Houston-based area firm Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander approached its closing touchdown spot on the Moon early Thursday morning, the place it was meant to the touch down autonomously close to Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain roughly 100 miles from the south pole, at round 12:30 pm EST.
However a number of hours later, its actual destiny stays unknown. Whereas mission management confirmed it had reached the Moon and was producing a minimum of some solar energy, just about every thing else was sounding about as ambiguous as attainable.
Then, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus made a somber announcement at a press convention.
“We do not imagine we’re within the appropriate angle on the floor of the Moon but once more,” he mentioned. “I haven’t got all the information but to say precisely what the angle of the car is. We’re accumulating photographs now and downlinking these. And we will get an image of [NASA’s] Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter digital camera from above and we’ll affirm that over the approaching days.”
Altemus was referring to Athena’s predecessor, a spacecraft referred to as Odyssey, which bumped into critical bother throughout its touchdown try final 12 months, falling over after tripping on a rock.
Consequently, the lander needed to be shut down after it did not generate adequate solar energy.
Japan’s Good Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) suffered an analogous destiny after touchdown on its nostril in January 2024.
And it isn’t wanting nice for Athena, both. Earlier this afternoon, Altemus revealed that the corporate was working to avoid wasting energy, as CNN studies, because it wasn’t producing sufficient by itself.
“We’re issues now to find out precisely the place we stand,” he instructed staff at a watch social gathering.
“The principle precedence proper now’s to get an image of our orientation and placement on the floor in order that we all know exactly learn how to transfer ahead with the mission,” Altemus added. “The place is the car? What’s it seem like? The place can we level the antennas? What can we do with the radios? What can we do with the science panels? I don’t know but.”
However there could also be a silver lining. Athena was meant to deploy a suitcase-sized rover developed by one other area startup, referred to as Lunar Outpost.
“If it’s on its facet once more — which once more, hopefully doesn’t occur — we are able to deploy if it’s on its facet, form of leaning down,” Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus instructed CNN. “We (can) attempt to drive off and simply see what occurs once more.”
It is an particularly busy time for lunar site visitors. Over the weekend, Texas-based startup Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost efficiently touched down on the lunar floor with out incident. Japanese area firm ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 2 can also be en route, and is anticipated to try a touchdown on the far facet of the Moon later this spring.
Intuitive Machines will likely be internet hosting a information convention at 4 pm EST. We’ll replace this area once we hear extra.
Up to date with remark from Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus.
Extra on lunar landers: American Spacecraft Touches Down on Moon, Sends Again Images
