NASA-backed lunar lander fails a day after tipping over
What's the story
Intuitive Machines has reported the failure of its second lunar lander, Athena, a day after its landing on the Moon's South Pole. The spacecraft tipped over after landing and subsequently lost power.
Despite the setback, Intuitive Machines announced that several program and payload milestones were "accelerated" before the mission ended.
This marks another unsuccessful lunar mission for the Houston-based company, after their Odysseus spacecraft in February last year.
Mission challenges
Athena's solar panels hinder recharging
The company revealed that Athena's solar panels' arrangement, along with sunlight direction and extreme cold temperatures at its landing site, kept the spacecraft from recharging its batteries.
"The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission," Intuitive Machines said in an update.
Despite these issues, NASA confirmed Athena successfully landed about 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended target area on March 6.
Experiment success
Successful deployment of NASA's ice mining experiment
Intuitive Machines confirmed that it successfully deployed NASA's Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) before Athena lost power.
This experiment features a drill capable of digging up to three feet into the Moon's surface.
The company did not detail other experiments that were deployed, but Athena also carried two small rovers, a Nokia 4G communications system, and a solid-state "lunar data center."
Future missions
Intuitive Machines plans to apply lessons from IM-2
Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus called the mission "a success" for reaching the Moon and operating for a short period after launching from Earth.
He confirmed the company will apply lessons learned from IM-2 to its next lunar mission, IM-3, which is scheduled for 2026.
The firm also has a $117 million NASA contract for a fourth flight in 2027.
Mission difficulties
Challenges of lunar south pole
Both Intuitive Machines and NASA emphasized the lunar south pole's rugged terrain, with its harsh sunlight angles and inaccessibility, as a major challenge for lunar landing.
"It's this twilight space of shadows and grays that it was interesting," said Tim Crain, the Chief Technology Officer of Intuitive Machines, referring to the crater lighting during Athena's descent.
He was proud of how well their crater tracking system performed under such unusual lighting conditions.