Dead Athena moon lander seen inside its crater grave from lunar orbit (photos)
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We now have shots of the Athena moon lander's final resting place.
Athena, the second lunar lander from Houston company Intuitive Machines, tipped over during its touchdown on March 6, ending up on its side within a small crater near the moon's south pole.
This orientation prevented the lander's solar panels from capturing enough sunlight, and Intuitive Machines declared Athena dead on March 7. (The company's first moon lander, named Odysseus, also tipped over during its historic February 2024 touchdown but was able to operate for longer on the lunar surface.)
Athena beamed home a few shots of its surroundings before giving up the ghost. And we now have views of the lander and its crater grave from on high, courtesy of NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
On March 7, LRO captured a gorgeous oblique photo of Athena and its landing site — the Mons Mouton region, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Then, three days later, the probe snapped another pic, which provided a closer look at Athena on the shadowed floor of a 65-foot-wide (20 meters) crater.
Related: Private Intuitive Machines moon lander declared dead after falling on its side in crater at the lunar south pole
Athena's mission, known as IM-2, was supported by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which puts agency science instruments on private moon landers.
The experiments on board Athena — and the ride-along robots, like Colorado company Lunar Outpost's MAPP rover and Intuitive Machines' hopping spacecraft "Grace" — didn't get their planned science time on the lunar surface.
But the lander did survive for a while before its batteries died. And its brief life could help pave the way for future work in the area, which is thought to harbor large stores of water ice, Intuitive Machines said.
"This southern pole region is lit by harsh sun angles and limited direct communication with the Earth," the company wrote in a March 7 mission update. "This area has been avoided due to its rugged terrain, and Intuitive Machines believes the insights and achievements from IM-2 will open this region for further space exploration."
Related stories:
— Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: A guide to NASA's venerable lunar orbiter
— The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth's companion
— There's lots of water on the moon for astronauts. But is it safe to drink?
Athena hit the gray dirt just four days after another CLPS-supported lander, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, touched down in the moon's northern hemisphere.
LRO, which has been studying the moon from lunar orbit since 2009, has also captured photos of Blue Ghost. The Firefly lander remains healthy and is expected to continue operating until March 16, when the sun sets over its locale.
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