Lander intuitive machines touches the moon but lands inconvenient
The missions of the NASA commercial moon are rage right now. Firefly’s aerospace space stabbed the lunar Landing on his blue ghostly mission March 2. Intuitive machines hoped for such success with their IM-2 mission on Thursday morning. Athens Lander reached the surface of the moon, but not everything went smoothly.
By the time the live flow ended, the intuitive machines confirmed the landing, but there were two big questions. Where did Athens land? In what position is it?
“We do not think we are in the right attitude on the surface of the moon,” said Intuit Machines CEO Steve Altems at an afternoon press conference. The attitude refers to the orientation of agriculture. It seems likely that the vehicle is not properly upright.
Athens made adjustments during landing to avoid the dangers of the surface, which led to uncertainty about its exact location.
“I believe we are close to the landing space,” Altem said. NASA’s lunar reconnaissance will try to capture the views of Athens from above to determine where he landed.
There are some positive signs. The intuitive machines are related to Athens and its load. Lander generates solar energy. After the company and NASA arrange the position and energy resources of Athens, they will make a scientific plan to get the most out of the mission.
Athens is expected to send back images from the surface, which should help the team determine Lander’s orientation.
How to review the IM-2 landing
The greater part of the landing process went well. Athens remained in contact with intuitive machines and even sent back images from the descent.
NASA radiates live landing coverage free Nasa plus streaming service Starting about an hour before pressing. Nasa Plus is available via website or NASA applicationS The broadcast was also included YouTube If you want to adjust.
What is IM-2?
The intuitive lunar Lander of machines, nicknamed Athens, carries a set of scientific instruments and robots, including a jumping drone, numerous small rovers and NASA well drilling designed to be buried 3 feet below the surface. The cargo load includes both NASA and commercial useful loads.
The mission is part of NASA’s Lunar Lunar Commercial Lunar Commercial Lunar Program, the space agency’s effort to use private companies to send Landers and Rovers to the moon. NASA’s large goals through its program Artemis Moon are to return astronauts to the moon’s surface and establish a long -term human presence there. IM-2 is in favor of this vision.
“Lander brings NASA technology that will measure the potential presence of lunar soil resources that can be extracted and used by future researchers for fuel or breathable oxygen,” ” The Space Agency said In an update on Tuesday.
When was the IM-2 landing on the moon?
The IM-2 mission sent some Earth views after starting in February.
Athens’ trips began on February 26 with the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. Intuitive machines are aimed at landing the mission for 9:32 pm on Thursday. The landing site is close to the South Pole of the Moon, the main target region of NASA for a future human study.
The weather was partially dictated by the presence of sunlight on the moon’s surface. Athens Lander uses solar energy. Intuitive machines expect Lander to work for about 10 days if everything goes well.
Mit is up to the moon to stay
There is another way to engage in the mission. COMCAST and MIT Media Lab Xfinity Service has come together for real -time reflection. MIT participates in Mobile Mobile Outpost Mobile Mobile Autonomous Platform Rover on IM-2. Mapp is designed to navigate rough terrain using sensors and visual signals.
Mit’s To the moon to stay The program has educational resources and delivered a Landing along with other key mission events. MIT is planning a shorter live issue including Mapp Rover, but it is not known if Rover will be able to unfold.
Customers of Xfinity X1 can access mission and live resources by saying “on the moon” on their voice remote controls.
Why IM-2 is important
Space crew missions tend to attract much attention. IM-2 may not have people on board, but it is worth following for the fascinating science. The scientist Fil Metzger, Professor of Research at the University of Central Florida, stresses experiment 1 for the extraction of ice resources on Mission 1.
Prime-1 aims to measure the ice in the soil of the moon and this is a big deal.
“This ice contains a recording from the history of the internal solar system and can help us understand how water and carbon were delivered to the Earth-Moon system billions of years, turning the Earth into a habitable planet,” Metzger told CNET. “This is crucial to understanding how many other planets can be able to support life in the galaxy, so it helps to answer the question:” Are we in space? “” You can’t get more deep than that.
NASA hopes that Prime-1 will help researchers understand the availability of water. Water is heavy and expensive to transport through space, so future human expeditions will want to use what is already on the moon.
It will take time to determine if Prime-1 will be able to fulfill its goals after the attachment of Athens.
Landing the moon is hard
Athens sent back moon selfies while in orbit around the moon.
Many missions have tried and failed to land on the moon successfully. The Russian Mission of the Luna-25 collided with the moon in 2023. Israel’s mission and on India Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander They both crashed in 2019.
“The lunar lands are challenging, not only because the lunar environment is so harsh and exotic, but because we fly so few of them,” Metzger says, noting that failures are part of learning about how to make reliable lunar landings.
It is much more difficult to touch the moon than on the ground.
“The moon has a large enough weight to challenge to land quietly, but there is no atmosphere to help slow down landing,” says Josh Colwwell, an associate at the University of Central Florida University. “The surface is very rough on all spatial scale, so rollover Lander is a real risk.”
It’s not just about good landing hardware. The software and board systems must analyze the surface to help guide agriculture to a safe place.
Lunar landings are exciting, partly because of the dangers that machines need to navigate to ensure a safe press.
You may be wondering what happened to the IM-1 mission. Intuitive machines deliver their Odyssey Lander Until the moon in 2024, but not everything was fine. Lander reached the surface, but found himself sideways, putting a shock absorber on his scientific work.
The unexpected position of Athens’ landing is reminiscent of what happened to the IM-2, but the impact on the goals of the mission science will take time to understand. There is still hope that he will be able to do some of his planned work.
Watch this: Watch intuitive machines-2 Lunar Landing and Moon Images from Downhill
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