A day after touchdown on the moon, the robotic Athena spacecraft constructed by Intuitive Machines of Houston is lifeless.
In an replace on its web site on Friday, the corporate confirmed that Athena had tipped onto its facet — the identical destiny that befell its first lunar lander, Odysseus, final yr. With its photo voltaic panels unable to face the solar, the spacecraft’s batteries couldn’t recharge.
The corporate mentioned it didn’t anticipate the spacecraft to revive.
Earlier than the spacecraft fell silent, “mission controllers had been in a position to speed up a number of program and payload milestones,” Intuitive Machines mentioned. It didn’t present particulars about what had been completed.
As of early Friday afternoon, NASA has not but commented publicly concerning the untimely conclusion of the mission, which was alleged to final 10 days till the darkness of lunar evening fell over that a part of the moon.
The mission was a part of a NASA program generally known as Business Lunar Payload Companies, or CLPS, to contract non-public corporations to hold science devices and know-how demonstrations to the moon at a decrease price. One other robotic spacecraft that’s a part of CLPS, the Blue Ghost lander by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, touched down on Sunday and is conducting science experiments on one other a part of the moon.
Athena landed on Thursday on a flat-topped mountain named Mons Mouton, about 100 miles from the moon’s south pole. It was the southernmost touchdown web site of any spacecraft.
The spacecraft ended up about 150 miles from the focused touchdown web site, the corporate mentioned.
Athena was carrying payloads for NASA and industrial prospects, together with three rovers, a rocket-powered drone and a drill meant to poke into the lunar soil in the hunt for water ice.
Quickly after the touchdown, it grew to become clear that the spacecraft was not working as anticipated.
At a post-landing information convention, Steve Altemus, the chief govt of Intuitive Machines, portrayed the tribulations in a optimistic mild. “Any time that you simply ship a spacecraft to Florida for flight and find yourself per week later working on the moon, I declare {that a} success,” he mentioned.
Buyers don’t seem to agree. Shares of Intuitive Machines, a publicly traded firm, fell 20 p.c on Thursday and continued to say no at the beginning of buying and selling on Friday. At midday on Friday, the corporate’s inventory was buying and selling beneath $9, down from greater than $13 when the inventory market opened on Thursday.
Nicola Fox, the affiliate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, additionally tried to place a optimistic spin on the discouraging outcomes. “Our aim is to set American corporations as much as set up a lunar financial system on the floor,” she mentioned. “And that signifies that even when it doesn’t land completely, we at all times study classes that we are able to present and use sooner or later.”
However the fast dying of Athena once more raises questions concerning the soundness of NASA’s technique.
Thus far, 4 CLPS missions have been launched. Solely Sunday’s touchdown of the Blue Ghost spacecraft by Firefly seems to be a whole success. The 2 landers despatched by Intuitive Machines each landed in working situation however toppled over and failed to perform most of their science objectives.
The fourth CLPS mission, by Astrobotic Expertise of Pittsburgh, missed the moon totally final yr when the propulsion system of its Peregrine spacecraft malfunctioned quickly after launch.
“You actually hope that there’s not less than two corporations which can be profitable,” mentioned Thomas Zurbuchen, who preceded Dr. Fox as the top of the science mission directorate and who arrange CLPS in 2017. “I hope it’s extra.”
However Dr. Zurbuchen has mentioned from the beginning that maybe half of the missions would fail as corporations found out find out how to take good dangers in constructing cheaper spacecraft.
The virtually flawless success of Blue Ghost demonstrates that lunar missions with cheaper worth tags are possible. NASA paid $101 million to Firefly to ship $44 million price of science experiments.
For Athena, NASA agreed to pay Intuitive Machines $62.5 million for the supply service to Mons Mouton. The intertwining of enterprise relationships amongst Athena’s payloads recommend that the aim of spurring a worthwhile lunar financial system isn’t totally fantastical.
Nokia, for instance, had received a NASA contract to deploy a 4G LTE cellphone community on the moon. Nokia then employed an organization, Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colo., to construct a rover that may transfer a cellphone antenna various distances from the Athena lander as a part of the checks of the know-how, which would offer an improve from UHF radio for lunar communications.
Lunar Outpost then bought house on its rover to different industrial prospects.
In a press release, Nokia mentioned its system was efficiently turned on after touchdown, and operated for about 25 minutes.
“Sadly, Nokia was unable to make the primary mobile name on the moon resulting from elements past our management that resulted in excessive chilly temperatures on our consumer system modules,” the assertion mentioned.
If the CLPS deliveries proceed to fail, industrial corporations and NASA would possibly flip leery of sending extra packages.
One of many key NASA devices carried by Athena was a drill constructed by Honeybee Robotics, a subsidiary of Blue Origin.
Curiosity within the moon was rekindled a few many years in the past after the invention of frozen water in shadowed craters close to the poles. By analyzing soil and rock as much as three toes under the floor, NASA hoped to achieve new perception into how a lot water is definitely there and the way simply it is likely to be dug up and utilized by future astronauts.
However now NASA must resolve whether or not to spend tens of millions of {dollars} extra for one more drill to assemble that data.
NASA already owns an an identical drill that’s put in on the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. The golf-cart-size rover was slated to additionally land on Mons Mouton on Astrobotic’s subsequent CLPS mission. However the house company introduced final yr that it wished to cancel VIPER, regardless that it had already spent $450 million and the rover’s development and testing had been nearly full.
The house company has since referred to as corporations for proposals to ship the rover to the moon at no further price to NASA.
Danielle Kaye contributed reporting.
