American company Intuitive Machines attempted its second lunar landing yesterday, aiming to bring its Athena spacecraft down in the Mons Mouton region near the moon’s south pole. The lander did touch down 250 meters from its intended site, marking the most southerly landing on the moon ever.
Sticking the landing, however, proved to be a problem. Intuitive Machines has confirmed that although Athena did manage to land on the lunar surface, it is oriented on its side and therefore unable to capture power with its solar panels. It’s not year clear exactly what caused the lander to tip over as it came down on the surface, but it is possible that it got caught on the edge of a crater or caught a leg on a boulder which caused it to tip an an angle.
The company did release this image, showing the lander on its side, with two of its legs visible in the air:
A similar problem befell Intuitive Machines’ previous lander, the Odysseus, which also ended up tilted to one side on the moon’s surface. In that case the lander was still able to operate for some time, but with Athena there is no way to collect solar power and therefore the mission has been immediately concluded. The lander was able to quickly deploy some of its payloads before it ran out of power, however.
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“With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge. The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission,” the company wrote in an update. “This southern pole region is lit by harsh sun angles and limited direct communication with the Earth. This area has been avoided due to its rugged terrain and Intuitive Machines believes the insights and achievements from IM-2 will open this region for further space exploration.”
Although this will be a disappointment for both the company and for NASA, which was involved in the landing under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, there has also been lunar success this month. Firefly Aerospace landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft successfully on the moon several days ago, as another participant in NASA’s CLPS program, and this week it has been deploying instruments and collecting data. There is also a Japanese private spacecraft, the ispace Resilience craft, currently on its way to the moon and expected to attempt a lunar landing in June.
