Intuitive Machines Reveals Why Its Moon Lander Faceplanted Right into a Crater

Earlier this 12 months, an ill-fated lander skidded throughout the lunar floor and ended up mendacity sideways in a chilly, darkish crater. Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander was declared lifeless on arrival on the Moon. Now, the corporate has launched a report detailing the chain of mishaps that led to its demise.

Athena touched down on the Moon on Thursday, March 6, following a week-long journey by area. After a less-than-ideal landing, the lunar lander ended up on its facet in a shallow crater within the Moon’s Mons Mouton area, 820 toes (250 meters) from its focused touchdown web site. Throughout an earnings name on Wednesday, Intuitive Machines listed three components that affected Athena’s means to land on the Moon, SpaceNews reported.

The primary subject needed to do with the lander’s laser altimeters, devices designed to assist it estimate its distance from the Moon throughout descent. “Within the last part of descent, we noticed sign noise and distortion that didn’t enable for correct altitude readings,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus mentioned through the name.

The Houston-based firm additionally blamed circumstances on the Moon’s south polar area. In accordance with Altemus, the daylight’s low angles and the topography “created lengthy shadows and dim lighting circumstances that challenged the precision functionality of our touchdown system.”

The third issue that resulted in Athena’s lunar tumble was the lander’s incapability to acknowledge craters on the Moon from decrease altitudes. Intuitive Machines relied on images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter to information the lander’s optical navigation system throughout its descent. These photos, nevertheless, are captured at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) and subsequently “couldn’t precisely account for a way craters seem at decrease altitudes with south pole lighting circumstances as you strategy the touchdown web site,” Altemus mentioned.

The corporate is treating Athena’s failed mission as a set of classes discovered because it prepares to launch its third lander someday subsequent 12 months. “We’ve added dissimilar and redundant altimeters to the sensor suite, they usually’re going by extra rigorous and excessive flight-like testing than we’ve performed earlier than,” Altemus mentioned in Tuesday’s name, in line with Space.com. “We’ve included an extra lighting-independent sensor for floor velocity measurements. We’ve expanded onboard terrain crater database for enhanced navigation throughout the floor of the moon.”

Intuitive Machines launched its first lunar lander, Odysseus, in February 2024. It reached the lunar floor, however the touchdown wasn’t precisely easy. One of many lander’s legs could have gotten caught throughout its descent, inflicting it to tip onto its facet and end up lying sideways on a rock. The mission did function for seven days on the lunar floor, making Intuitive Machines the primary firm to land a personal lander on the Moon.

“Transferring ahead, we’ll succeed,” Altemus mentioned. “Land softly, land upright, land able to function.”