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Personal photo taken by Athena Machines’ Athena Lander shortly after landing near the southern pole of the moon on March 6, 2025. Credit: an intuitive machine
We now know why Athens Lander dropped on the moon earlier this year.
Athena, the second Lunar Lander and managed by Houston Intuitive machinesIt fell on his side shortly after the landing near the southern pole On March 6. Athena solar plates could not harvest enough sunlight in this direction, and the investigation was Declared a dead the next day.
After more than two months, the intuitive machines completed the anatomy of the body, as the anomalies were hung on three cases that worked together to drop Athens.
The first was the intervention in the readings of the Laser height scale in Athens, which is the tool that helped Lander measure the distance from the moon.
“In the last stage of the landing, we have seen the noise of signal and distortion that did not allow precise height readings,” said Steve Altimos, CEO of Attuitive. IM-2.
The second number was the difficult lighting conditions in the landing zone in Athens, which was only 100 miles (160 km) or so from the Antarctica the moon.
Altemus said: “South Pole terrain, sunlight with low -angle created long shades and dim lighting conditions that challenge the microscopic capacity of our landing system.”
The third factor was the ability of Athens to identify drilling in the landing area. The visual navigation system for photo control used pictures collected by NASA Cunna reconnaissance orbit (LRO) at a height of 62 miles (100 km).
Altemus said that Lro “cannot be carefully explained how drilling appears at low altitudes with Antarctic lighting conditions as you approach the landing site.”
Athena Moon Lander of intuitive machines as it was filmed by the orbit of the moon survey in NASA on March 10, 2025. Lander is located inside a hole at the bottom of the center of the frame; The 4X expansion of that area appears. | Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
IM-2 has been supported by NAPS, which places the agency’s science equipment on the lunar Landers. The goal is to collect costly effective data that will help NASA Artemis program From exploring the moon.
Athens carried a set of science tools in NASA and many other loads, including the intuitive spacecraft of intuitive machines.beauty“and Map RoverFrom the lunar lunar Colorado. The fall of Athens from the fall of these other spacecraft from spreading on the moon.
Follow IM-2 to the IM-1, a CLPS task that places a spacecraft for intuitive machines on the moon In February 2024. Like Athens, Odysseus failed to stay straight, bending after breaking one or more of its legs to drop during landing. But Odysseus-the first special spacecraft ever on the soft Earth on the moon-was able to work on the moon for seven days of Earth Before darkness.
Related stories:
– What are the intuitive machines and how do you aim for the moon?
– Moon: All you need to know about the Earth’s companion
The intuitive machines are working hard to make sure that the next Moner Moner-the car that will be launched on the IM-3 mission in 2026-can remain on its feet. Altemus said that the company is implementing reforms based on the acquired knowledge during the IM-1 and IM-2.
He said in a call on Tuesday.
“We merged an additional independent lighting sensor to the surface speed measurements,” he added. “We have expanded the terrain nozzle database on the plane to enhance the moon’s surface mobility.”
The team also feeds the images of the IM-2 detailed pole to the IM-2 to the machine learning algorithms to improve the mobility and tracking capabilities in the future tasks.
“Go ahead, we will succeed,” said altemus. “The Earth quietly, straight land, land ready to work.”
