The American probe Athena, launched by Intuitive Machines, with Spacex support, has successfully reached the surface of the month on Thursday, but failed to sit in the planned vertical position. This problem led to the premature interruption of the mission, the Aerospace Company in Texas announced on Friday.
Capture made by the Athena probe before landing on the Moon. Photo: Intuitive Machines
“The mission is completed and our teams continue to analyze the collected data“, Intuitive Machines said on his official website.
Athena was designed to transport scientific equipment for NASA and perform various experiments for about ten days. However, the images transmitted by the probe “They confirmed that Athena was fallen on one side ” instead of staying upright.
Due to its position, the probe cannot recharge its batteries through solar panels, which limits the duration of operations
Athena, a vehicle over four meters high – comparable to an adult giraffe – was equipped with several exploration tools, including a drilling system for water detection under the monthly bark, a Sătăreț robot called Grace, capable of exploring difficult land, and a 4G cellular network testing.
This is not the first challenge greeted by the company. In February 2024, Intuitive Machines managed to become the first private company to successfully land a well, Odysseus. But even then, the vehicle landed in an inclined position, partially affecting its functionality.
Athena probe has reached the moon’s surface at approximately “250 meters from the planned place”near the southern pole, an area of major interest due to the presence of water in the form of ice. Despite the difficulties, Athena remains one of the probes that has closest to this region.
In parallel, Firefly Aerospace, another Texas company, announced on Sunday the successful landing of his Blue Ghost probe, part of a NASA project. Lunar private missions have become more and more frequent, because NASA has opted to collaborate with companies in the private sector to reduce costs and accelerate the pace of selenium exploration.
The Artemis program, the NASA initiative to establish a sustainable human presence per month, has encountered several technical delays and challenges. In this context, the partial failure of the Athena mission highlights the difficulties of these operations, as well as the lessons that the space industry can learn.
“Our goal is to allow American companies to build an economy on the surface of the Moon, which means that even if the landing on the Moon is not perfect, we still learn lessons that we can use in the future”, Said Nicki Fox, official NASA.
