Eight days after its launch, a second decline was prepared commercially, which was built by Houston intuitive machines, to land on Thursday near the southern pole of the moon to evaluate the environment in which NASA astronauts plan to land in the ARTEMIS program.
Known as ATHENA, the IM-2 spacecraft was expected to leak from orbit and touch it 100 miles from the southern pole of the moon at 11:32 am EST. The spacecraft is loaded with sophisticated tools, small Rover, experimental cellular connections and “Kadoub” missiles that will be bounced from one location to another near Lander.
AThena Machines “Athena Lander” camera shows the orbit spacecraft around the moon with a deep black hanging the Earth about 240,000 miles. If things go well, Lander will go down to land near the southern pole of the moon on Thursday. / Credit: intuitive machines
Athens, which works with solar powered, will have about 10 days to complete its observations and measurements before the sun sets and embodies the darkness on the landing site at the end of the moon’s day.
The decline in the sector in the course of Monday, Five days after launch. On Thursday morning, while flying on the other side of the moon, it is expected to launch the main engine of Athens, as it began a process to reduce the distant side of the orbit from about 62 miles to a little more than 6 miles.
During the coast, up to a low height, Lander will use cameras and lasers in the relative navigation system for terrain to monitor the height and speed continuously, while maintaining the spacecraft in the direction of landing.
With the approach to the target, the main engine will be launched in a maneuver called from the proportions of energy to start reducing the speed of the spacecraft by 4000 miles per hour. Once the braking maneuver is completed, ATHENA is programmed to fluctuate straight in a steady vertical direction of the final stage of the landing.
Near the landing site, Athens will go down at about 7 miles per hour, and then, at a slightly altitude of more than 30 feet, slowly to 2.2 miles per hour for the final landing to the surface in the lunar highlands known as the Mons Mouton area, about 100 miles from the Antarctic.
The artist’s concept of Athens Lander on the moon, about 100 miles from the lunar southern pole. High -tech exercises can be seen with the left landing leg that will dig the surface to measure temperatures and form the soil using the mass of mass. The box will be spread next to the right -wing right Rover on the surface. / Credit: intuitive machines
NASA targets the Antarctic region to land in the astronaut, in a large part of it because the data of the orbit satellites indicates that the ice may be present in permanently shaded pits that never see sunlight and it is among the most severe stains in the solar system.
The water molecules are supposed to be delivered over billions of years through the effects of the comet and the interactions between the dust of the moon and the electrically charged solar wind.
If things go well, Grace Hopper will jump to one of those dark pits about a quarter of a mile from ATHENA for the site’s measurements, betting his observations to Lander using the 4G/LTE cell equipment provided by Nokia.
Grace Huber is expected to make five leaps, with the fourth carrying it in the darkness of a hole permanently as the ice may be present. The ice, if it is extracted, will enable future astronauts to generate water, air and missile on the moon, and avoid the high cost of shipping it from the Earth. / Credit: intuitive machines
Other tools on Lander will search for the chemical effects of water and other compounds, as well as taking soil temperature measurements. There are two small prescriptions on board to explore the landing site and test the innovative navigation systems.
Coincidentally and the location, Lander cameras will photograph the solar eclipse on March 14 when the Earth passes shortly to the sun and throws its shadow on the moon.
The first intuitive machines, called Odysseus, She successfully landed on the moon last year, but hit the surface more difficult than expected while moving a bit side, causing it to be organized on its side. The spacecraft is still operating, and it has not been able to implement all its planned notes.
The engineers of the intuitive machines analyzed the measurement from a distance and were able to know the error that occurred. ATHENA is equipped with improving software and navigation tools to prevent the same problem from occurring the second time.
Lunar Lander II to reach the moon this year
Athens’s arrival is the second from three to reach the moon this year.
One of the cradle of construction by Austin The spacecraft fell successfully On the surface of the moon early on Sunday, March 2. Blue Ghost Lander commercially developed with 10 NASA tools designed to collect the data needed for Artemis.
NASA has agreed to pay a 101 million dollar space extinguishing to deliver the agency’s science and technology tools on the moon. The tools cost NASA another $ 44 million.
ATHENA Lander will be commercially built to explore the landing site and implement scientific notes. Rover and Hopper will return the data to ATHENA to move to the ground using the nokia cell technology. / Credit: intuitive machines
Athens and technological demonstrations were also funded by NASA. The agency paid the company $ 62.5 million to offer a strong and gathering gathering, collectively known as Prime-1, on the moon.
The NASA’s Tipping Point Technology Program paid $ 15 million to integrate cellular communications in Nokia and another $ 41 million went to intuitive machines to help finance Grace Hopper.
At another $ 89 million, against a satellite satellite built by Lockheed Martin, it was launched on the Falcon 9 missile like Athens. But the Triclblazer lunar satellite came out of the Earth’s connection shortly after the launch and has not been heard since then.
Blue Ghost and Athena are largely funded through the NASA lunar loader services program (CLPS). The CLPS initiative aims to encourage the private industry to launch agencies to the moon to collect the necessary scientific and engineering data before Artemis astronauts start the surface later in this decade.
As if Blue Ghost and Athena were not enough, Japanese land known as flexibility was launched in January on top The same Falcon 9 missile that strengthened the blue ghost in space. Flexibility was built by Tokyo -based ISPACE, and has taken a longer way of low energy to the moon and will not reach until early June.
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