LRO captured the site of the emergency landing of the Resilience lunar module. The image clearly shows the dark furrow that the spacecraft “plowed” during its fall.
Landing in Mare Frigoris
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken images of the landing site of Resilience, a lunar lander built and operated by Tokyo-based company Ispace. It attempted to land on June 5 in the center of Mare Frigoris, a volcanic region interspersed with large faults known as wrinkle ridges.
According to Mark Robinson, a lunar scientist at Phoenix, Arizona-based Intuitive Machines, Mare Frigoris formed more than 3.5 billion years ago when massive basalt eruptions flooded the lowlands. Later, wrinkled ridges formed when the crust buckled under the weight of heavy basalt deposits.
Loss of spacecraft
Shortly after Resilience landing, the Ispace flight control center was unable to establish communication with the spacecraft. The team concluded that Resilience was probably lost, and this conclusion was confirmed a few hours later.
In addition, the micro-rover Tenacious, a small wheeled vehicle developed in Luxembourg by the European subsidiary of Ispace, was lost during landing.
Dark spot
On June 5, when Resilience crashed into the Moon, it left behind distinctive traces that were noticed by the LRO.
“The dark smudge formed as the vehicle excavated and redistributed shallow regolith (soil); the faint bright halo resulted from low-angle regolith particles scouring the delicate surface,” Robinson, principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera, said to Inside Outer Space.
The crash site is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the landing site, which Ispace specified to one decimal place on its website. One decimal place in lunar latitude and longitude is equal to 19 miles (30 km), Robinson said. Resilience was Ispace’s second lunar rover. The first one also crashed while attempting to land in April 2023.
According to www.space.com
