Moonlander lands from intuitive machines, but apparently taps over

A second commercially built moonlander, which was built by intuitive machines from Houston, landed near the southern pole of the moon on Thursday, but telemetry indicated that it landed on the side.

The country is “alive,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of intuitive machines, but it is not yet known which mission goals can still be achieved.

“We do not believe that we are back in the correct attitude (orientation) on the surface of the moon,” said Oldemus. “I do not yet have all the data to say what the setting of the vehicle is. We are now collecting photos and will leave them down, and we will receive an image of the moon enlightenment -orbiter camera from above from the orbit, and we will confirm this in the coming days if we access this data.”

The touchdown came a year after the first moonlander from intuitive, named Odysseus, landed on the moon While they are still moving sideways. A rune broke and the spaceship tipped over to the side and limited the scientific return of the mission. The intuitive stock fell by 20%after the latest landing problem.

Known as Athena, the IM-2 spaceship of intuitive machines was launched eight days ago From a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Share of the trip to space stood three more spaceships: a NASA orbiter bound by moon, who, as a moon traffic, is known to a commercial asteroid examination of the asteroid called Odin, and a privately built room tractor for working in the flash of earth.

Shortly after the start, NASA lost contact with her Lunar Trailblazer satellite, and Astroforge met with problems that commanded his Odin brochure probe. Both payloads are likely to be lost, officials say.

Athena was wearing a number of highly developed instruments, two small rovers, experimental cell communication equipment and a rocket -powered “hopper”, which is supposed to jump from location to location near the lander. The lander apparently landed about 100 miles from the south pole of the moon at 12:30 p.m.

The exact timing and the exact location of the landing were not immediately referred to as a company flight controller in order to evaluate the confusing telemetry from the spaceship.

However, they finally confirmed that the main engine of the spacecraft was closed, its solar cells generated electricity and that the aircraft computer of the landing was in contact with company flight controllers and recognized commands as they were received.

Oldemus, a former NASA shuttle engineer and senior manager at the Johnson Space Center, said the most reliable information comes from the lander's inertia measurement unit, which indicated that Athena rested on his side.

“We think that's the case,” he said. “However, I would like to get a picture to know the orientation exactly where the antennas are shown where the engine bell is shown where the solar collectors are so that we can find a power supply profile.”

“We can talk to you with the payloads and order them and order them out of the way.

But time is short. The solar -powered Athena can only operate for about 10 days before the sun and darkness sweep over the landing site at the end of the moon day.

“If we receive this full rating, we will work closely with the NASA science and technology groups to identify scientific goals that are the highest priority,” said Altemus. “And then we will find out what the mission profile will look.

The lander braked into the orbit on Monday, five days after the start from Kennedy Space Center. Thursday morning, when he flew over the other side of the moon, Athena's main engine fired a process to lower the other side of his orbit from about 62 miles to a little more than 6 miles.

During the coast up to a lower height, the lander probably used its cameras and lasers in a relative navigation system in terrain demonstrations in order to constantly monitor the height and speed and keep the spaceship on the course to the landing site.

When it approached the goal, the main engine again fired in a maneuver named Powered Descent Initiation, which is intended to greatly reduce its initial speed of 4,000 miles per hour. As soon as the braking maneuver was completed, Athena was programmed so that it turned into a vertical rear alignment for the last phase of the descent and pushed the surface forward after dangers.

It was expected that the landlord was relegated to the surface in Mond Highlands, which is known as Mons Mouton region, with a sedated 2.2 miles per hour for the final drop. But the spacecraft maneuvered autonomously in order to find a safer area area after the surface was evaluated. The details of the final phases of the descent are not yet known.

The NASA aims at the southern polar region for astronaut landings, largely because data from all -round satellites indicate that ice cream can be present in permanently shaded craters that never see the light of the sun and are among the coldest areas in the solar system.

The water molecules were probably delivered over billion years due to comet effects and interactions between moon dust and the electrically charged sun wind.

The innovative “Grace” Hopper was developed to jump into one of these dark craters, about a quarter mile of Athena von Athena from Athena for in -situ measurements and its observations to the lander with 4G/LTE cell network devices from Nokia.

It was expected that other instruments on the lander were looking for the chemical traces of water and other compounds and accept measurements of the floor temperature and the composition. Two small rovers were on board to explore the landing site and test innovative mobility systems.

Oldemus said it could still be possible to use the funnel and the Rovers, but that depends on the orientation of the landing.

Second moonland to reach the moon this year

Athena's arrival is the second of three that reaches the moon this year.

A lander based on Austin Firefly Aerospace successfully landed On the moon early Sunday, March 2, the commercially developed Blue Ghost Lander is equipped with 10 instruments sponsored by NASA, with which data is to be collected for the Artemis program.

NASA agreed to pay Firefly Aerospace $ 101 million for the delivery of the science instruments and technological demonstrations sponsored by the agency to the moon surface. The instruments cost NASA another 44 million US dollars.

Athena's instruments and technological demonstrations were also financed by NASA. The agency paid the company $ 62.5 million in order to deliver a powerful drilling and mass spectrometer, which is known together as Prime-1, to the surface of the moon.

The “Tipping Point” technology development program of NASA paid 15 million US dollars for the integration of the Nokia mobile communication and another 41 million US dollars for intuitive machines to finance the “Grace” funnel.

Another 89 million US dollars paid a lunar atllite built by Lockheed Martin, which was started on the same Falcon 9 rocket as Athena. But the Lunar Trailblazer satellite was out of contact with the earth shortly after the start and has not been heard since then.

Blue Ghost and Athena were both largely financed by the CLPS program (Commercial Lunar Payoad Services) of NASA. The CLPS initiative aims to encourage the private industry to start the payload of agencies to the moon in order to collect the necessary science and technical data before Artemis astronauts later start working on the surface this decade.

In the meantime, a Japanese lander became known in January The same Falcon 9 rocket that increased the blue spirit into space. The resilience of Ispace in Tokyo has led a longer way to the moon with low energy and will only arrive in early June.

Miles Doran

contributed to this report.