The moon is the place to be this week, as a second spacecraft has landed on the lunar surface with the last seven days. The Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission appears to have touched down on the moon’s surface today, Thursday March 6, at around 12:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. PT) at the Mons Mouton region near the moon’s south pole.
However, the landing did not go smoothly. The lander seemed to touch down on the surface at the planned time, but the main engine did not shut off for several minutes, so the spacecraft could have kicked up a large amount of dust or damaged itself during this time. It’s also not yet clear what the orientation of the spacecraft on the surface is, so it’s possible that it could be on its side or facing the wrong direction. The good news for the Intuitive Machines team is that the solar panels do appear to be collecting power, which is a promising sign.
Intuitive Machines did share this image of Athena coming in to land, and further images and information are expected to come in soon:
The mission, which was launched using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26, was attempting the most southerly ever landing on the moon. The moon’s south pole region is of particular interest to scientists because it is thought to host water ice in permanently shadowed craters, and is a region that NASA is interested in exploring in its future crewed moon missions.
This is Intuitive Machines’ second lunar landing, as last year it became the first private company to ever make a soft landing on the moon with its Odysseus lander. The landing had some problems as well, however, as the spacecraft tipped as it came down on the moon’s rough surface and the lander ended up on its side. Although it was still able to collect some science data, the spacecraft’s lifespan was limited as it had problems collecting energy using its solar panels.
With this second landing with Athena, Intuitive Machines joins the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander which touched down on the moon’s surface on Sunday, March 2. Both company’s landers are part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services or CLPS program, which aims to get private companies to deliver supplies and technology to the moon ahead of sending humans there under the Artemis program.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.