Earlier this year, a badly lucky lander slid across the moon's surface and eventually lay on the side of a cold, dark crater. Athena Lander, the intuitive machine, was pronounced dead on his arrival on the moon. Now, the company has released a report detailing the misfortune chains that led to its demise.
Athena landed on the moon on Thursday, March 6 after a week-long journey to space. After an unsatisfactory touchdown, Lunar Lander ended up next to the asia pass in the Moon Mons Mouton area, 820 feet (250 meters) from its target landing point. In Wednesday's earnings call, the intuitive machine listed three factors that affected Athena's ability to land on the moon, SpaceNews reported.
The first problem is related to the lander's laser altimeter, which is designed to help it estimate its distance from the moon during its descent. “In the final stage of the decline, we see signal noise and distortion do not allow accurate height readings,” Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, said during the call.
The Houston-based company also blames the Moon's Antarctic region. According to Altemus, the low angles and terrain of sunlight “creates long shadows and dim lighting conditions that challenge the precise capabilities of our landing systems.”
The third factor that caused Athena's moon torrent was that Rand was unable to recognize the craters on the moon from the lower altitude. The intuitive machine relies on photos captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnasance Orbiter to guide the optical navigation system when landing. However, these images were captured at an altitude of 62 miles (100 km), so “the craters that appear at lower altitudes at Antarctic lighting conditions at the time of landing are not accurately considered.”
The company is viewing Athena's failed mission as a series of lessons learned as it prepares to launch its third lander sometime next year. “We have added different and redundant altimeters to the sensor suite, and they are doing more rigorous and extreme flight tests than before,” Altemus said in Space.com. “We have added an additional unilluminated sensor for surface velocity measurements. We have expanded the database of terrain craters on the board to enhance navigation on the moon's surface.”
The intuitive machine launched its first Lunar Odysseus in February 2024. It reached the moon's surface, but the landing was not completely smooth. One of the Randian's legs may be caught as they descend, causing it to tilt to the side and eventually lie sideways on the rock. The mission did run for seven days on the moon's surface, making the intuitive machine the first company to land a private lander on the moon.
“Go forward, we will be successful,” Altermos said. “Land gently, land upright, ready for operation.”
