Intuitive Machines' Athena: Targeting a Second Successful Moon Landing
Intuitive Machines, renowned for last year's historic commercial moon landing with Odysseus, is preparing for another lunar mission. Their second flight under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, launching no earlier than Wednesday, February 26th via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will deploy the Nova-C lander, nicknamed Athena. The journey to the moon is estimated to take about a week, with a landing attempt scheduled around March 6th. Athena carries crucial NASA instruments, including a drill and mass spectrometer, designed to perform one of the first on-site demonstrations of resource utilization on the lunar surface. These tools will analyze volatiles in the soil near the South Pole landing site. This mission provides Intuitive Machines a second opportunity for a flawless landing, aiming to avoid the toppling over experienced by Odysseus, which, despite a successful touchdown, ended up on its side.
Source: Engadget