The second lunar land of intuitive machines is dead

Athens Lunar Lander at Intuitive Machines is dead, just one day after touched the south pole of the moon and overturned. Fortunately, the company says it has managed to “accelerate several basic stages of the program and the payload” and place several of the experiments that drive a rifle before the Lander of Athens leaked juice.

The quick end of Athens’ mission marks the second time in a row that intuitive machines have landed a spacecraft on the moon, only to allow the mission to go literally away. The company’s spacecraft of the company touched and then headed last February.

Athens’ problematic mission comes months after NASA eavesdrop on intuitive machines to help develop a lunar communication system in a contract that can cost up to $ 4.8 billion (although only $ 150 million is guaranteed).

The company said the orientation of Athens solar panels, combined with the direction of the sun and the extreme cold temperatures of the crater where it landed, means that the spacecraft cannot recharge its batteries. “The mission ended and the teams continue to evaluate the data collected throughout the mission,” the company wrote in Update Friday.

Intuitive machines say it has been able to unleash the Polar Resources ice experiment of NASA. This experiment contains a workout that can penetrate up to three feet into the moon’s surface. The company did not clarify what other experiments it was able to implement, but it carried a rover with cellular technology Nokia and a solid state. “Data center“Among others.