Athena lander touches down on the surface of the Moon

 Intuitive Machines' Athena lander has ended its mission after failing to land on the Moon's surface. Although it successfully landed, it ended up in a crater near the South Pole and fell to one side, ending the mission earlier than expected…

The Athena lander is the second failed attempt

On March 6, the company Intuitive Machines announced the end of the mission of the Athena lander, after it failed in its attempt to land on the surface of the Moon . It is the second commercial lander launched by the company with the aim of reaching the lunar surface. However, although it landed smoothly, it followed in the footsteps of its predecessor, tipping over and causing the mission to be unable to continue. Despite everything, Athena's journey cannot be considered an absolute failure, far from it.

This was stated by the company itself, explaining that “Athena landed 250 meters from its planned site, in the Mons Mouton region, at the lunar south pole, inside a crater. 

It was the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations achieved so far. Images transmitted by Athena from the surface confirm that the lander was on its side. After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate the milestones of different programs and experiments, including NASA's PRIME-1 experiment, before the batteries ran out.”

“With the direction of the Sun , the orientation of the solar panels, and the extremely low temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to be able to recharge. The mission is now over, and teams are continuing to analyze data collected throughout the mission ,” the company said. The Athena lander’s journey began Feb. 27 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The payload included NASA’s PRIME-1 experiment, which featured a drill and a mass spectrometer.

The experiments have been able to function in a limited way

PRIME-1 was designed to drill up to one meter below the lunar surface, searching for volatile elements such as water and carbon dioxide, which are critical for the Artemis program and the manned missions that NASA wants to carry out on the surface of our satellite. According to the space agency itself, mission controllers managed to activate the drill and rotate it to check that it worked, while another instrument collected data. Intuitive Machines has also explained that other objectives of the mission were accelerated.

Among the rest of the cargo is the Micro Nova Hopper (from Intuitive Machines itself), which was designed to explore craters up to 2 kilometers away from the lander. It also carried Nokia's Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), a 4G/LTE system to test high-speed communications over long distances. These experiments, and others, were sent as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which involves several U.S. companies.

Its purpose is to send scientific and technological experiments to the surface of the Moon. Unfortunately, the three rovers that Athena was carrying were unable to leave the ship to explore the Aitken Basin-South Pole as planned. However, Intuitive Machines has confirmed that they were able to activate these experiments (and others) before the lander ran out of power. The Athena mission, called IM-2, joins the previous one, IM-1, in a list of ships that have managed to land on the lunar surface but in the wrong position.

We will see more and more activity on the lunar surface

IM-1 was a big step, though, because it was NASA's first mission to land on the Moon in more than 50 years. This time, the lander managed to survive longer before its batteries ran out of power. In addition, the Athena lander has the achievement of coming closer to the lunar south pole than any previous mission, coming within just 160 kilometers. On March 2, the company Firefly Aerospace managed to successfully land its craft on the northern hemisphere of the Moon.

It did so with its Blue Ghost lander. As part of the CLPS initiative, this mission carries 10 NASA experiments. It is expected to continue operating for another week, until lunar night arrives and the craft is unable to collect energy. In the meantime, Intuitive Machines has new opportunities on the horizon, because its contract with NASA includes four missions. The next two will therefore be IM-3 and IM-4, which will travel with their respective landers. Although we will have to wait a while.

IM-3 is not expected to take off before October 2025. IM-4 will take place in 2027 at the earliest. The private aerospace industry will remain an important part of lunar exploration. But on the horizon is the big question of what will happen to the Artemis program. Jared Isaacman will become NASA's new administrator in the coming weeks. He will have to decide whether to continue the program on its current terms or, on the contrary, modify it... or even cancel it.