CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A private lunar lander named Athena has officially ended its mission after it landed sideways in a crater near the moon’s south pole. Officials made this announcement on Friday, just a day after the unsuccessful landing attempt by Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based company.
The lander, which was launched just a week ago, missed its designated landing zone by over 800 feet and ended up in a very cold part of the moon. The company confirmed that Athena is no longer operational but did manage to send back some images before it went silent. The mission had a number of valuable experiments onboard, including an ice drill, a drone, and rovers designed to explore the terrain ahead of planned astronaut missions in the coming years.
Given the position of the lander’s solar panels and the extreme temperatures in the crater, it is unlikely that its batteries can be recharged. In a statement, the company declared, “The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout.”
This was only the second landing attempt for Intuitive Machines. The first attempt, made a year ago, also ended with the lander landing sideways, although it operated for a longer period. Nonetheless, that mission marked the U.S.’s return to the moon after 50 years.
In contrast, another Texas company, Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on the moon earlier this week as part of NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program. This initiative aims to stimulate economic activities on the moon while preparing for astronauts’ return. Firefly CEO Jason Kim reported that eight out of ten NASA experiments on Blue Ghost have already achieved their mission goals.
The south pole of the moon is known for being particularly challenging to explore due to its harsh sunlight angles, limited communication with Earth, and rugged terrain. Athena’s landing was the closest any spacecraft has come to the south pole, just 100 miles away. This region is crucial as NASA plans to send astronauts there for the first time since the Apollo missions in the late 20th century, looking ahead to 2027. The craters are thought to contain significant amounts of frozen water, vital for sustaining future crews and possibly creating rocket fuel.
Intuitive Machines still holds contracts for two more lunar landings with NASA. However, the company plans to investigate what went wrong during this mission before launching again. After Athena’s crash landing, controllers quickly turned off some of its equipment to save power while trying to recover as much data as possible.
Both of Intuitive Machines’ landings have faced last-minute issues with their primary laser navigation system. The company’s drone, Grace, was meant to travel across the surface to search for frozen water, while rovers from other companies were also slated to explore the area.
Although Athena’s batteries died, NASA’s ice drill experiment was activated beforehand, but the extent of its success remains unclear. The company celebrated some milestones and objectives, and NASA invested $62 million in this mission to bring its experiments to the moon.
