Intuitive Machines’ second attempt to land on the Moon also went sideways
arstechnica.com
“I would like to get more data before we can determine the orientation.”…

When the lander got down within about 30 km of the lunar surface, they tested the rangefinders again. Worryingly, there was some noise in the readings as the laser bounced off the Moon. However, the engineers had reason to believe that, maybe, the readings would improve as the spacecraft got nearer to the surface.

“Our hope was that the signal to noise would improve as we got closer to the Moon,” said Tim Crain, chief technology officer for Intuitive Machines, speaking to reporters afterward.

It didn’t. The noise remained. And so, to some extent, Athena went down to the Moon blind.

After Athena landed, the engineers in mission control could talk to the spacecraft, and they were able to generate some power from its solar arrays. But precisely where it was, or how it lay on the ground, they could not say a few hours later.

Based on a reading from an inertial measurement unit inside the vehicle, most likely Athena is lying on its side. This is the same fate Odysseus met last year, when it skidded into the Moon, broke a leg, and toppled over.

“I would like to get a picture,” Altemus said. “I would like to get more data before we can determine the orientation.”

      • Morphit @feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Yeah. Given that they kept the engine running at idle for a while, I was half expecting to see a trail. I’d like to know the dynamics of the touchdown. I’m sure they’ll figure out most of it but they probably prioritised payload data over images of the touchdown.

        Commiserations to IM. Really unlucky to fix issues from their first mission then end up with the same, if not a worse, result.

    • TrollceptionEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Once they do that the lander will always land upright and the arm will never be needed.

    • threelonmusketeersOPMEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Didn’t they do that with one of the early Mars landers?

      I recall there was one in a bag of balloons shaped like a tetrahedron. I think they ended up not needing to use the pusher mechanism because they essentially rolled a nat 4.

      • Morphit @feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Spirit and Opportunity used the airbag landing system. The sides of the tetrahedron could open with enough force to right the platform no matter the orientation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover#Airbags

        Doing that on the moon wouldn’t be very mass efficient. It’d need a skycrane part outside the airbags. Much more efficient to land the right way up.

        Here’s hoping ispace can land Hakuto-R number 2 in June without incident. 🤞

  • witx@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    The article’s title is something … 😂 On the other hand it’s such a shame the mission went, presumably, wrong