Intuitive Machines is a Houston-based space exploration company that was behind the first U.S. moon landing in more than 50 years. In February this year, its lander "Odysseus" made a soft landing on the lunar surface, but the lander unfortunately capsized.

Odysseus (called "Odie" by Intuitive Machines) was not designed to survive the long, cold moonlit night. However, not long ago, Japan's lander SLIM unexpectedly started communicating with the Earth at the end of February, proving that the lander lying on the ground seemed to have a glimmer of hope.

So with a little luck, Intuitive Machines is hoping Odysseus can pull off a similar feat. Before the lander's batteries were depleted, flight controllers tuned it into a configuration that would allow it to continue communicating with Earth if the various systems performed beyond the manufacturer's expectations.

However, as the company announced on Saturday, unfortunately, that's not the case:

Intuition Machine began listening for Odie's wake-up signal on March 20, when we predicted that enough sunlight might recharge the lander's power system and turn on its radio.

"As of 10:30 a.m. CST on March 23, flight controllers determined that their predictions were correct and that Odie's power system would be unable to complete another call home. This confirms that Odie is permanently gone after leaving a mark in history as the first commercial lunar lander to land on the Moon."

Despite this, Odysseus was a huge success as it overcame numerous difficulties to achieve a soft landing on the moon, briefly becoming disoriented in space as early as a few hours after the lander took off, and then losing its primary navigation system during approach and landing. Technicians expended tremendous effort to make it the best it could be.

When Odysseus hit the moon, he thought he was still 100 meters away from the moon's surface. As a result, the lander broke off one of its landing legs when it slipped and rolled to the ground. However, Odysseus survived and collected a large amount of precious telemetry and scientific data, laying a solid foundation for the upcoming IM-2 mission at the end of 2024.