US space company Intuitive Machines flies to the moon again
Intuitive Machines was the first private company to land on the moon in 2024. The second moon mission is underway, with German participation.
Intuitive Machines' Athena lander: DLR instrument on board
(Image: Intuitive Machines)
Intuitive Machines' next attempt: the US space company has launched its second lander onto the moon. It is due to land there in about a week.
Athena took off on board a Falcon 9 at 19:17 local time from the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida, as announced by the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA via the social media platform X. Approximately 43 minutes after launch, the Athena lander separated from the Falcon upper stage and is on its way to the moon.
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The IM-2 mission is part of NASA's Artemis lunar program. Its destination is Mons Mouton, a high plateau about six kilometers high, around 160 kilometers from the lunar South Pole. No lunar mission has ever landed this far south. The aim is to search for water ice there. Water is an important prerequisite for colonizing the moon — as drinking water and as a supplier of oxygen for breathing air and hydrogen for rocket fuel.
NASA wants to drill the moon
The Athena lander is 4.70 meters high and has a diameter of just under 1.6 meters. It weighs 2.1 tons and can carry a payload of around 130 kilograms. This includes NASA's Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) on IM-2, which consists of two parts: a mass spectrometer and a drill to search for ice in the lunar soil.
An instrument from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is also on board the lander: The Lunar Radiometer (LRAD) is a scientific measuring instrument for non-contact temperature measurement of the lunar surface. The LRAD is mounted on the hopper Grace, which is about 70 centimetres tall and will carry the instrument to various locations.
Two rovers, the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) and the small Yaoki, will explore the area around the landing site and collect data. MAPP is even to venture as far as the lunar South Pole. Finally, the Lunar Surface Communication System, a 4G/LTE mobile network system from Nokia, is also on board.
First private space company on the moon
Intuitive Machines is the first private space company to successfully land on the moon. A year ago, Odysseus touched down on the lunar Southern Hemisphere. However, it tipped over in the process. Three previous attempts had failed.
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In addition to Athena, two other landers are currently on their way to the moon: Blue Ghost from Firefly Space and Hakuto-R Mission 2. Blue Ghost is expected to arrive on the moon before Athena. It is scheduled to land there on March 2. Athena is scheduled to land on March 6.
(wpl)
