A personal company launched one other lunar lander Wednesday (February 26, 2025), aiming to get nearer to the moon’s south pole this time with a drone that can hop right into a jet-black crater that by no means sees the solar.
Intuitive Machines’ lander, named Athena, caught a elevate with SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It’s taking a quick observe to the moon — with a touchdown on March 6 — whereas hoping to keep away from the destiny of its predecessor, which tipped over at landing.
Never earlier than have so many spacecraft angled for the moon’s floor suddenly. Last month, U.S. and Japanese corporations shared a rocket and individually launched landers towards Earth’s sidekick. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace ought to get there first this weekend after a giant head begin.
The two U.S. landers are carrying tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ price of experiments for NASA because it prepares to return astronauts to the moon.
“It’s an amazing time. There’s so much energy,” NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox instructed The Associated Press a couple of hours forward of the launch.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Intuitive Machines’ second lunar lander lifts off from pad 39A on the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on February 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
AP
This isn’t Intuitive Machines’ first lunar rodeo. Last 12 months, the Texas company made the primary U.S. landing on the moon in additional than 50 years. But an instrument that gauges distance didn’t work and the lander got here down too onerous and broke a leg, tipping onto its facet.
Intuitive Machines stated it has fastened the problem and dozens of others. A sideways touchdown like final time would stop the drone and a pair of rovers from shifting out. NASA’s drill additionally wants an upright touchdown to pierce beneath the lunar floor to collect soil samples for evaluation.
“Certainly, we will be better this time than we were last time. But you never know what could happen,” stated Trent Martin, senior vice chairman of area methods.
Only 5 international locations have pulled off a lunar touchdown over the a long time: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. The moon is littered with wreckage from many previous failures.
The 15-foot (4.7-meter) Athena will goal a touchdown 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Just a quarter-mile (400 meters) away is a completely shadowed crater — the last word vacation spot for the drone named Grace.
Named after the late pc programming pioneer Grace Hopper, the 3-foot (1-meter) drone will make three more and more increased and longer check hops throughout the lunar floor utilizing hydrazine fueled-thrusters for flight and cameras and lasers for navigation.
If these excursions go properly, it’ll hop into the close by pitch-black crater, an estimated 65 ft (20 meters) deep. Science devices from Hungary and Germany will take measurements on the backside whereas looking for frozen water.
It would be the first up-close peek inside one of many many shadowed craters dotting each the north and south poles. Scientists suspect these craters are packed with tons of ice. If so, this ice might be remodeled by future explorers into water to drink, air to breathe and even rocket gas.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Intuitive Machines’ second lunar lander lifts off from pad 39A on the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on February 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
AP
NASA is paying $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its drill and different experiments to the moon. The company, in flip, offered area on the lander to others. It additionally opened up the Falcon rocket to ride-sharing.
Tagalongs included NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer satellite tv for pc, which can fly individually to the moon over the following a number of months earlier than getting into lunar orbit to map the distribution of water under. Also catching a journey was a non-public spacecraft that can chase after an asteroid for a flyby, a precursor to asteroid mining.
Published – February 27, 2025 08:07 am IST
