Intuitive Machines’ Quest to Conquer the Moon: The Athena Mission and Beyond

The New Mission: Returning to the Moon with Precision

Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based company, made history last year by successfully landing a robot on the moon. Their first lander, Odysseus, touched down on the lunar surface in February 2023, marking the first time a commercially operated spacecraft had accomplished this feat. Although Odysseus tipped over upon landing, it still managed to communicate with Earth, a testament to the resilience of its design. Building on this achievement, Intuitive Machines is now gearing up for its next mission: landing the Athena spacecraft upright and operational near the moon’s south pole.

Launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a Wednesday evening, Athena is currently en route to the moon. The spacecraft has already faced its first challenge: after powering up successfully, it experienced a brief delay in establishing communication with mission control. However, relief ensued when contact was finally made, confirming that Athena is functioning and on track. The lander is scheduled to touch down on March 6 in the Mons Mouton region, a site approximately 100 miles from the moon’s south pole. This will mark the closest any spacecraft has landed to the lunar south pole to date.

A Lunar Laboratory: Payloads and Scientific Ambitions

At the heart of the Athena mission is a suite of scientific payloads designed to advance our understanding of the moon and its resources. The primary payload is a drill developed by NASA as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. This drill is capable of digging up to three feet below the lunar surface, extracting soil in four-inch increments and depositing it onto a pile for further analysis. A mass spectrometer will then analyze the dug-up material, searching for compounds like frozen water, which could provide vital insights into the moon’s composition and potential resources for future missions.

In addition to the drill, Athena is carrying three robotic rovers and a small flying "hopper." The largest rover, known as the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), is part of a NASA-funded experiment to establish the first cellphone network on the moon. Developed by Lunar Outpost, MAPP is roughly the size of a small dog and will serve as a mobile antenna for Nokia, which is testing lunar communication technology under a NASA contract. MAPP also carries a tiny rover named AstroAnt, built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which will move across its surface. Another rover, Yaoki, built by the Japanese company Dymon, is slightly larger than a Mac Mini computer and will assist in surface exploration.

The Athena lander also features a small rocket-powered "hopper," developed by Intuitive Machines under a separate NASA contract. This hopper is designed to explore extensive distances on the moon, similar to how NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has expanded exploration capabilities on Mars. Equipped with thrusters, the hopper will navigate the moon’s airless environment, even venturing into permanently shadowed craters. It will also carry one of Nokia’s cellphone antennas, further enhancing the moon’s communication infrastructure.

Overcoming Past Challenges: Learning from Odysseus

The success of Athena hinges on lessons learned from its predecessor, Odysseus. During the Odysseus mission, the lander tipped over upon landing due to a critical oversight in its landing software. A laser altimeter, intended to guide the spacecraft to the surface, was rendered inoperable because a safety switch was not disabled during launch preparations. Engineers scrambled to rewrite the landing software, using data from a different instrument, but a key parameter was overlooked, causing the spacecraft to land without precise altitude measurements.

Despite these challenges, Odysseus managed to survive and communicate with Earth, demonstrating the robustness of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C design. For the Athena mission, the company has conducted extensive testing of the laser altimeter and other systems, ensuring that the lander will touch down upright this time. The Athena spacecraft is nearly identical to Odysseus in design, but the lessons from the first mission have been invaluable in refining its approach.

Building a Lunar Ecosystem: Companion Spacecraft on the Falcon 9

The Athena mission is not traveling alone. It shares the Falcon 9 rocket with three other spacecraft, all taking advantage of the launcher’s excess payload capacity for a cost-effective journey to space. The first of these is Lunar Trailblazer, a low-cost NASA mission valued at around $100 million. Its primary objective is to study the distribution of water on the moon from lunar orbit. While Athena will reach the moon in just one week, Lunar Trailblazer will take a more fuel-efficient path, potentially taking up to seven months to arrive, depending on the launch date.

The second companion spacecraft is Odin, a microwave-sized probe built by AstroForge, a California-based company. Odin is bound for a near-Earth asteroid to assess its potential for mining valuable metals in the future. The third spacecraft, CHIMERA GEO 1, developed by Epic Aerospace of San Francisco, is designed to deploy small satellites into distant orbits. These missions highlight the growing diversity of lunar and space exploration initiatives, with private companies playing an increasingly prominent role.

Navigating Lunar Challenges: The Eclipse and Beyond

The Athena mission will operate on the lunar surface for less than one lunar day, approximately 10 Earth days, before the sun sets and the lander’s solar-powered batteries deplete. However