Athena Lander of intuitive machines 33 feet (10 meters) above the lunar surface while going down on March 6th. Credit: intuitive machines
After a successful launch last week aboard a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket, the IM-2 mission of intuitive machines landed on the moon on March 6 shortly after 11:30 East. The boat is transmitting to its control center and capable of collecting a certain level of solar energy.
However, its landing orientation and the state of other aspects of the mission remain unclear. Hours after the IM-2 Lander remained, the officials of the intuitive machines declared in a post-dipheriar press conference that the boat did not seem to be in a vertical position. This makes him the second moon that lands in a row in which the company’s lander was unable to land in a vertical position, after the IM-1 mission partially ended with the tip of last year. The mission controllers are still trying to determine the corner in which Athena is located on the moon and how far she moved away.
The Lander, nicknamed Athena, was to touch the plateau at the top of Mountain Moutain Mouton Mountain at about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the South Lunar Pole. While the boat approached the end of its 11 -minute motor burning to slow down its speed and bring it to the surface, the flight controllers lost contact with Athena, although the presenters on the company’s livestream have stated that communication problems were foreseen close to the surface.
Over time, however, the mission controllers became visibly anxious and focused on the recovery of images from the boat. Ten minutes after the Lander had to be on the ground, the flight controllers commanded Athena to turn off the engine. Tim Crain, manager and director of the flight of the intuitive mission, said that the Lander was collecting solar energy and that the team was working to determine the lander orientation. However, the flight controllers also closed some of the boat electronics to preserve the power – a first sign that something was wrong.
Athena landed on Mons Mouton, but outside her 50 -meter target, Crain said at the press conference. As for the orientation of the trade, the CEO of intuitive Machine Steve Altemus has said that the team will need multiple data to obtain a clearer image in the next few days. However, payloads have been able to activate and will have the opportunity to try to be distributed according to their diet.
This is not the first brush of the intuitive car uncertainly after a lunar landing. On February 22, 2024, the first lunar mission of the Houston company, IM-1, remained harder than expected on the moon near Malapert, a crater, 186 miles (300 km) from the South Pole. A pre-lander wiring error on the Lander, known as Odysseus, disabled its integrated laser field fields. As a result, the trade had to fly its approach without a precise reading of the altitude and slipped on the surface while landing, breaking a leg and arriving to rest at an angle of 30 °. The scientific payloads on board were able to collect some data, but due to the lander angle, some were famous for solar energy and closed before expected.
Although they did not know the exact position or the attitude of the Lander Athena, the NASA teams and intuitive machines tried to highlight the positive aspects of the mission and the progress that the team had made from IM-1.
“Every day you can land something on the moon is a good day,” said Crain.
Note of the editor: This story has been updated to include information from the press conference of intuitive machines on the afternoon of March 6.
