Intuitive Machines IM-2 lunar lander within SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairing.
Image credit: SpaceX
The latest lander to touch down on the Moon is the Intuitive Machine IM-2 mission. However, its status appears not to be optimal, apparently tipped over on landing.
On March 6, the Athena lander made its way down to attempt a landing in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole.
The effort is part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and the space agency’s Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence.
Intuitive Machines (IM-2), a Nova-C lunar lander dubbed Athena is to investigate the Moon’s south pole. Onboard the lander is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), a NASA experiment designed to search for water ice on the Moon.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines
Troubled landing
“We don’t believe we’re in the correct attitude,” said Steve Altemus, co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Machines. The precise location of the lander is not known, due to a spacecraft diversion, in automated mode, from its planned landing site.
While making an evident troubled landing, the craft is power charging, with up and down links operating.
A full assessment of what happened with Athena is still to come – and imagery from the lander itself on the surface are on tap. Furthermore, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is on schedule in a few days to snag over-flight imagery in the area, to scout for the lander’s true locale.
IM-2 mission controllers.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Conflicting data
While IM-2 teams are dealing with conflicting data, the onboard inertial measurement hardware is saying the lander is on its side. The craft came down outside of an intended 50-meter landing zone.
It is presently unclear what orientation Athena is in; what A,B,C,or D side of the probe is facing up is unknown.
Depending on figuring out the lander’s orientation will enable, perhaps, some onboard experiments to be performed. Once the lander’s attitude is known, IM-2 team members and NASA will set priorities for work ahead, putting that into a mission package.
One issue revealed is that the lander’s laser altimeters were “noisy,” more than anticipated, and remained noisy all the way to the Athena’s touchdown.
Steve Altemus, co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Machines, details Athena’s condition at press briefing.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Replay of earlier mission?
In a bit of a retro-replay, the landing seems similar to the IM-1 mission of the group’s Odysseus lunar lander. That $118 million IM-1 spacecraft was victorious in February 2024 in becoming the first U.S.-built probe to make a lunar touchdown since the Apollo 17 human-carrying moon trek over 50 years earlier.
However, it too was not a glitch-free ride to its intended destination, Malapert A, near the moon’s south pole.
Odysseus’ laser rangefinders did not function, threatening its landing.
Coming in hot
Thanks to a rapid response team at the company, other onboard navigation instrumentation was quickly repurposed to get the craft down to under a mile from its pre-planned landing area.
Back in 2024., Steve Altemus, chief executive officer and co-founder, Intuitive Machines uses model to describe IM-1’s attitude on the Moon’s surface.
But the six-legged lander came in hot.
The IM-1 mission arrived with a higher downward and horizontal speed than designed for, hitting harder and skidded across sloping terrain, snapping off some of its landing gear in the process.
Meanwhile the Odysseus engine was still firing. And when the engine quieted down the lander tipped over to roughly 30 degrees off the surface. That cock-eyed landing reduced the sunlight reaching its solar panels and also compromised several antennas that made transmission to and from the moon “off-nominal” in space speak.
For IM-2 press conference replay, go to:
Intuitive Machines-2 Lunar Landing News Conference