An uncrewed American lander that became the first private spaceship on the moon has met its ultimate end after failing to "wake up," the company that built it said.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines said late Saturday that the lander, named Odysseus, had not phoned home this week when its solar panels were projected to receive enough sunlight to turn on its radio.

The lander touched down at a wonky angle on February 22, but was still able to complete several tests and send back photos before its mission was determined to have ended a week later, as it entered a weeks-long lunar night.

Intuitive Machines had hoped that it might "wake up" once it received sunlight again, as Japan's SLIM spaceship—which landed upside down in January—did last month.

Experiments in the weightless environment of space have led to "crazy progress" in the fight against cancer, NASA officials said at a recent event highlighting an important and personal initiative of US President Joe Biden.

Space is "a unique place for research," astronaut Frank Rubio said at the event in Washington.

The 48-year-old, a physician and former military helicopter pilot, conducted cancer research during his recent mission to the International Space Station (ISS), orbiting some 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the Earth's surface.

Not only do cells there age more rapidly, speeding up research, their structures are also described as "purer."

"They all don't clump together (as they do) on Earth because of gravity. They are suspended in space," enabling better analysis of their molecular structures, NASA chief Bill Nelson told AFP in an interview.

Research conducted in space can help make cancer drugs more effective, Nelson added.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck has conducted research on the ISS with Keytruda, an anti-cancer drug that patients now receive intravenously.

Its key ingredient is difficult to transform into a liquid. One solution is crystallization, a process often used in drug manufacturing.