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A robot hiker named Athena is ready to make its last descent on the moon surface, and may mark the second moon touchdown for a US company this week.
Intuitive machines from Houston, which was the first company for private sector last year, to be a vehicle on the moon on Soft-Land, said that his spaceship in Athena was on the right track on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET).
A live current of the event, together with NASA and intuitive machines, is to begin about an hour before landing.
In the event of success, the 15-feet-all-all (4.6-meter high) Athena will connect a moonlander, which was developed by another company-based company Firefly Aerospace of Austin Suburb Cedar Park-on the surface of the moon. Fireflys Blue Ghost Vehicle made a safe, upright touchdown early Sunday morning.
The intuitive machine IM-2 mission is located in this photo published on Monday in a low lunar orbit. – Intuitive machines
It is expected that both Athena and Blue Ghost will operate on the moon near the moon, but the two spaceships will be around 3,200 kilometers apart, with the Blue Ghost near the lunar equator and Athena near the south pole – closer than any astronaut or vehicle that was previously released.
Moon landings are extremely difficult performance. About half of all attempts, including those of government world space agencies and commercial companies, have ended in failure.
In the early Thursday morning, Athena completed an engine burning that placed it on a trajectory from the lunar orbit and towards the surface. The lander then started rolling for about an hour. Later in the morning, it will start the last descent and ran down to the rape of sensors and cameras to navigate through the crater -sized terrain.
During its last descent, the vehicle must quickly release the speed and reduce its speed by about 4,000 miles per hour (1,800 meters per second) before stepping onto the floor.
The southern pole of the moon is considered crucial for modern space breed because scientists believe that it is native to huge water ice ports. The ice could be converted into drinking water, breathable air or even rocket fuel for missions that travel deeper into the cosmos.
Athena is to land on a 60 miles (100 kilometer long) plateau called Mons Mouton, which is about 160 kilometers from the south of the moon. Then the country will go to work.
Athena is on a kind of scouting mission. The vehicle will use a number of robot equipment – including a drill, a funnel and a rover – to search the nearby area to confirm that water ice in the region is stored.
The lander is expected to operate for 10 days before the Lunar slump in darkness in the dark and the spaceship does not make it functional.
A shot in the event of redemption
Before intuitive machines wrote history last year when his first Lander, Odysseus – or “Odie”, as the startup employees called it, made a gentle touchdown on the moon, only a handful of government room programs had deducted this feat. The United States, China, India, Japan and the former Soviet Union were in this exclusive club.
But Odie’s journey, which also ventured near the south polar region, was not perfect. Before landing, the mission teams found that the laser removal meter for navigation through the moon area and the exact measurement was not correct.
This misstep forced the company to rely on an experimental NASA protection burden that happened to be on board in order to achieve navigation support to achieve the lunar surface.
Ultimately, Odie stumbled on the side and let valuable communication antennas and solar collectors in the UN athlete direction. As a result, Odie wore days earlier than planned.
This picture was accessed from the first landing of intuitive machines, Odysseus, its landing struts captured in February 2024. The country made a gentle touchdown on the moon, but ultimately stumbled on his side. – Intuitive machines
Firefly alluded to Odie’s independent orientation during the live reporting on his moon landing this week and explained that his Blue Ghost Lander was the “first fully successful” commercial vehicle that landed on the moon.
Nevertheless, the companies supported each other.
“I will tell you something that is more exciting than in any other time in history how many missions fly to the moon,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of intuitive machines, in February. “Two Texas companies fly to the moon, which theoretically will be on the surface at the same time and operate different missions on the moon – this is simply incredible for the United States.”
Firefly and intuitive machines are both contractors as part of the Commercial Lunar Payoad Services program of NASA. The CLPS program aims to get the private industry to develop a relatively cheap robot spaceship that can research the moon surface before NASA will later send its astronauts there this decade.
The Artemis III mission of NASA aims to land on the moon for the first time in mid-2027 in more than five decades.
Athena’s mission on the moon
Hours after the construction on Thursday, the Athena Lander is expected to use a rover, which is located with mobile autonomous prospecting platform or mapp and from which Lunar Outpost resident in Colorado. The 10-kilogram vehicle with all-wheel drive, 22 pound vehicle tests new mobile phone communication devices, creates a 3D card of the moon surface and takes photos.
The vehicle is also designed in such a way that it collects a small floor sample. And although the sample – and the Mapp Rover – will remain on the moon indefinitely, NASA has agreed to pay 1 US dollar for the possession of the sample. It is a symbolic step to mark the first commercial sale of room resources.
Justin Cyrus, CEO of Mond -Outpost CEO, told CNN that the 1 US dollar of NASA was the only state financing that the company would receive for this mission.
“This is our first shot and the fact that this is a commercially financed rover with a literally 1 US dollar from NASA … It’s like a damn good place,” said Cyrus.
After Mapp has stopped, the Athena Lander will use a miniature overview – or a spaceship that jumps away from the landing site and can explore a lunar crater to look for water. Intuitive machines developed this vehicle with NASA funds.
However, the primary payload on board the Athena is the Prime 1 drill of NASA, which is included in the moon surface, searches for water ice and analyzes the soil.
If prime-1 water can find directly below the lunar surface, it would be “extremely exciting,” said Siegfried Eggl, assistant professor of aerospace technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, CNN this week.
“If the drill would find a little water -rich material on the right (nearby) on the surface, it is the best scenario,” said Eggling.
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