Intuitive machinery has landed a second space ship on the moon, just one year after the feature of feat for the first time. Unfortunately, like this first effort, it seems that the company’s spaceship may have taken on its side.
The lunar lander, called Athena, was touched on the surface of the moon around 12:30 pm on Thursday. It is the second private private ship that landed on the moon this week after the Blue Ghost of Firefly Aerospace was touched on March 2.
The leading technology official of the intuitive machinery said at a press conference after Earth that Athena is somewhere inside the 50m landing area in Mons Mouton, a flat mountain on the southern pole of the moon. But he said the company was still working to determine where, exactly, Athena withdrew.
Director General Steve Altemus added during the conference that the company does not think Athena is in the “correct attitude” – the flight of space talks about “probably overcome”.
Altemus otherwise appreciated the mission, which he said went much better than last year’s journey to the moon.
The rest of the Athena mission now depends on balance. The ship, which was raised for the moon aboard a spacex, Falcon 9 on February 26, is holding a number of technologies that intuitive cars hoped to try.
One is a passive group with laser retroreflector, which intuitive machines hope to use to communicate with other entrance spaces or orbit. It is an important part of the technology for NASA’s hopes to build a permanent moon base – so much that the spatial agency gave intuitive cars a $ 4.8 billion contract at the end of last year to build the communication system. (Only $ 150 million from this are guaranteed.)
Athena is also holding an ice mines experiment for NASA, which the agency had hoped to use to determine if there are enough natural resources on the moon for up to a day to make fuel or oxygen.
Additional loads include a Rover called MAPP that is supposed to test mobile devices from Nokia, and storing solid state billed as “the first lunar data center”.
