The second lunar lander of the U.S. space company Intuitive Machines has landed on the moon's surface. However, it is believed to have failed to stand upright, just like the first one.
Intuitive Machines' unmanned lunar lander, Athena, landed near Mons Mouton in the moon's south pole at 2:31 a.m. on the 7th (Korean time). Athena is an unmanned spacecraft measuring 4.8 meters in height and 1.6 meters in diameter, and its goal was to stand upright on six legs.
However, shortly after landing, Intuitive Machines and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that there was a problem with Athena. Josh Marshall, the communications director of Intuitive Machines, said, "We have confirmed that Athena has reached the lunar surface," adding that "we are working to assess the lander's tilt, which is crucial in determining whether we can reliably receive signals."
Intuitive Machines experienced a similar situation with its first lunar lander, Odyssey, last February. Odyssey succeeded in becoming the first privately-funded lunar lander, but due to high speed during the landing process, one of its legs broke, and it ultimately landed tilted on its side.
After struggling to confirm Athena's status immediately after landing, Intuitive Machines halted the transmission of the landing process. Later, during a press briefing held 3 hours after the landing, it was announced that Athena had failed to stand upright on the lunar surface.
With Athena's failure to land perfectly, it is uncertain whether the various scientific experimental equipment onboard will operate properly.
Intuitive Machines sent Athena to the moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS is a program designed for NASA to efficiently conduct lunar exploration by contracting private space corporations to develop lunar landers instead of doing it directly.
Athena's core mission is to conduct ice-mining experiments at the lunar south pole. To this end, NASA equipped Athena with the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) system. PRIME-1 is a device that combines a drill and a mass spectrometer, aiming to analyze the composition of soil obtained by drilling down to 1 meter beneath the lunar polar surface.
Jackie Quinn, NASA's PRIME-1 project manager, noted, "This will be the first drilling operation conducted at the lunar south pole," and described it as "a crucial step in building the capability to understand and utilize lunar resources for future explorations."
In addition, a high-resolution optical and thermal imaging camera is onboard, along with a small swarm robot developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Also included is the drone "Micro-Nova Hopper" which will explore by flying over the lunar surface. Additionally, there is a miniature lunar rover named "Yaoki," developed by the Japanese corporation Daemon.
Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, stated, "I find it hard to be confident that Athena is maintaining the correct posture on the lunar surface," adding, "Athena is transmitting images back to Earth, and we have secured images taken by the lunar reconnaissance orbiter in orbit, which will help us confirm Athena's condition in a few days."
CEO Altemus added that "we are trying measures to conserve energy," and if the spacecraft is operating on the moon a week later after being sent to Florida, "that alone would be declared a success."