On March 6, the Athena spacecraft owned by Intuitive Machines will attempt a landing near the Moon’s South Pole. The event will be broadcast live.
Athena’s technical design and tasks
As in the case of the recently landed on the Moon vehicle Blue Ghost, the Athena mission is funded under the CLPS program. As part of this program, NASA pays private companies to deliver various cargoes to the Moon. This is not the first such mission for Intuitive Machines. Last year, the Odysseus probe built by Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon. It was partially successful: due to malfunctions and a broken prop, the spacecraft landed in an abnormal position, but later still completed most of its science program.
Athena’s primary mission is to demonstrate technologies that should lay the foundation for a long-term lunar infrastructure. One such demonstration will be the PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1). As part of it, Athena will take a sample of matter from the lunar interior, after which it will search for volatile substances in it. In addition to drilling regolith, the vehicle will collect data on radiation conditions. They will help designers understand how to better protect people and equipment from the negative effects of cosmic rays.
In addition, Athena will land several mobile vehicles on the Moon. One of them, called Micro Nova Hopper, will navigate the lunar surface by jumping. It will study craters whose bottoms are never illuminated by the Sun.
“The Micro Nova Hopper will be accompanied by the MAPP and Yaoki micro-rovers. The first will explore the lunar surface, measuring its temperature and collecting samples of regolith. And on its roof is a tiny matchbox-sized device called AstroAnt, which will measure the temperature of the MAPP body itself. As for Yaoki, it will be testing technology to move across the lunar surface.
Live broadcast of the Athena landing
Athena is already in lunar orbit and has performed all the necessary maneuvers. The spacecraft will start landing on the Moon on March 6.
The landing will be streamed live on NASA and Intuitive Machines’ website and Youtube. It will begin on March 6 at about 11:30 p.m. EST. If all goes according to plan, Athena will touch the surface about an hour later, at 12:32 p.m. EST.
Athena’s landing site should be Mons Mouton. This is the highest lunar mountain that has received an official name. Its height from base to top is 6 km and it is located 160 km from the South Pole of the Moon. Mons Mouton is thought to have formed as part of the rim of the South Pole-Aitken impact basin. Therefore, it is of great interest to scientists who are trying to reconstruct the events that formed the early Moon.
Athena is designed to operate for 14 days. Since the vehicle has no heaters, it is unlikely that it will survive a cold lunar night.
