Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus expressed his excitement about the Athena spacecraft joining the ranks of historic lunar landers en route to the moon, calling it an extraordinary moment in space exploration. He stated, “While the most crucial phase of this mission lies ahead, we view this as a clear indication of the rapid progress in lunar services, aiming to establish a presence on the moon and extend our reach into the Solar System.”
In addition to Athena, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, launched as a rideshare on the Falcon 9 rocket, embarked on its own independent journey on Wednesday to map the distribution of various forms of water on Earth’s only natural satellite.
The prominent IM-2 mission, with the goal of hunting for water on the moon, was propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, FL on Feb. 26. The spacecraft is set to land near Mons Mouton, a plateau located further south than Intuitive Machines’ previous successful lander, Odysseus, which made history in February 2024. This specific area includes the Shackleton Crater, a cold and dark region believed to house abundant water ice and other volatile substances capable of turning into gas.
A key experiment onboard Athena is NASA’s PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1). This dual instrument, comprising a drill and a mass spectrometer, will excavate and analyze lunar soil or regolith, aiming to detect the presence of gases and accessible resources. If water ice is indeed found in abundance, it could potentially be extracted for various purposes such as drinking, breathing, and serving as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, thus facilitating future missions to Mars.
Apart from these primary objectives, the mission also involves testing a Nokia LTE 4G communications system and deploying a propulsive drone capable of hopping across the lunar surface.
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