By MARCIA DUNN | Related Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A non-public lunar lander is not working after touchdown sideways in a crater close to the moon’s south pole, officers mentioned Friday.
The botched touchdown try ended the mission by Texas-based Intuitive Machines.
Launched final week, the lander Athena missed its mark by greater than 800 toes, the corporate mentioned in declaring it lifeless.
Athena managed to ship again footage confirming its place and activate a number of experiments earlier than going silent. NASA and different prospects had packed the lander with tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ price of experiments together with an ice drill, drone and pair of rovers to roam the unexplored terrain forward of astronauts’ deliberate arrival later this decade.
It’s unlikely Athena’s batteries will be recharged given the way in which the lander’s photo voltaic panels are pointed and the intense chilly within the crater.
“The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
This was the second touchdown try for Intuitive Machines. The primary, a 12 months in the past, additionally ended with a sideways touchdown, however the firm was capable of preserve the lander going for longer than this time. Regardless of all the issues, the corporate’s first lander managed to place the U.S. again on the moon for the primary time in additional than 50 years.
Earlier within the week, one other Texas firm scored a profitable touchdown below NASA’s industrial lunar supply program, meant to jumpstart enterprise on the moon whereas making ready for astronauts’ return. Firefly Aerospace put its Blue Ghost lander down within the far northern latitudes of the moon’s close to facet.
Firefly CEO Jason Kim reported Friday that eight of the ten NASA experiments on Blue Ghost have already got met their mission aims. It’s anticipated to function for one more week till lunar daytime ends and solar energy is not obtainable.
The south polar area of the moon is especially tough to achieve and function on given the cruel solar angles, restricted communications with Earth and uncharted, rugged terrain. Athena’s touchdown was the closest a spacecraft has come to the south pole, simply 100 miles away.
That’s the place NASA is concentrating on for its first touchdown by astronauts for the reason that Sixties and Nineteen Seventies Apollo program, no sooner than 2027. The craters are believed to carry tons of frozen water that might be utilized by future crews to drink and switch into rocket gasoline.
Intuitive Machines has contracts with NASA for 2 extra moon touchdown deliveries. The corporate mentioned it might want to decide precisely what went incorrect this time earlier than launching the subsequent mission. After the 15-foot Athena landed, controllers rushed to show off a few of the lander’s tools to preserve energy whereas attempting to salvage what they might.
In each landings by Intuitive Machines, issues arose on the final minute with the prime laser navigation system.
Intuitive Machines’ rocket-propelled drone, Grace, was speculated to hop throughout the lunar floor earlier than leaping right into a crater to search for frozen water. The 2 rovers from two different corporations, one American and one Japanese, had been going to scout across the space as nicely.
NASA’s ice drill experiment was activated earlier than the lander’s batteries died. How a lot might be completed was not instantly recognized. A number of different aims had been accelerated and milestones met, based on the corporate.
NASA paid $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its three experiments to the moon.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Academic Media Group and the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. The AP is solely liable for all content material.
Initially Printed: March 7, 2025 at 8:27 AM PST
