Intuitive Machines has announced the completion of the Athena spacecraft. Before its death, it managed to photograph the Earth above the Moon’s South Pole.
Athena landed on the Moon on March 6. The place of its landing was Mons Mouton, located 160 km from the Moon’s South Pole.
Unfortunately, technical problems occurred during the descent of the vehicle. It landed 250 meters away from the estimated landing site inside the crater and fell on its side. This condemned Athena. The fact is that the South Polar region is characterized by very specific lighting conditions. The sun is near the horizon there, so the bottom of many craters is never illuminated by the sun’s rays. In addition, it is difficult to communicate with the Earth from the South Pole of the Moon.
Because Athena sat on its side, its solar panels were unable to get the amount of light it needed. Thus, the vehicle had to run on the remnants of battery power. After landing, controllers were able to accelerate some steps in the mission’s science program, including an experiment to drill through the lunar soil to look for water ice. The vehicle also managed to transmit several photos. On one of them you can see the Earth above the lunar horizon.
After the batteries were depleted, communication with the Athena ceased. According to experts, a combination of the vehicle’s misorientation, the Sun’s position in the sky and the extremely low temperatures inside the crater leave Athena with almost no chance of recharging its batteries. Thus, its mission is officially declared complete.
Even though Athena has operated much less than expected, Intuitive Machines emphasizes that it has become the vehicle that landed closest to the Moon’s South Pole in history. The experience gained from this mission will have to help future expeditions that will explore this complex and hard-to-reach region.
It is worth noting that the devices launched with Athena also suffered a setback. Shortly after separation from the rocket, NASA lost contact with its Lunar Trailblazer satellite, and AstroForge lost contact with the Odin probe, which was supposed to be engaged in asteroid exploration but instead got lost in space.
According to Intuitive Machines
