A day after its Nova-C class robotic lander touched down on the surface of the Moon, Intuitive Machines confirmed that its mission is now over.
In a statement posted to its website, the company based in Houston, Texas, said that its lander, named Athena, touched down about 250 m (820 ft) away from its intended landing site, on its side and inside of a crater at Mons Mouton, near the lunar South Pole.
“With the direction of the Sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,” the company wrote on Friday. “The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”
After announcing the update around 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 UTC), the company’s stock dropped more than 24 percent since the opening of trading on Friday. Intuitive Machines, which trades on the NASDAQ under LUNR, lost nearly $3 per share in value, going from $11.26 at close of trading on Thursday down to $8.50 by 2 p.m. EST (1900 UTC).
During a press conference at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Intuitive Machines’ CEO Steve Altemus said they were sorting through conflicting information that made it hard to determine the lander’s orientation on the Moon’s surface. He noted that the inertial measurement unit (IMU) on the lander gave an indication that it was on its side, but said he wanted to see an image to help confirm that.
“I would like to get a picture though, to known the orientation of exactly where the antennas are pointed, where the engine bell is pointed, where are the solar panels, so that we can figure out a power profile,” Altemus said on Thursday. “We know we can communicate with the payloads. We can talk to them and command them on and off. So, if we can figure out the orientation correctly with imagery, we can then develop a power profile, like I said, and then result in a series of priorities in the science and technology list that would allow us to capture some mission objectives.”
Along with its statement on Friday, Intuitive Machines was able to release an image from the lander, which confirmed that Athena was on its side.
“After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted,” Intuitive Machines said.
Because of the orientation of the lander though, the TRIDENT drill was’t able to penetrate the lunar surface and bring up samples to be studied by the MSolo mass spectrometer.
NASA had multiple pieces of funding invested in the mission. In addition to the $62.5 million it paid to deliver the PRIME-1 suite to the Moon, the agency gave two “Tipping Point” awards to Nokia and Intuitive Machines.
Nokia received $14.1 million to demonstrate 4G/LTE technology on the Moon’s surface and Intuitive Machines received $41.6 million to help develop a rocket-propelled Micro Nova Hopper, named Grace.
The agency had not issued a statement on the mission as of 3 p.m. (2000 UTC) on Friday.
The mission, dubbed IM-2, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 26 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Intuitive Machines is already progressing towards its third mission for CLPS, which is scheduled to launch in late 2025 or early 2026.
Some data salvaged
One of the customers on the IM-2 mission, Lunar Outpost, confirmed on its social media that Athena’s landing orientation prevented the deployment of its Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover. Lunar Outpost said that the data gathered did confirm that “MAPP survived the landing attempt and would have driven on the lunar surface and achieved our mission objectives had it been given the opportunity.”
“We look forward to our upcoming missions – including exploring Reiner Gamma (Lunar Voyage 2), heading back to the South Pole of the Moon (Lunar Voyage 3), and having the first Australian rover mission to the Moon (Lunar Voyage 4),” Lunar Outpost said. “With our capabilities clearly demonstrated in space, we look forward to further showcasing what our mobility systems can achieve.”
None of the other customers have issue statements on the health of their respective payloads as of publishing this story.
