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WG3K > ANS 02.03.25 02:34l 57 Lines 2922 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS061.4
Read: DJ6UX
Subj: Intuitive Machines Lunar Lander Beams Back First Images o
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The Athena lunar lander manufactured by Houston, Texas aerospace company
Intuitive Machines shared its first “selfies” from orbit after launching at
00:16 UTC on Thursday, Feb. 27 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The images released later Thursday show the six-legged Nova-C lander with
Earth in the background. Intuitive Machines shared the photos within about
13 hours of the spacecraft launching to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket.
*Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operates that lunar lander,
shared the first images from orbit after launching from Florida. The craft
is carrying a number of science instruments, including water-hunting
technology for NASA. [Photo: © Intuitive Machines]*
The Athena spacecraft, which is on a mission known as IM-2, is now one of
two American-made uncrewed lunar landers on their way to the moons
surface. Firefly Aerospace, also based in Texas, is operating its own
spacecraft named Blue Ghost that is due to attempt a landing early Sunday
after about a 45-day voyage.
NASA is the primary customer on both commercial spaceflights, which are due
to study different regions of the moons surface to pave the way for
astronauts to return as early as 2027 under the space agencys Artemis
program. The NASA campaign is treating the moon as a vital pit stop for
spacefarers to pause and fuel up ahead of the first crewed missions to Mars.
If all goes to plan, Athena should be landing on the moons south pole on
Thursday, March 6.
The IM-2 mission is targeting a landing near a plateau known as Mons
Mouton, which would be even further south than Intuitive Machines first
lander, Odysseus, which made history in February 2024. The mesa-like lunar
mountain towers over a landscape carved by craters, including the
Shackleton Crater – a cold, dark region where water ice and other volatile
materials that turn easily into gas are thought to be abundant.
The main experiment onboard Athena is NASAs PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice
Mining Experiment-1). The dual instrument composed of both a drill and a
mass spectrometer will excavate and measure lunar soil, known as regolith,
to detect whether gases and accessible resources are present.
Water ice thought to be abundant in the region, once uncovered, could be
extracted and used for drinking, breathing and as a source of hydrogen and
oxygen for rocket fuel to make future expeditions to Mars possible,
according to NASA.
Other objectives include testing a Nokia LTE 4G communications system and
deploying a propulsive drone capable of hopping across the lunar surface.
NASAs Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, which launched as a rideshare on the
Falcon 9, also began its own seperate journey to lunar orbit to map the
distribution of the different forms of water on Earths only natural
satellite.
[ANS thanks Eric Lagatta reporting for USA Today for the above information]
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