{"id":9899,"date":"2025-03-07T20:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T12:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/intuitive-machines-im-2-moon-mission-ends-with-lander-on-its-side\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T20:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T12:40:14","slug":"intuitive-machines-im-2-moon-mission-ends-with-lander-on-its-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/intuitive-machines-im-2-moon-mission-ends-with-lander-on-its-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Intuitive Machines\u2019 IM-2 Moon mission ends with lander on its side"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon\u2019s surface following touchdown on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Image: Intuitive Machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A day after its Nova-C class robotic lander touched down on the surface of the Moon, Intuitive Machines confirmed that its mission is now over.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted to its website, the company based in Houston, Texas, said that its lander, named Athena, touched down about 250 m (820 ft) away from its intended landing site, on its side and inside of a crater at Mons Mouton, near the lunar South Pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the direction of the Sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge,\u201d the company wrote on Friday. \u201cThe mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

After announcing the update around 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 UTC), the company\u2019s stock dropped more than 24 percent since the opening of trading on Friday. Intuitive Machines, which trades on the NASDAQ under LUNR, lost nearly $3 per share in value, going from $11.26 at close of trading on Thursday down to $8.50 by 2 p.m. EST (1900 UTC).<\/p>\n

\"\"
A streak shot of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket as it launched the IM-2 mission for Intuitive Machines and sent its Nova-C lander, Athena, to a lunar transfer orbit. Image: Michael Cain\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During a press conference at the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, Intuitive Machines\u2019 CEO Steve Altemus said they were sorting through conflicting information that made it hard to determine the lander\u2019s orientation on the Moon\u2019s surface. He noted that the inertial measurement unit (IMU) on the lander gave an indication that it was on its side, but said he wanted to see an image to help confirm that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to get a picture though, to known the orientation of exactly where the antennas are pointed, where the engine bell is pointed, where are the solar panels, so that we can figure out a power profile,\u201d Altemus said on Thursday. \u201cWe know we can communicate with the payloads. We can talk to them and command them on and off. So, if we can figure out the orientation correctly with imagery, we can then develop a power profile, like I said, and then result in a series of priorities in the science and technology list that would allow us to capture some mission objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with its statement on Friday, Intuitive Machines was able to release an image from the lander, which confirmed that Athena was on its side.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA\u2019s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander\u2019s batteries depleted,\u201d Intuitive Machines said.<\/p>\n

Because of the orientation of the lander though, the TRIDENT drill was\u2019t able to penetrate the lunar surface and bring up samples to be studied by the MSolo mass spectrometer.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A team of engineers from NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California inspect TRIDENT \u2013 short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain \u2013 shortly after its arrival at the integration and test facility. Image: NASA\/Robert Markowitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA had multiple pieces of funding invested in the mission. In addition to the $62.5 million it paid to deliver the PRIME-1 suite to the Moon, the agency gave two \u201cTipping Point\u201d awards to Nokia and Intuitive Machines.<\/p>\n

Nokia received $14.1 million to demonstrate 4G\/LTE technology on the Moon\u2019s surface and Intuitive Machines received $41.6 million to help develop a rocket-propelled Micro Nova Hopper, named Grace.<\/p>\n

The agency had not issued a statement on the mission as of 3 p.m. (2000 UTC) on Friday.<\/p>\n

The mission, dubbed IM-2, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 26 as part of NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Intuitive Machines is already progressing towards its third mission for CLPS, which is scheduled to launch in late 2025 or early 2026.<\/p>\n

Some data salvaged<\/h4>\n

One of the customers on the IM-2 mission, Lunar Outpost, confirmed on its social media that Athena\u2019s landing orientation prevented the deployment of its Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover. Lunar Outpost said that the data gathered did confirm that \u201cMAPP survived the landing attempt and would have driven on the lunar surface and achieved our mission objectives had it been given the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to our upcoming missions \u2013 including exploring Reiner Gamma (Lunar Voyage 2), heading back to the South Pole of the Moon (Lunar Voyage 3), and having the first Australian rover mission to the Moon (Lunar Voyage 4),\u201d Lunar Outpost said. \u201cWith our capabilities clearly demonstrated in space, we look forward to further showcasing what our mobility systems can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the other customers have issue statements on the health of their respective payloads as of publishing this story.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lunar Outpost\u2019s MAPP rover is shown within a deployment mechanism on the side of Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander. Image: Lunar Outpost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon\u2019s surface following touchdown on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Image: Intuitive Machines A day after its Nova-C class robotic lander touched down on the surface of the Moon, Intuitive Machines confirmed that its mission is now over. In a statement posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}