Canadian contribution to private lunar lander could lead to a telescope on the moon

Bob McDonald · CBC Radio

· Posted: Feb 23, 2024 3:35 PM EST | Last Updated: February 23, 2024

The archetypal backstage spacecraft to softly onshore connected the satellite carries a Canadian instrumentality that volition trial the anticipation of gathering an observatory astatine the Lunar southbound pole.

The telephone booth-sized lander by Intuitive Machines, named Odysseus, launched connected Feb. 15 and touched down connected Thursday near a tiny interaction crater astir 300 kilometers from the moon's southbound pole.

It was a stressful lawsuit with navigation and connection issues, but 15 nail-biting minutes aft it landed, ngo power confirmed that they were receiving a faint but dependable awesome from the spacecraft.

"What we tin confirm, without a doubt, is our instrumentality is connected the aboveground of the satellite and we are transmitting," said Intuitive Machines mission manager Tim Crain.

"Houston, Odysseus has recovered his caller home."

WATCH | NASA's livestream of the Odysseus lunar landing:

Odysseus carries a suite of 12 instruments, six of which are from NASA and the remainder from commercialized companies. 

The Canadian component, built by abstraction systems institution Canadensys, is a miniaturized dual camera with one wide-field lens and 1 telephoto lens, that volition constituent upwards to instrumentality images of the Milky Way Galaxy, arsenic good arsenic different astronomical objects including the Earth. 

LISTEN | Meet the squad down the archetypal Canadian lunar rover:

This is simply a impervious of conception survey to find whether the southbound rod of the satellite is simply a bully spot for an astronomical observatory. It volition besides beryllium a trial of whether images from abstraction tin beryllium broadcast backmost to Earth, which is precise debased connected the skyline from the lunar polar regions.  

The camera is named ILO-X after the International Lunar Observatory Association, a non-profit endeavor incorporated successful Hawaii that promotes the conception of gathering astronomical observatories connected the moon.

Astronomers would beryllium delighted to person an observatory connected the satellite due to the fact that it provides the clear, airless presumption of the beingness that you get from a abstraction telescope, with the added payment of being connected land. That means determination are nary size limits, and successful astronomy, size matters.

While the Hubble and James Webb abstraction telescopes person returned astounding images, those instruments were constricted by the abstraction disposable successful the chemoreceptor cone of a rocket. In fact, Webb had to beryllium folded up to instrumentality the thrust to space.

A scope connected the satellite could beryllium built overmuch larger and supply adjacent finer details of the universe. An observatory connected the acold broadside of the satellite would beryllium shielded from noisy radio chatter bouncing astir Earth.

High-tech industries crossed the country are gathering precision technological instruments and sending them to space. And Canadian scientists person been doing this from the precise commencement of the abstraction race, with our archetypal outer Alouette One launched successful 1962. That made america the 3rd state successful abstraction aft the Soviet Union and America. 

Canada is champion known for its astronauts and robotic Canadarm but we person besides built satellites specified arsenic the Radarsat constellation. We besides flew instruments to Mars, including one that measures unreality cover and different that analyzes the chemistry of rocks. Canadian instruments are also part of the James Webb Space Telescope.

We are a space-faring country, but we don't marque a batch of sound astir it. Rather than physique large costly rockets, we articulation with different countries and spell on for the thrust — a overmuch cheaper mode to research space. While our instruments whitethorn beryllium small, they inactive marque important contributions. 

Perhaps our small camera connected this ngo could beryllium a tiny measurement that leads to a elephantine leap for astronomy.