation was expected to be cut short after a sideways touchdown. The company is still working on the final determination of the battery life of the lander, Intuitive said.

The company’s shares were down 16 per cent on Tuesday, paring some losses after Intuitive said it was still in touch with the lander. Still, the stock had wiped out most of its gain since late last week.

It remained to be seen how much research data and imagery from various payloads will be uncollected because of Odysseus’ shortened lunar lifespan.

The Nova-c-class lander was launched on Feb. 15 from NASA’S Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket supplied by Elon Musk’s Spacex. The sixlegged vehicle reached lunar orbit six days later.

Odysseus made its final lunar descent and landed the next day, Feb. 22, close to its intended destination in the region of the moon’s south pole, despite an 11th-hour navigational glitch.