Last year, Intuitive Machines successfully landed a robotic spacecraft named Odysseus on the moon. The Houston-based company aims to repeat this achievement, but with a significant improvement: ensuring the spacecraft remains upright upon landing.
When Odysseus touched down on the lunar surface last February, it was indeed a milestone as the first commercially operated lander to reach the moon and the first American craft to land softly since Apollo 17 in 1972. Despite landing on its side, it managed to maintain communication with Earth.
Now, Intuitive Machines is gearing up for another lunar mission with their second lander, Athena, which is currently poised on the launchpad. Here’s what to know about the upcoming Wednesday flight.
### Launch Details and Viewing Information
Athena is slated to launch alongside three other spacecraft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch is set for 7:16 p.m. Eastern time on February 26, with weather conditions looking favorable at over 95 percent likelihood of cooperation.
In case weather or technical hurdles delay liftoff, the mission can still launch within a four-day window; otherwise, it will be postponed by a month. NASA will be broadcasting the event live, beginning about 45 minutes before takeoff.
### Destination for Athena
Should the launch proceed on schedule, the Intuitive Machines spacecraft will target a landing on March 6 at Mons Mouton, located roughly 100 miles from the moon’s south pole. This would set a new record for proximity to the lunar south pole by any lander to date.
### Payload on Board Athena
Athena’s primary cargo is a drill developed for NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Outsourcing transportation to the moon to companies like Intuitive Machines proves more cost-effective for NASA than constructing its own craft.
This drill is engineered to penetrate up to three feet beneath the surface and will collect lunar soil in approximately four-inch increments. A mass spectrometer will then analyze the samples for compounds such as frozen water that can easily convert into gas.
Additionally, the Athena lander will deploy three robotic rovers and a small flying device known as a “hopper.”
### Technological Ventures on the Moon
Among the three rovers, the largest, named the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), is involved in a NASA-backed experiment to establish the moon’s first cellular network. Nokia secured funding from NASA for this purpose and partnered with Lunar Outpost to build MAPP, which is comparable to the size of a small dog.
Different clients, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have leased space on MAPP. MIT has developed a miniature rover called AstroAnt, designed to traverse MAPP’s flat top.
Furthermore, Athena is tasked with deploying a rover named Yaoki, originating from the Japanese company Dymon, and is slightly larger than a Mac mini.
Intuitive Machines also created the hopper under a separate NASA contract. This rocket-propelled craft offers a novel method for exploring broader distances, akin to the role of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.
Though helicopters can’t operate in the moon’s airless environment, the hopper’s thrusters will allow it to traverse long gaps. It will also transport one of the Nokia cell antennas into a perpetually shadowed lunar crater.
### Handling Lunar Eclipses
Athena’s mission is designed to last less than one lunar day—or approximately 10 Earth days—after which it will lose solar power. However, on March 14 around 2 a.m. Eastern time, temporary darkness will result from an eclipse as Earth moves between the sun and the moon.
During this brief event, the solar-powered lander will need to rely on its batteries but is expected to manage without issues.
### Lessons from the Odysseus Lander
The previous mission saw the Odysseus lander tip over when its laser altimeter was mistakenly left disabled. As a quick fix, Intuitive Machines engineers revamped the software to use alternate data, but a critical error in the coding left it unable to correct its orientation fully, leading to a sideways landing.
Athena, nearly a twin of Odysseus dubbed the Nova-C design, has undergone multiple tests on its laser altimeter to prevent a repeat.
### Companions on the Falcon 9 Rocket
Alongside Athena, three other spacecraft are joining the ride on the Falcon 9’s rocket space. One is the Lunar Trailblazer, a NASA mission costing around $100 million, intended to map the distribution of lunar water from space.
While Athena’s journey to the moon is brief, taking just a week, Lunar Trailblazer will take a longer, energy-efficient course. If launched as planned, it will arrive in over four months, or up to seven months if the launch timing shifts.
The second spacecraft, Odin, hails from California’s AstroForge and will investigate a nearby asteroid for potential metal resources.
Additionally, CHIMERA GEO 1 from Epic Aerospace in San Francisco has been designed to deploy small satellites into distant orbits.
### Upcoming Moon Landings
Athena represents the third commercial lunar attempt this year, although it may be the second to land. On January 15, another Falcon 9 rocket launched Blue Ghost from Firefly Aerospace, as well as Resilience from Japan’s Ispace.
Blue Ghost, also part of NASA’s CLPS initiative, plans to land on March 2 at Mare Crisium on the moon’s near side. Resilience, or Hakuto-R Mission 2, opts for a more indirect route, aiming for a May arrival at Mare Frigoris. This marks Ispace’s second moon landing bid, following a 2023 crash.
