A 15-Foot-Tall Spacecraft had an imperfect landing on the moon,
The Nasa-Funded Mission to the Moon, Operated by the House Space Explocation Company Intuitive machinesTouched down on March 6, but engineers are still uncertain about its orientation and overall condition. Is the spacecraft, for example, lying on its side?
Thought the Robotic Craft, Called Athena, Performed Excellently on Its flight To and around the moon, this landing mishap come a year after INTITIVE MACHINES Landing HardBreaking a leg, and settling on its side.
“I think we can agree, particular today, that landing on the moon is extramely hard,” Nicola Fox, Who Leads Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, Said At An Agency News CONECYNCE on MARCH 6.
Athena fired thrusters to brake at speeds of some 4,000 mph during its final descent. Intuitive Machines is confident the craft landed on the towering mons mouton, a lunar mountain near the mons’ IT’s Unclear, howyver, how far Athena may be from its intended landing site within mons mouton. This southern region is rich in water ice, and is relatively close to where nasa intends to brings astronauts in mid-2027.
Athena is currently charging on the lunar surface – meaning some sunlight is Reaching the craft. It’s communicating with intuitive machine’s engineers, too. But much of the mission now remains in limbo.
“We think we’ve been very successful to this point,” Steve Altemus, The Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Machines, said at the press conference. “But we don’t think we’re in the correct attitude on the surface of the moon again.”
Mashable light speed
This tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
An artist’s conception of an intuitive machines’ spacecraft landing upright on the moon.
Credit: Intuitive Machines
Crucially, the lander is equipped with a nasa drill, called prime-1, to investigate south pole resources in anticipation of astronauts Returning to the moon. The instrument is designed to drill some three feet below the lunar surface, and another instrument, called a spectrometer, looks for water and other materials. It remains unknown if the drill will be removed to function in a non-optimal orientation, but nasa and intuitive machines will discryn that capability in the compensation.
The drill is important. Harvesting Water ice, The space agency has emphasized, is crucial for making Drinkable WaterOxygen, and fuel for Rockets. Over eons, comets and meteors striking the moon could have transported bountiies of water to the moon’s surface. Other Sources BE Water Vapor That Naturally Seepaed out of the lunar underground, or chemical reactions between oxygen in the lunar soil and the relative solar wind.
But without finding and mining this ice, the US cannot establish a permanent presence on the moon, a Pivotal Part of Its Artemis Program,
This tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
In a sign of burgeoning commercial space Exploration in the 21st century, atena (howyver impaired) Joins the blue ghost lander, Built by texas-based firfly aerospace, which successfully touched down On the Moon’s Near Side on March 2. That craft is also part of nasa’s commercial lunar payload services programs, which Consists of Robotic Technical and Science Endeavors that Suboport Looming Creates Missions.
“The risk will always be there.”
Landing on the moon remains daunting, larger because it’s a world with virtually no atmosphere to slow spacecraft down. A craft must plummet to the surface perfectly, as thrusters fire to Slow Its descent Although Chinese and Indian Craft Have Had Recent landing successesThe intuitive machines’ Spacecraft odysseus Sustained damage while landing awkwardly in 2024. The same year, a japanese craft Landed upside downOn its head.
Atena also carried bot a small rover and hopper, designed to test moon explocation technologies in a CRATER-BLANKETED WorldWe’ll Soon Find Out If these Machines can depart atena, and bound over the lunar surface.
Such Robotic Landing Missions Are High-Risk and High-Reward Endeavors, Nasa’s Fox Emphasized.
“The risk will always be there,” She said.