A potentially history-making private moon mission is now underway. The Odysseus, a robotic lunar lander, successfully lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday morning.
The lander and other equipment are weatherized with new technology developed by Alabama's Haskell Beckham. People he went to school with at Sylacauga High School and Auburn University called him "Hack." Still do. They also called him a genius, even then.
Haskell Beckham is a name you may not have heard. Not yet.
The weatherization that is going to the moon is designed to stay.
Two private U.S. companies are collaborating to make it possible for humans to live and work on the moon – Intuitive Machines and Columbia Sportswear. They sent the unmanned craft to the moon Thursday in preparation for later manned flights that won't come back.
Did you ever think you'd live to see colonization of the moon? One small step for a man from Alabama, a giant leap for mankind.
The official explanation from the two companies:
In December 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts took humankind's last steps on the Moon. In February 2024, the return journey continues.
Intuitive Machines will send the unmanned Nova-C lunar lander to the surface of the Moon for the first visit of a U.S. spacecraft in more than 50 years, with Columbia's Omni-Heat™ Infinity technology helping protect it from extreme temperatures in space.
As part of NASA's Artemis Program lunar exploration efforts, the IM-1 mission will help to lay the foundation for a sustainable human presence on the Moon. More broadly, it is an ambitious scientific quest fueled by a desire to fully understand our solar system and gain knowledge to help progress humanity.
For Columbia, it is an unparalleled opportunity for exploration and discovery, paving the way for advancements in technologies and materials innovations.
Why? Why do we need a human presence, an American presence, on the Moon? It's the development of a launch site to explore the rest of our solar system.
The purpose of the mission is to establish a base on the Moon that can be used as a much-improved launch site for exploration of the solar system: Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and asteroid belts.
Beckham, the Vice-President of Innovation for Columbia Sportswear, added: “We have tested our products on some of the harshest environments on Earth. But going to the Moon is new for us. Testing in that harsh an environment, we are gaining new insights that will also make our customers more comfortable here on Earth.”
Tim Crain, CTO of Intuitive Machines, explained the benefits of establishing space launch capabilities on the moon:
“A lot of people ask, ‘Why the Moon?’ We are going to the Moon because it is the first step in what’s next.”
“The Moon has one-sixth of Earth’s gravity. So, if you intend to explore the entire solar system, it’s far better to launch those exploratory rockets from the surface of the Moon rather than from the surface of the Earth. That’s the commercial motivation for a private company to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a Moon program," Beckham explained:
“Originally inspired by a NASA blanket, our Omni-Heat Infinity technology is heading to space to help protect the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander on a pioneering mission to the Moon. It’s the same tech we use to keep you warm here on Earth. From your jacket to the Moon. To make our customers more comfortable here on Earth, it’s where we can use new technologies in an incredibly extreme environment.”
Beckham is a 1982 graduate of Sylacauga High. He now lives in Portland, Oregon.
“Going to the Moon is not a matter of physics but of economics.” — John Platt, American physicist
Jim Zeigler is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com
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