Today, tomorrow, learn English naturally. 天天自然学英语
Odysseus becomes first US spacecraft to land on moon in over 50 years
The Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed "Odie" or IM-1, has become the first US-made spacecraft to touch down on the moon in 50 years. The lander is upright and starting to send data, according to Odie's developer, Intuitive Machines.
Engineers had to overcome navigation issues in order to pull off the highly difficult landing. Mission control resolved some communication problems after a tense wait, and now the lander's first images from the surface are expected soon.
Odie is the first commercial spacecraft to make touchdown on the moon. The milestone comes after a failed US lunar lander mission last month.
The Odysseus lander’s mission is designed to assess the lunar environment of the moon's south pole ahead of NASA’s current plan to return a crewed mission there in late 2026.
Each sculpture is inscribed with the name of a groundbreaking figure in human history, including Aristotle, David Bowie, Leonardo da Vinci, Gandhi, Billie Holiday, Gabriel García Márquez, Andy Warhol and Virginia Woolf. Koons “has drawn inspiration from the Moon as a symbol of curiosity and determination,” according to a statement from his gallery, Pace.
But the art market wouldn’t be able to do much with far-flung sculptures "exhibited" in outer space, so there’s a commercial component to Koons’ project as well. Pace Verso, the NFT wing of Pace, is also offering NFTs of each sculpture, while Koons has produced larger, coinciding physical sculptures of his “Moon Phases” to remain on Earth.
Art in space: Sculpture hitches a ride to the moon on Odysseus lunar lander
Exchanging the gallery space for a transparent box in space, the American artist Jeff Koons now has one of his works of art on the moon.
On Thursday, a sculpture called “Moon Phases" hitched a ride on the Odysseus lunar lander as it touched down on the moon. It marked the United States' first landing on the lunar surface in more than 50 years.
The artwork depicts 125 mini-sculptures of the moon contained in a box, measuring about one inch in diameter. “Moon Phases" shows 62 phases of the moon as seen from Earth, 62 phases visible from other viewpoints in space, and one lunar eclipse.
Odysseus is "upright and starting to send data"
After some intense waiting, Intuitive Machines, the company behind the Odysseus lunar landing mission, has confirmed the spacecraft is "upright and starting to send data."
That's a major milestone.
An upright landing potentially puts Odysseus in a better position than even Japan's SLIM "Moon Sniper" mission. SLIM was deemed a success as it made a soft touchdown, but later was revealed to have landed in a position that left its solar panels pointed in the wrong direction, causing that spacecraft to quickly lose power.
"Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface," Intuitive Machines said in a post on social media platform X.
注释：
touchdown: n
表示" 触地"，means "a landing"，如：He leans on chair, double feet are stretched cozily, and baseboard touchdown. 他倚在椅上，双脚舒适地张开，脚板着地。
groundbreaking: adj
表示"创新的"，means "innovative"，如：That's not enough to define a platform that allows really smart people to come up with groundbreaking ideas. 这些并不足以定义一个平台是否能让一些聪明的使用者提出更创新的点子。
fling: v
表示" 投"，means " throw violently or with force"，如：Boys like to fling stones into water. 男孩子们喜欢向水中投石子。
downlink: v; n
表示"下行;下行线"，means ""，如：These caused great difficulties to downlink and store SAR raw data. 这给数据的传输和存储带来了很大的困难。To the floor price of view, the town house is a downlink space. 以这样的楼面价来看，市中心的房价很难有下行空间。
中文简要说明：
休斯敦私营「直觉机器」（Intuitive Machines）公司打造的登月器「奥德修斯」号（Odysseus）本周四最后一次从月球轨道下降，首度完成美国超过半世纪来的登月行动，而这也是首次完全由私企执行的登月任务。
「欢迎来到月球，」直觉机器执行长阿特姆斯（Steve Altemus）说，「我知道这令人紧张，但我们在月球表面，并正在传输。」据综合外电报导，美国国家航天总署（NASA）署长尼尔森（Bill Nelson）盛赞，「奥德修斯」号登月是「全人类的大飞跃」，也是美国的胜利。他并强调，人类史上首度有商业公司，也是家美国企业——发动并领导了这次月球航行任务。
此外，阿特姆斯说，和中国来点竞争也不是坏事。超过50年前，美国因与苏联进行太空竞赛，而从事「阿波罗」（Apollo）计划。如今美国的目标是靠无人探测器重返月球，并留在那儿。美国打算让「奥德修斯」号降落在月球南极附近，而美中都希望，能在那儿建立月球基地。他并直言，「有关在太空生活和工作，并在月球上学习，还有很多要做的。你们知道的，如果需要地缘政治紧张才能实现这点，那也没关系。」
登月器为NASA携带了6具科学仪器，以协助研究月球表面，并测量无线电波。尽管稍早「奥德修斯」号的测距仪故障，但仍成功执行着陆任务。地面团队透过对「奥德修斯」号进行重新程序设计，转而靠登陆器上的NASA实验性「多普勒激光雷达导航」（The Navigation Doppler Lidar）系统，总算解决了这个问题。
而在登月前不久，「奥德修斯」号完全自主，直到登月后，才会恢复通讯。这款登月器为6边形柱体，有6条登陆腿，约如高尔夫球车般大。
留言微信公众号《自然学英语LearnNaturally》，可咨询更多！