Athena didn’t crash. However what did occur to it?
Hours after the 15-foot-tall robotic spacecraft arrived on the moon’s floor, nearer to the lunar south pole than any spacecraft has been, it remained unclear whether or not its landing was easy sufficient to carry out its supposed work, or if it toppled over within the course of, doubtlessly limiting the mission’s scientific achievements.
“We’re making an attempt to judge precisely what occurred in that final bit,” Tim Crain, the chief know-how officer of Intuitive Machines, mentioned at a information convention.
The spacecraft is sort of similar to Odysseus, the lander that the corporate despatched to the moon final 12 months. Odysseus was the primary commercially operated car to efficiently land on the moon. However that success got here with an asterisk when the car toppled shortly after reaching the bottom.
It seems that may need occurred once more.
At a post-landing information convention, Steve Altemus, the chief govt of Intuitive Machines, mentioned the spacecraft had despatched again conflicting knowledge about whether or not it was standing upright or tipped over. However a sensor often known as an inertial measurement unit provided a maybe convincing clue that Athena was on its facet.
Because it headed to the lunar floor, laser devices that measured the lander’s altitude have been offering noisy knowledge, which can have contributed to the botched touchdown.
Till that last descent, Athena had carried out far more easily than the Odysseus lander a 12 months in the past, mentioned Dr. Crain of Intuitive Machines. “We have been anticipating a totally profitable touchdown,” he mentioned.
Mr. Altemus mentioned it was too quickly to find out how a lot of the deliberate mission might nonetheless be salvaged. Athena’s payloads embrace a drill, three small rovers and a rocket-powered hopping drone.
“After we get that full evaluation, we are going to then work carefully with NASA science and know-how teams to establish science goals which can be the best precedence,” Mr. Altemus mentioned. “After which we’ll work out what the mission profile will appear like.”
The spacecraft shouldn’t be producing as a lot energy because it ought to, in all probability as a result of the photo voltaic panels should not pointed within the right course.
Pictures from cameras on the spacecraft will assist Intuitive Machines work out the orientation of the spacecraft. Dr. Crain mentioned the spacecraft in all probability set down exterior of the deliberate touchdown zone however was assured it was nonetheless someplace on Mons Mouton, a excessive plateau close to the south pole that Athena was to discover.
Pictures from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is able to go over the touchdown web site, might pinpoint Athena’s exact location.
It has been a busy week in spaceflight and on the moon. Intuitive Machines was the second firm to succeed in the lunar floor this week, after Firefly Aerospace, one other Texas house firm, efficiently reached the Mare Crisium area of the moon on Sunday morning.
“Any time humanity places a lander on the moon, it’s a very good day,” Dr. Crain mentioned.
The primary buyer of each missions is NASA below its Industrial Lunar Payload Providers program, which hires non-public corporations to take NASA-financed science and know-how payloads to the lunar floor. The NASA contract for this mission is value as much as $62.5 million, however Intuitive Machines might not be paid the total quantity.
Shares of Intuitive Machines, which trades below the identify LUNR after going public in 2023, tumbled after experiences of the spacecraft’s issues. Its inventory fell 20 p.c on Thursday.
The primary payload on Athena is a drill for NASA that can extract lunar soil to be sniffed by a mass spectrometer for frozen water and different compounds. NASA officers mentioned it could be attainable for the drill to work, even when the spacecraft was not vertical. “It doesn’t must be immediately the place I can drill straight down,” mentioned Clayton Turner, the affiliate administrator for NASA’s house know-how mission director. “There are different choices we will use, too.”
Additionally aboard is a rover the scale of a small canine that can check a Nokia cellphone community on the moon, and two smaller rovers, one constructed by the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and the opposite by a Japanese firm. Intuitive Machines additionally deliberate to check a rocket-powered car known as a hopper that might discover locations not simply reached by rovers.
A parade of lunar landers is predicted to proceed by means of the remainder of the 12 months.
A type of spacecraft is already in house. The Resilience lander from Ispace of Japan was launched on the identical SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that despatched Firefly’s Blue Ghost on its method. However it’s taking an extended, extra fuel-efficient path to the moon. It’ll enter orbit across the moon round Could 6 and take a look at a touchdown a month later at Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Chilly, within the moon’s northern hemisphere.
Within the fall, Astrobotic Expertise of Pittsburgh is planning to attempt to get to the moon flying a big lander often known as Griffin that can carry a industrial rover designed by Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colo., amongst different cargo.
Essentially the most intriguing lander is the one deliberate by Blue Origin, the rocket firm began by Jeff Bezos. The lander, often known as Blue Moon Mark 1, would be the largest spacecraft ever to set down on the moon, even bigger than those that took NASA astronauts to the moon throughout the Apollo moon landings greater than 50 years in the past.
Danielle Kaye contributed reporting.
