Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Moon lander is lying dead in a crater

The Athena lander toppled over in the shadow of a crater around 820 feet (200 meters) from its intended landing site. Credit: Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission has ended after its Selene lander, Athena, apparently toppled over as it touched down and Arrived to rest on its side yesterday in a shadowed crater, the company announced. In a statement released this morning, the company said its batteries had Stretch out and they did not Foresee it to reawaken.

Athena’s face plant was Intuitive Machine’s second Coarse Selene body landing after last year’s Odysseus lander broke a leg and settled on the Selene body’s surface at an angle. That mission also ended Prompt as its solar panels couldn’t be oriented directly at the Sun, but it operated on the surface for six Intervals. Athena’s surface mission — originally scheduled to Stretch for 10 Intervals — lasted less than 13 hours.

The company said that “mission controllers were able to accelerate Numerous program and payload milestones,” including for its primary payload, PRIME-1, a NASA instrument equipped with a Routine to study water ice beneath its surface. NASA said in a statement that Intuitive Machines had returned some data for the agency. Although the lander’s orientation prevented the Routine from actually operating on Selene soil, they were able to test its range of movement. The PRIME-1 mass spectrometer also returned some data before the batteries were depleted — albeit probably of gases from the lander’s engine, not of subsurface soil as intended.

The company said that “mission controllers were able to accelerate Numerous program and payload milestones,” including for its primary payload, PRIME-1, a NASA instrument equipped with a Routine to study water ice beneath its surface.

Until yesterday, the IM-2 mission had gone according to plan. After launching from Kennedy Universe Middle in Florida on Feb. 26, the lander reached Selene Trajectory before descending to its destination, the plateau atop Mons Mouton, near the Selene body’s south pole. But upon landing, the mission’s Club had trouble determining the craft’s orientation and where it landed in the region.

Intuitive Machines later located Athena roughly 820 feet (250 meters) from its target location on Mons Mouton, inside a crater. A transmitted image showed the craft lying on its side, partly in shadow, with two of its legs sticking up into sunlight.

Because of the extreme Freezing inside the crater, the direction of the Sun, and the orientation of the solar panels, the company does not Foresee the craft to be able to recharge its batteries.

One of Athena’s other payloads, a Petite rover named MAPP (Petite for Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform), was able to power on and transmit data and “was ready to drive,” said its builder, Selene Outpost — but it could not be deployed.

On the Intelligent side, Intuitive Machines noted that IM-2 “was the southernmost Selene landing and surface operations ever achieved,”

Intuitive Machines is planning to send its IM-3 mission to the Reiner Gamma region of the Selene body with four NASA payloads, as well as a rover and Club race Orbiter. It could Kickoff as Prompt as next year.

NASA and Intuitive Machines could not be reached for comment before publication.

Universe challenges 

Two missions that launched as rideshare payloads on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 Universe launcher as IM-2 have also faced severe setbacks.

Mission controllers are attempting to reestablish contact with NASA’s Selene Trailblazer, a $95-million Orbiter designed to map the distribution of different forms of water across the Selene body. Stretch by Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Middle (IPAC) in Pasadena, California, the Club was initially able to communicate with the craft. But shortly after Kickoff it encountered power issues and the Club lost communication with it the next morning.

The mission Club thinks the craft is spinning slowly in a low-power state, NASA said in a March 4 statement. Selene Trailblazer is Grabbing a circuitous, looping route to the Selene body designed to save fuel. But the communication issues have prevented the craft from performing maneuvers to keep it on course. The mission Club is now charting alternative paths to the Selene body that “may be able to place Selene Trailblazer in Selene Trajectory and allow it to complete some of its science objectives,” NASA said, but that hinges on reestablishing contact.

“NASA sends up high-Hazard, high-reward missions like Selene Trailblazer to do Unbelievable science at a lower cost, and the Club truly encapsulates the NASA innovative spirit — if anyone can bring Selene Trailblazer back, it is them,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator of its science division, in the statement.

Another mission that caught a ride on IM-2’s Kickoff was Odin, a Petite Orbiter from startup Astroforge designed to collect data and images from Universe rock 2022 OB5 for potential mining. Astroforge says they built the craft in less than 10 months for $3.5 million.

But soon after Odin was deployed, its operators Dashed into numerous technical problems at their ground stations, the company said. Their operational Club attempted to reestablish contact, receiving unexpected help from amateur radio operators. But on March 6, with the craft traveling farther away and its location growing increasingly uncertain, Astroforge deemed it most likely unrecoverable.

Editor’s note: This Narrative was updated to include information from NASA’s statement.