Washington (AFP) – Second time unlucky: A US company’s lunar lander appears to have touched down at a wonky angle on Thursday, an embarrassing repeat of its previous mission’s less-than-perfect landing last year. Houston-based Intuitive Machines made history in February 2024 as the first private firm to place a spaceship on Earth’s nearest neighbor, though the moment was marred by Odysseus toppling over upon touchdown.
For its second attempt, the company sent the hexagonal Athena lander to the Mons Mouton plateau, closer to the lunar south pole than any mission before it. The team targeted a 12:32 pm ET (1732 GMT) touchdown, but as time passed with confirmation, mission control grew visibly tense. Twenty minutes after the scheduled landing, company spokesman Josh Marshall announced on a webcast: “Athena is on the surface of the Moon.” However, teams were still analyzing data to determine the lander’s exact status, he said.
Later, CEO Steve Altemus acknowledged to reporters: “We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude,” an aeronautical term for orientation. He added that the lander’s position could limit power generation and communication, impacting the mission’s success. Intuitive Machines’ share price tumbled 20 percent in afternoon trading. The company suggested that, as in its previous mission, issues with Athena’s laser altimeters, which provide altitude and velocity readings, may have played a role in the suboptimal landing. Athena, like its predecessor Odysseus, has a tall, slender build. At 15.6 feet (4.8 meters) — the height of a giraffe — it had raised stability concerns. However, Altemus emphasized that the lander’s weight distribution kept the center of gravity low, and Intuitive Machines remains confident in its design.
Expectations were high after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on the Moon on Sunday on its first attempt.
– Cutting-edge technologies at stake –
Both missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which seeks to leverage private industry to reduce costs and support Artemis, NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually to reach Mars. Athena carries an ice-drilling experiment, a 4G cellular network test, three rovers, and a unique hopping drone named Grace, designed to descend into a permanently shadowed crater—where sunlight has never reached—a first for humanity. However, whether any of these objectives can be met depends on Athena’s final resting angle, which is yet to be determined.
“Any time humanity puts a lander on the moon, it’s a good day,” said Tim Crain, the Intuitive Machines chief technology officer, striking a positive tone. The team hopes to use imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine Athena’s exact location and orientation, though this could take a day or two, Crain added. Despite the non-optimal orientation, NASA’s Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the science mission directorate, said the agency remains “excited” and will prioritize gathering as much scientific and technology data as possible before the mission ends.
– Sticking the landing –
Lunar landings are notoriously difficult. The Moon’s lack of atmosphere rules out parachutes, forcing spacecraft to rely on precise thrusts and navigation over hazardous terrain. Until Intuitive Machines’ first mission, only national space agencies had achieved the feat, with NASA’s last landing dating back to Apollo 17 in 1972. The company’s first lander, Odysseus, came in too fast, caught a foot on the surface and toppled over, cutting the mission short when its solar panels could not generate enough power.
Athena launched last Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which also carried NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer probe, a spacecraft designed to map the Moon’s water distribution. However, ground controllers have been struggling to re-establish contact with Trailblazer, adding to NASA’s challenges. These missions come at a delicate time for NASA, amid speculation that the agency may scale back or even cancel the crewed Moon missions in favor of prioritizing Mars, a goal championed by President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor and SpaceX owner Elon Musk.
© 2024 AFP
