Athéna Lander in low lunar orbit
Intuitive machines
Athena Lander of intuitive machines arrived on the moon, but she seems to have fallen. The landing is still working, but it is not yet clear which parts of its mission to be able to accomplish.
The spaceship was launched Aboard a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 27. He landed on March 6, but it was not entirely successful and his precise location and his orientation on the lunar surface are not yet clear.
“We do not believe that we are in the right attitude on the surface of the Moon, again,” said the CEO of intuitive machines Stephen altemus During a press conference shortly after landing. This is a result similar to the company's last attempt to land on the moon with its Ulysses spacecraft. Who marked the first time that a private company won a spaceship on the lunar surface, but He took a look On the side and could not return a lot of data.
Athena has a variety of scientific instruments, but perhaps the most important of them is the regolith and the exercise of ice to explore new land (trident), NASA experience designed to drill up to a meter through the lunar floor. It is intended to take samples from the basement and to analyze their content, in search of water ice and other chemical compounds.
“This experience marks an important step, because it will be the first robotic drilling activity carried out in the South Pole region of the Moon,” said Jacqueline Quinn in KSC in a press conference on February 25. If Trident still works, “this is a crucial step towards understanding and exploitation of lunar resources to support future exploration,” she said.
As part of her mission, Athena won several Rovers on the Moon. One of them, nicknamed Grace after the computer scientist and mathematician Grace Hopper, is designed to jump around the surface, unlike any rover that preceded it, pulling small boosters to jump 100 meters in the air and travel a distance of about 200 meters. Grace is intended to explore the strange of the moon, permanently shaded craters.
The operators of Athena were able to send the artisanal orders and turn it and its useful scientific charges, as well as the downward connection on earth. The solar panels also work to load the electronics of the landing. This seems to be good news, but the team still works which instruments will be able to achieve its scientific objectives, said Altemus.
This mission is part of a broader thrust for increased exploration of the Moon, partly in preparation for the human missions provided for during the next decade. Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Landder I just went to the moon on March 2, and the resilience of the Japanese company Ispace is on the way.
