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A second civilian spaceship lands on the moon in just a week

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In less than a week, the second privately constructed US spacecraft is poised to land on the moon.

The robot lander, named Athena, was created by an intuitive machine based in Texas. It was launched into space on February 26th and has been traveling to the moon for the past week.

About the size of a dishwasher, the six-legged ship is set to land in the lunar Antarctic area, with plans to spend a week searching for possible water ice beneath the lunar surface.

The landing is scheduled for Thursday at 12:32 pm ET.

If successful, Athena will be the second vehicle to land on the moon in five days, following another robotic lander built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which landed there on Sunday.

Both missions are part of NASA’s Commercial Moon Payload Services program, aimed at assisting private companies in developing Moonlander technology. Over a dozen US companies are involved in this initiative, which is crucial to NASA’s overarching goal of returning astronauts to the moon.

Athena’s landing will mark the second moonshot for the intuitive machine. The company previously made history in February 2024 by landing a commercially built spacecraft on the moon, becoming the first American spacecraft to land there in over 50 years since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission.

Athena’s Moon Lander.
An intuitive machine

The Lander, known as Odysseus, experienced a successful landing despite tipping over afterwards.

Both intuitive machine missions are focused on the Antarctic region of the moon. Odysseus landed near a crater called Marapart A, while Athena is targeting a vast flat mountain plateau known as Mons Mouton.

Scientists believe that water ice is relatively abundant in the moon’s Antarctic region, making it a crucial resource for potential crew missions and long-term stays on the moon.

Athena is equipped with several rovers, including the suitcase-sized vehicles developed by Colorado-based Lunar Outpost called Mapp (Mobile Autonomous Research Exploration Platform). These rovers are designed to explore the landing site and capture 3D images of the terrain.

Furthermore, a thumb-sized rover named “Astroant,” created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will assess the health of the map rover and take regular temperature measurements.

In addition, the mission includes releasing a drone named Grace, which will hop around the Athena landing site, covering approximately 650 feet in four hops to explore nearby craters and scan for hydrogen traces and ice deposits.

While on the moon, Athena will also test a 4G communications system developed by Nokia, which could facilitate communication and data transfer between spacecraft on the moon.

Moon exploration continues beyond this week, with a Lander and small rover from a Japanese company called Ispace set to land near the northern pole’s vast basin known as Male Frigolis.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

First images from civilian lunar lander capture historic moon landing

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A privately built spacecraft on the moon has sent back new photos from the lunar surface. The images captured the spacecraft’s much-lauded descent and the moment it rolled over shortly after landing.

The Odysseus lander, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, touched down on the moon on February 22, making it the first commercial ship to reach the moon’s surface and the first U.S. ship to reach the moon in more than 50 years. It made history as a spaceship.

The Odysseus Lunar Module took this image about 35 seconds after it rolled over on its approach to the landing site.
Intuitive machine via AP

The next day, Intuitive Machines announced that Odysseus had rolled over as it landed near a crater called Malapart A near the moon’s south pole. Company officials said the 14-foot-tall lander was operational, but part of the rover’s antenna was pointing toward the ground, limiting its ability to communicate with flight controllers on Earth. Ta.

with update MondayIntuitive Machines said it was continuing to communicate with the spacecraft, adding that flight controllers “will collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to light.”

Company officials said they expect to be able to communicate with Odysseus until Tuesday morning, based on the positions of the Earth and the moon. The lander was originally expected to spend about a week collecting data on the lunar surface before the lunar night begins and the spacecraft powers down.

In its latest update, the company announced that Odysseus’ instruments detected nine safe landing sites within the target zone near the moon’s south pole. The moon’s south pole region has long intrigued scientists because water ice is thought to be relatively abundant in permanently shadowed craters.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The Odysseus Spacecraft: The First Civilian Mission to Successfully Land on the Moon

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Photo taken by the Odysseus spacecraft in lunar orbit

intuitive machine

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander has landed on the moon. This is the first time a private company has landed a spacecraft on the moon, a welcome success after a string of recent high-profile landing failures by other companies.

The Odysseus spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on February 14 for the flight, called the IM-1 mission. It entered lunar orbit on February 21st and landed near the moon's south pole on February 22nd.

Live footage from air traffic controllers became tense as the scheduled landing time passed without any contact from the lander. Finally, minutes after Odysseus was scheduled to land, Tim Crane, mission director in Intuitive Machines' mission control room, said, “We're receiving a signal. It's faint, but it's definitely there.'' “I'm doing it.”

The signal indicated that the spacecraft had landed on the moon, but the state of the spacecraft is still unknown. However, the landing was successful. “We know this has been a pain, but we're on the surface,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. “Welcome to the moon”

Before this landing, three other companies attempted to send landers to the moon. SpaceIL's Beresheet spacecraft was launched in 2019, and ispace's Hakuto-R mission was launched in 2022, but both crash-landed and were destroyed.

Astrobotic's Peregrine lander didn't even get very far after launching in January. A fuel leak forced the operators to return to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere. The success of the IM-1 has brought Intuitive Machines into an elite club. To date, only the national space agencies of the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan have successfully landed on the moon.

Now that we have landed safely, we can begin the second part of the IM-1 mission. Odysseus carried six NASA payloads and six commercial payloads to the Moon. Some of these already serve that purpose, such as landing aids and cameras to take pictures of the landing. Some people have succeeded simply by reaching the moon. Perhaps most notable is artist Jeff Koons' collection of his 125 small sculptures. Other instruments are also now beginning their missions, including instruments that will measure how the moon's surrounding environment affects its surface.

The IM-1 mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, through which government contracts are awarded to private companies to build spaceflight capabilities through public-private partnerships. Three more moon landings are planned through CLPS in 2024, including an Intuitive Machines mission to harvest water ice from the moon's south pole.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

First Vulcan Rocket Successfully Launches Civilian Lander to the Moon

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United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket prepares to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

UPI / Alamy Stock Photo Credit: Alamy Live

The series of missions to the moon in 2024 will kick off in a big way with the first launch of the new Vulcan rocket. The launch, scheduled for January 8, will carry Astrobotic's Peregrine lander to the Moon as the first mission in NASA's ambitious Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) program.

Vulcan was manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Before SpaceX, ULA was the dominant force in the U.S. space launch business, but in recent years SpaceX has performed the majority of U.S. launches.

Vulcan could be an opportunity for ULA to regain some of its market share. This is particularly important for ULA as the company is currently up for sale. Potential buyers include Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin. If all goes well with this launch, six more aircraft are planned for launch in 2024.

The purpose of this launch is to transport the Peregrine lander to the lunar surface and back. If successful, it will be the first time a private company has successfully landed on the moon. The lander carries a variety of scientific instruments, including sensors to study lunar water and radiation on the lunar surface, both of which are key to understanding future human exploration. The CLPS program includes many other lunar exploration missions in the coming years that will take complementary measurements to prepare for the continued presence of humans on the lunar surface.

The rocket also carries two particularly controversial payloads. It's a capsule of human remains sent into space by a company called Celestis, which offers something called a “commemorative spaceflight.” One of these capsules contains the ashes of: Star Trek Author Gene Roddenberry and actors James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols will be sent into orbit around the sun, while another will contain the ashes of other humans bound for the moon.

Buu Nygren, the leader of the Navajo tribe, sent a letter In response to the U.S. government's opposition to loading the capsule, he stated, “Putting human remains on the moon is a grave desecration of this celestial body that our people revere.'' NASA responded that because this was a civilian mission, it had no authority over what payload it carried.

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Source: www.newscientist.com