Commercial Lunar Landing Of 'Odysseus' Should Not Be Hailed As Any "Major" U.S. Space Accomplishment

                                                                             

                           Last successful U.S. Moon landing - Apollo 17 in December, 1972

Yesterday, a robotic lander named "Odysseus" succeeded in making the first U.S. landing on the Moon’s surface in more than 50 years.  A tense several minutes elapsed in which ground controllers were unsure about the health of the spacecraft, designed and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, a private company. Shortly, however, company officials declared it had landed successfully and was communicating with Earth. About two hours after the landing, the company confirmed that “after troubleshooting communications” the spacecraft was indeed standing upright, a momentous feat for the growing commercial space industry.  

Odysseus touched down at 6:23 p.m. Eastern, near the lunar south pole, after a week-long journey that appeared to go very well from the moment it launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.  But as it prepared to descend to the surface ground controllers realized that lasers intended to determine its altitude and horizontal velocity, key data points for it autonomously to land softly on the surface of the moon, weren’t working. 

They then ordered the craft to take an additional orbit around the moon before the landing attempt while uploading a software patch that would allow the spacecraft to begin using a NASA Doppler Lidar system that was to have been a technology demonstration during the flight.  In other words, NASA saved the butts of the private company to enable its landing over 50 years post -Apollo.

While the event does mark a major accomplishment, it needs to be viewed in a broader perspective. True enough, the company’s 14-foot-tall Nova-C lander (unmanned) marks the first time a commercial spacecraft has reached the lunar surface.  Other private missions have all ended in disaster, e.g. landers from  a Japanese company  and  an Israeli nonprofit  each crashed onto the Moon's surface. Another American company's craft malfunctioned en route to the Moon and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Yes, it also validates a big bet that NASA placed several years ago when it started a $2.9 billion program to hire a fleet of robotic, private-sector spacecraft to carry science experiments, technology instruments and eventually cargo to the moon.  But from a decades' long perspective, it isn't truly that heart -stopping.  Think of it! Over fifty years ago, December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 actually touched down on the lunar surface with humans aboard.  In addition, the mission featured the Apollo Lunar Module Challenger and  a Lunar Roving Vehicle.  

 That was over 50 years ago, a half century- and before the invention of cell phones and the internet - and you're telling me the best we can do now is land a 14-foot-tall tin can, no humans. And not even mobile machines to scout around as seen in the top image?  Give me a break.   In my thinking, we have barely gone back to 'mark zero', even before the manned lunar missions began in 1969.  That isn't any kind of progress, but given the hiatus, yes I admit, it appears to be an advancement.   

But what I am really waiting for is for the U.S. to get back to 'match point' and human lunar landings which will at least equal what was accomplished via Apollo back in December, 1972.  That, alas, must await the start of the Artemis manned lunar missions, e.g.

 Artemis Finally Blasts Off - And One Hopes The Trio Of Anatomical Dummies Aboard Survive 

Trouble is there are doubts even accomplishing that. Appearing in a CBS Morning interview on Aug. 24,  2022 NASA Inspector General Paul Martin is not convinced the Artemis mission will land on the Moon with a human crew before late 2026.  Thereby contradicting NASA Director Bill Nelson who argued (in the same segment) that 2025 "is doable." 

 Martin cited two prime reasons for the delay: 1) the Technological complexity of the missions, and 2) Poor project planning.  Already at the time of the CBS interview there was a cost overrun of $40 billion and Martin estimated the total cost would mount to $93 billon through 2025.  Now, while this sounds like a lot let’s bear in mind each year the Pentagon gets $800 billion.  And it still can’t account (in spending) for $2.2 trillion amassed during the 1990s.

Artemis, all Intuitive Machines exploits aside, will be the real test for a lunar landing: i.e. getting humans back matching the last Apollo mission in 1972. While it is cool to see a private American company roughly match what the Russians'  1973 Luna 21 mission achieved, it leaves lots to be desired. Recall the Luna 21 carried Lunokhod vehicles-  the first robotic wheeled vehicles to explore the Moon's terrain.

The main takeaway here is that while the Odysseus landing reminds us - those of us who lived in the 50s - 60s - of how great American space achievements can be, it is still small potatoes by comparison. We have basically 50 plus years of actual advancement in space to make up for, and I am still waiting for that to happen.  

See Also:

Remembering the Apollo Moon Landing - And How Far Our Manned Space Vision Has Regressed 

And:

Odysseus Spacecraft Makes First U.S. Moon Landing In Over 50 Years (wsj.com)