Making a Moon Mission
For the first time in over 50 years, an American spacecraft has landed on the Moon. Overnight, Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander Odysseus — called Odie for short — became a household name.
Hear about the Historic Landing ↓
video credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Just hours away from landing on the moon, Odie experienced a cabling issue on one of the laser systems that rendered a key sensor inoperable.
Odie landed — but shattered a leg in the process, tipping onto his side and leaning against a moon rock, skewed cosmos stretching out above him.
This historic moon mission wouldn’t have happened without the critical contributions of Texas Engineering students, alumni and faculty, including Intuitive Machines co-founder and UT alumnus Tim Crain. Watching his team — including Odie — rise to the occasion to troubleshoot these problems was nothing less than “magical,” Crain said.
For the first time since the landing, the key UT players — Crain, professor Maruthi Akella and CJ Busic, a recent graduate who is now an engineer at Intuitive Machines — from this mission got together at IM’s HQ, and we tagged along to hear about the historic landing.
credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
Q: Take us through the day of the landing.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
By climbing atop an office building to watch the space shuttle land over your head.
By growing up an hour and a half from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, enveloped in the buzz of space excitement.
By watching on TV as Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian man in space as a part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.
credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
Q: I’m curious about a moment in your life that first sparked your interest in space.
IT TAKES A (SPACE) COLONY
Launching Odie took a colony of engineers (including some courageous Cockrell School engineers) who planned, designed and tested it, becoming experts in their field on the job through trial and error.
Or, as Tim Crain would put it, they transformed from a team of six people with practical space experience into 60 lunar-trained, operational adrenaline junkies.
credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
Q: Can you tell us a little more about this “story behind the story”?
THE COURAGEOUS ENGINEERS
Tim Crain (B.S., M.S., Ph.D. aerospace engineering) and CJ Busic (M.S. aerospace engineering) credit their Cockrell School educations with helping them identify big problems they seek to solve in the world, introducing them to a culture of risk taking and a passion for changing the world.
Professor Maruthi Akella is an integral part of this teaching and learning community in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
Q: What was your experience at the Cockrell School and how did that prepare you for the future?
ODIE PHONE HOME
On March 23, 2024, a month after Odie’s space mission began, IM announced that he had “permanently faded” after his power had fully depleted.
But don’t be too quick to count Odie out.
credit: INTUITIVE MACHINES
Q: On March 23 IM announced that Odie’s power had fully depleted. Is Odie dead?
HISTORIC MOMENT
Everyone involved in the mission knew their lives would never be the same. It’s rare to know that going in.
This feeling goes beyond Intuitive Machines and echoes across the industry. We are at the beginning of a new era of space travel. Each launch going forward represents one small step. But when we look back in a couple years, we will have made a giant leap, the team says.
What's next for Intuitive Machines?
This mission was just the beginning. Intuitive Machines has a lot more planned. Tim Crain gives us a sneak peek.
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