Athena module goes to the moon on a mission seeking water; Learn more

One robotic landing module called Athena is about to make her final descent to the lunar surface On the afternoon of Thursday (6), potentially marking the second lunar landing for an American company this week.

Intuitive Machines, based in Houston, which last year became the first private sector company to perform a soft landing on the moon, said its Athena ship is scheduled to land at 11:32 CT (2:32 pm Brasília) this Thursday. A live broadcast of the event, co-organized by NASA and Intuitive Machines, should start about an hour before landing.

If successful, the 4.6 meter high Athena will join a lunar module developed by another Texas company-Firefly Aerospace, Austin’s suburb, Cedar Park-on the moon surface. Firefly’s Blue Ghost vehicle made a safe and vertical landing early on Sunday morning (2).

Both Athena and Blue Ghost should operate on the next side of the moon, but the two ships will be positioned approximately 3,200 kilometers away, with Blue Ghost near Lunar Ecuador and Athena near the south pole – closer than any astronaut or vehicle has ventured before.

Lunar landings are made extremely difficult. About half of all attempts, including those of government agencies and commercial companies, ended in failure.

Athena will need to complete an engine burning that will put it on a trajectory out of the lunar orbit towards the surface. The module is expected to navigate for about an hour before starting its final descent and will have to use sensors and cameras to navigate the latter full of craters.

During its final descent, the vehicle should quickly reduce the speed, reducing it by about 6,000 km/h before reaching the ground.

The South Lunar Pole is considered crucial to the modern space race because scientists believe it houses vast deposits of water ice. Ice could be converted to drinking water, breathable air or even fuel for rockets into mission that travels more deeply in the cosmos.

Athena should land on a 100 -kilometer width plateau called Mons Mouton, which is about 160 kilometers from the South Lunar pole. Then the module will begin your work.

Athena is in a kind of mission of recognition. The vehicle will use a series of robotic equipment – including a drill, a jumping and a rover – to scour the nearby area in search of confirmation that there is water of water stored in the region.

The module is expected to operate for 10 days before dusk lunar it dive into the darkness, making the ship inoperable.

A chance of redemption

Before Intuitive Machines make history last year, when his first module, Odysseus – or “Odie,” as the startup employees called him – made a soft landing on the moon, only a few government space programs had done this. The United States, China, India, Japan and the former Soviet Union were part of this exclusive club.

But Odie’s trip, which also ventured near the South Polo region, was not perfect. Before landing, the mission teams found that the laser screens designed to assist in navigation of the lunar ground and precisely measure altitude was not correctly connected. This error forced the company to rely on an experimental NASA payload, which was on board, to support navigation to the lunar surface.

Finally, Odie toppled sideways, leaving valuable communication antennas and solar panels pointed out in unhappy directions. As a result, Odie hung up days before planned.

Firefly briefly alluded to Odie’s erratic guidance during the live coverage of its lunar landing this week, stating that its Blue Ghost module was the “first fully successful commercial vehicle” to land on the moon.

“I will say something that is more exciting now than at any other moment in history: the amount of missions that are flying to the moon,” Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, told CNN in February. “Two Texas companies sending landing modules to the moon that theoretically will be on the surface at the same time, operating different missions on the moon – this is simply amazing for the United States.”

Firefly and Intuitive Machines are hired by NASA’s Commercial Payload Services program. The CLPs program aims to stimulate private industry to develop relatively cheap robotic spacecraft that can explore the lunar surface before NASA sends its astronauts later this decade.

The Artemis III Mission of NASA intends to land humans on the moon for the first time in more than five decades until mid -2027.

Athena’s mission on the moon

Hours after landing on Thursday, the Athena module implements a Rover called Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform, or Mapp, built by Lunar Outpost, based in Colorado. The four -wheel vehicle, weighing 10 kg, will test new cellular communication equipment, will work to create a 3D map of the lunar surface and take photos. The vehicle was also designed to collect a small soil sample.

And although the sample – like the Rover Mapp – remains on the moon indefinitely, NASA has agreed to pay $ 1 to take over the sample’s property. It is a symbolic gesture designed to mark the first commercial sale of space resources in history.

Justin Cyrus, CEO of Lunar Outpost, told CNN that the $ 1 paid by NASA is the only government financing the company will receive for this mission. “This is our first attempt, and the fact that it is a commercially financed Rover with NASA’s $ 1 literally … This is already a very good position,” Cyrus said.

After the MAPP departs, the Athena module will deploy a mini jumping – a spacecraft designed to jump from the landing site and explore a lunar crater in search of water.

Intuitive Machines has developed this vehicle with NASA funding. But the main load aboard the Athena is the Prime-1 Drill of NAS, designed to pierce the lunar surface, look for water ice and analyze the soil during the process.

If the Prime-1 could locate water just below the lunar surface, it would be “extremely exciting,” Siegfried Eggl, assistant professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Urban-Champaign, to CNN this week.

“If the drill finds some water -rich material near the surface, this will be the best scenario possible,” said Eggl, “because it means wherever you go to the south, you don’t have to dive into craters, you can likely extract water very quickly.”

Lunar Module Blue Ghost, from Firefly Aerospace, successfully landed on the moon

Moon is included for the first time on a list of world assets at risk

This content was originally published in Module Athena goes to the moon on a mission seeking water; Learn more at CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil