The Athena Lunar Lander (IM-2) was declared dead after not putting the landing on the surface of the moon. The second commercial lander, which was created by intuitive machines in Texas intuitive machines, tried to reach the surface of the moon on March 6. However, it ended up in a crater near the moon south of the south, where it fell on the side. The company confirmed that the mission was dead in a statement this morning.
According to this statement, intuitive machines explained that the lander was no longer ready for operation, but the mission was not a total depreciation:
“[T]The IM-2 mission Lunar Landerin, Athena, landed 250 meters from his intended landing site in the Mone Mouton region of the moon-south pole within a crater. This was the southernmost moonland and surface surgery that have ever been achieved. Pictures that were bound by Athena on the surface of the lunar confirmed that Athena was on her side. After landing, Mission Controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA's Prime 1 Suite before the batteries of the lander were exhausted. “
“With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar collectors and the extreme cold temperatures in the crater, intuitive machines do not expect Athena to charge again. The mission has come to the conclusion and the teams will continue to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”
The lander started on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the start complex 39a (LC39A) in the Kennedy Space Center of NASA on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The payload comprises the ice breakdown of Polar Resources ICE MINING 1 (Prime -1), which consists of the Trident -Drill and MSOLO mass spectrometer, which was examined up to one meter (3.3 feet) below the surface of the lunar to search for fleeting water and carbon dioxide (CO2) that suggested for the Artemis program and NASAS. Moon are decisive.
According to NASA, Mission Controller managed to activate Trident and turn the drill to prove that it worked while an accompanying science instrument collected some data. Intuitive machines also stated that several other mission goals were accelerated. The other payloads of Athena include the Micro Nova Hopper from intuitive machines (also known as Grace), which is supposed to explore crater up to 2 km from the landing.
It also wore the Nokia Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), a 4G/LTE system to test high-speed long-distance communication. These and other payloads were sent from NASA as part of the Closc NASAR -NASAR -NASAR -SAR -PAYLOAD Services initiative (Commercial Lunar Payoad Services), which has joined several US companies with several US companies to deliver science and technology experiments to the lunar interface. While Grace and two Rover were not removed from the country by private companies and explore the South Pole-Aitken pool as planned, intuitive machines confirmed that they could activate them and other scientific experiments before the country lost power.
The IM-2 mission joins its predecessor, the Odysseus mission (IM-1), who tried to land on the surface of the moon last year, but also fell on the side shortly after the appearance. In both cases, the problem was attributed to a failure at the last minute with the main laser navigation system of the landing. However, IM-1 was the first NASA mission to have landed on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission over 50 years ago. This time the lander survived longer before its batteries have lost the loss of electricity. The IM-2-Lander also has the award to bring the south pole of the moon closer than any previous mission and land only 160 km away.
On March 2, Firefly Aerospace successfully reached the northern hemisphere on the moon with his Blue Ghost Lander. As part of the CLPS initiative, this Mission 10 NASA experiments carried out and will probably remain in operation for another week until the moon night descends and can no longer pull performance from its solar collectors.
Intuitive machines with their IM-3 and IM-4 countries are delivered to the moon with two NASA protection loads. These missions should not start earlier than at the end of October 2025 and 2027.
