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On Friday, intuitive machines that were supposed to provide a historical mission for water hunt to the southern pole of the moon in Houston announced on Friday that his Athena Lander only switched on on the moon surface one day after arrival.
Athena was expected to operate for about 10 days before the lunar night fell over the landing railway of the spacecraft in Mon Mon Mouton, a plateau that is about 160 kilometers from the south pole.
But photos made by the lander before it was pushed back confirmed that the vehicle is on the side.
“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,” said the company in an explanation. “The mission has come to the conclusion and the teams will continue to evaluate the data collected throughout the mission.”
However, intuitive machines emphasized that, although Athena was not as intended, the lander could work and broadcast briefly after the touchdown. This made the mission the “southernmost moonland and surface surgery have ever been reached”.
Intuitive machines also said that Athena “can accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s Prime 1 Suite, before the landing batteries are exhausted”.
It is unclear whether this means Prime-1 that it is a drill that was expected to dig into the moon surface to search for water, to use, collect data or to use its sensors to analyze the soil.
The company did not specifically address other payloads that were on board the Athena Lander. The lunar outpost based in Colorado, which offered a four-wheel rover, that he was expected to run the lander about six hours after the touchdown on Thursday, said in a post on the social media platform X that he was unable to use.
Some of the instruments for science and technology on board Athena were able to operate before yesterday’s touchdown during the transit to the moon and in the lunar orbit, said NASA officials and intuitive machines at a press conference on Thursday.
Tim Crain, Chief Technology Officer of Intuitive Machines, suggested that Athena has taken up close -ups in the southern pole region of the moon and gave it an exciting development that will help scientists understand this area of the moon characterized by crater.
Moon landing challenges
The early closure of Athena is reminiscent of the last moon mission of the intuitive machines, which brought a lander named Odysseus in the same pocket region in February 2024.
Odysseus also ended up on his side, but was able to operate for about six days, although his antennas showed in an undorable direction, which made it difficult to collect large amounts of data.
The company also announced on Friday that it was able to determine the Athena, which was removed about 250 meters from its intended landing site. At a press conference on Thursday about Athena’s status, the officials of the intuitive machines had only said that the vehicle’s exact landing site was unknown, but probably not within a 164 -foot wide zone (50 meters) that the company had targeted.
Intuitive machines developed the Athena Lunar Lander as part of the Commercial Lunar Payoad Services program of NASA, according to which the agency exerts relatively favorable fixed price contracts to companies for private sectors in order to promote innovations and reduce the costs of obtaining robot exploration vehicles to the moon.
At the press conference on Thursday, Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator of the NASA directorate for NASA’s science mission, was asked about this approach and whether NASA retreat its commitment to inexpensive missions.
In her answer, Fox found that NASA in the works had numerous scientific and exploration missions. After a successful touchdown on March 2, the robot researcher works near the moon equator.
“We meet and celebrate the success of the other and we take on the challenges,” said Fox.
In the next 30 days, intuitive machines will carefully analyze data from Athena in a process known as “Hot Wash”, said Steve Altemus, CEO of the company on Thursday.
“We are preparing a number of recommendations for what went well, what went wrong, which has to be repaired for the next mission,” said Altemus.
The company planned to start a third landing mission called IM-3 for about a year. However, Oldemus suggested that the company could change if the company has a contract for satellites that can forward data from the moon.
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