Intuitive Machines IM-1 Odysseus Lander Tipped Over But is Functioning

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Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander is tipped over on its side. It captured a wide field of view image of Schomberger crater on the Moon approximately 125 miles (200 km) uprange from the intended landing site, at approximately about 6 miles (10 km) altitude.

Despite being on it side, the equipment is functioning. The recent Japanese moon lander also ended up working but tipped over on its side.

14 thoughts on “Intuitive Machines IM-1 Odysseus Lander Tipped Over But is Functioning”

  2. What you need, are cold gas thrusters and the extra fuel to get v_horizontal very low, very quickly and acurate.

    (Why was this comment killed by moderation?)

  3. Inflatable legs!

    Re-inflatable deflatable legs!

    Adjust as much as you like. Beware that moon dust is razor sharp; not covered by manufacturer guarantee or insurance. Appropriate measures must be taken.

    Or try our “new expanding solidifying magic foam bomb dollop of landing gloop”™ and nothing will go anywhere unless someone chisels you free.

    You are welcome space agencies of the world. Remember to recycle.

    • Well, having the lander being in an inflatable that deflates such that it is right side up would be nice…or inside a Hoberman sphere.

      We have ball shaped drones right?

  4. What you need, are cold gas thrusters and the extra fuel to get v_horizontal very low, very quickly and acurate

  5. What you need, are cold gas thruster and the extra fuel to get v_horzontal very low, very quickly and acurate

  6. Just looking at a picture of the thing, it’s easy enough to see part of the problem. It’s top heavy! The Apollo LEM was considerably more squat.

    They didn’t spend enough of the weight budget increasing its margin against tipping. Which includes having enough fuel to reliably come to a stop before touching down.

    To be fair, SpaceX’s proposed lunar lander is even more tippy. And I’ll gladly criticize that.

    • I was thinking the same. Unless they land on a very flat place, it will tip.

      As for Starship… Yeah, I am curious about their solution for the lack of a concrete pad on the moon.

      You would need but retractable legs that retract intelligently to keep the rocket perfectly vertical

      At least there is no wind

      • Their solution for the lack of concrete is to do the final bit of the landing using canted engines in a ring near the top, and of course the fact that the amount of thrust needed for a partially empty Starship to land on the Moon is a tiny fraction of what’s needed for the full stack to take off from the Earth.

        The legs are a bigger issue. My personal opinion is that, at the very least, they should add deployable landing legs similar to what the Falcon has, to increase the support base.

    • Weeble technology is DECADES old.
      “Breaking report regarding the latest Lunar Probe: The lunar probe Wobbled, but it did NOT fall down…”

  7. For a hundred million dollar project you can build self righting into the rover. Orientation agnostic propulsion and communications is even more clever. NASA however has no Elon Musk.

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