Intuitive Machines’ lunar mission (IM-1) successfully launched on February 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. The two-stage rocket carried Odysseus and its six NASA payloads and six commercial payloads as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and Artemis program. 

Odysseus successfully separated from the Falcon 9 and is on its way to the Moon approximately 48 minutes after liftoff. Once at the Moon, it will perform a maneuver to begin its descent towards the unexplored Malapert A crater---about 300 km from the lunar south pole. As it approaches the surface, Odysseus will rely on Christian’s algorithm to directly measure its motion relative to the Moon.

“The method of TRN used on IM-1 is really exciting because it doesn’t require a map. This means we don’t need to spend resources curating a new map every time we want to land somewhere new,” explained Christian.

In the last two years, Christian’s algorithms have also played an important role in other lunar exploration missions, including NASA’s Artemis I and Lunar Flashlight. Christian and his research team followed a similar approach in each of the missions.

“When designing a new OPNAV algorithm, we usually start by thinking about the environment in which the vehicle needs to navigate. We frame the problem by asking questions like: what kind of camera do we have, what celestial bodies will be viewing (at what distances and lighting), what are the vehicle dynamics, what are the operational constraints, what other sources of information do we have,” he explained.

Answering these questions allows Christian and his students to strip away distractions and develop targeted solutions to real problems. Bridging the divide from theory to practice is one of Christian’s favorite parts of investigating OPNAV at Georgia Tech.

“While OPNAV might seem like a very applied problem, the techniques only work in the real world if the foundational mathematics are squared away first. There were numerous cases where, after initial implementation, we had to go back and work through some very nuanced derivations. Our expertise in the algorithms and comfort with academic rigor allowed us to develop really nice solutions to these problems,” said Christian.

If IM-1 safely and successfully lands on the Moon, it will represent a major step forward in the United States’ efforts to open a new era of lunar research, commerce, and exploration.