NASA Equipment-Equipped Spacecraft ‘Athena’ Begins Flight to Moon’s South Pole
One Year After a ‘Partial Success’ in Moon Landing, Intuitive Machines Makes Second Attempt
‘Asteroid Mining’ Startup AstroForge’s Probe Also Launched Together
On the 26th (local time), private moon lander ‘Athena’ was launched on a rocket. [Reuters=연합뉴스. No Resale or DB Use]
(LOS ANGELES=연합뉴스) Correspondent Mina Lim = With the goal of discovering ice in the moon’s south pole crater for the first time, NASA and the private company Intuitive Machines launched a lunar probe.
The unmanned lunar probe ‘Athena’ (Nova-C) equipped with NASA’s scientific instruments was launched on February 26 at 7:17 PM (Eastern Time) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carried by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Afterward, the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket with the Athena spacecraft separated successfully, and the first stage booster descended and landed on a droneship on the sea about 8 minutes post-launch.
Approximately 44 minutes after the launch, as planned, the Athena spacecraft separated from the rocket’s second stage and began its journey towards the moon.
Athena is expected to after about an 8-day flight attempt to land near the ‘Mons Mouton’ highlands close to the south pole crater on March 6.
NASA explained that this landing target is the closest to the south pole among any lunar missions so far.
The spacecraft carries a drill and mass spectrometer combined unit called the ‘Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment’ (PRIME-1), which is designed to drill into the lunar surface up to 1 meter depth, extract soil, analyze its composition, and send the data back.
The goal is to determine the potential presence of water, gas, and other mineral resources in the moon’s south pole.
On February 19, the lunar probe ‘Athena’ and asteroid probe ‘Odin’ were mounted on a SpaceX rocket [Intuitive Machines/AFP=연합뉴스. No Resale or DB Use]
Another piece of equipment aboard the spacecraft, a drone-robot ‘Micro-Nova Hopper’ (nicknamed Grace), will venture into the shadows of the south pole crater to investigate for water ice.
Scientists speculate that the interior of the moon’s south pole crater, an uncharted territory never reached by humans, might contain ice due to the absence of sunlight.
Also on Athena is a small rover named ‘MAPP’ (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform), created by private companies Luna Outpost and Nokia, which will test long-distance, high-speed communication capabilities by moving around the lunar surface after landing.
Additionally, NASA’s small spacecraft ‘Lunar Trailblazer’, launched on the same rocket, will orbit the moon to capture images and search for the presence of water.
This marks the fourth joint venture of NASA and private companies in launching a lunar probe.
Rather than developing lunar probes independently, NASA believes that allowing private companies to compete and develop will be cheaper and result in faster achievements. Since 2018, it has been implementing the ‘Commercial Lunar Payload Services’ (CLPS) program.
Among several companies with CLPS contracts, Astrobotic first launched the lunar lander ‘Peregrine’ into space in January last year, which failed. In February last year, Intuitive Machines partially succeeded in landing the spacecraft ‘Odyssey’ (Nova-C) near the lunar south pole.
On the 15th of last month, another company contracted with NASA, Firefly Aerospace, launched the lunar lander ‘Blue Ghost,’ which is currently orbiting the moon. Blue Ghost plans to attempt a landing in the large basin ‘Mare Crisium’ on the northeast quadrant of the lunar front on March 2.
The trajectory of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the lunar probe ‘Athena’, etc. [AFP=연합뉴스. No Resale or DB Use]
Intuitive Machines’ first lunar probe, Odyssey, made history as “the first private spacecraft to land on the moon,” but faced challenges after one leg broke upon surface landing, disrupting solar charging and data transfer, which shortened its lifespan.
Intuitive Machines plans to rectify previous flaws for this second attempt and achieve a perfect landing.
Successful landing is crucial as NASA’s drill and rover cannot function unless the spacecraft lands upright.
At a press conference before the Athena launch, Intuitive Machines stated, “We will definitely do better this time.”
Meanwhile, on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, U.S. startup AstroForge’s asteroid probe ‘Odin’, aiming for asteroid mineral mining, was also launched into space.
AstroForge’s spacecraft is projected to travel for about 300 days towards an asteroid named ‘2022 OB5’ located roughly 5.9 million kilometers from Earth, aiming to determine if the asteroid is metallic.
The company hopes this small asteroid, slightly less than 100 meters in diameter and the size of a soccer field, contains high levels of iron, nickel, and precious metals. If the asteroid is confirmed to be metallic, the company plans to send a lander for extensive metal exploration.
mina@yna.co.kr