(Washington) The first private probe to land on the Moon, Odysseushas definitely died out after about a month on the planet, announced the American company Intuitive Machines on X (formerly Twitter).
The probe had been put to sleep at the end of its main mission, after 7 days on the Moon, but Intuitive Machines engineers had to try to contact it again at the end of the lunar night, once the sun reappeared.
It ultimately did not turn back on, explained Saturday the young Texan company which assured, using the nickname of its probe: “Odie has faded forever. »
It was in any case very uncertain whether the batteries of the device would survive the freezing cold of the lunar night.
Odysseus became on February 22 the first private probe to land on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to do so since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
It nevertheless found itself tilted on the lunar surface, in the region of the south pole, after an eventful descent due to a failure of its navigation system.
But some of its solar panels were still able to continue to function and supply it with energy.
Odysseus transmitted photos and scientific data, including those collected by NASA instruments on board.
Both NASA and Intuitive Machines have called this probe’s lunar stay a success.