The Athena lander from Intuitive Machines could not charge its batteries after ending up on its side. It largely failed to accomplish science and technology tasks for NASA and other customers.
A day after landing on the moon, the robotic Athena spacecraft built by Intuitive Machines of Houston is dead.
In an update on its website on Friday, the company confirmed that Athena had tipped onto its side — the same fate that befell its first lunar lander, Odysseus, last year. With its solar panels unable to face the sun, the spacecraft’s batteries could not recharge.
The company said it did not expect the spacecraft to revive.
Before the spacecraft fell silent, “mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones,” Intuitive Machines said. It did not provide details about what had been accomplished.
As of early Friday afternoon, NASA has not yet commented publicly about the premature conclusion of the mission, which was supposed to last 10 days until the darkness of lunar night fell over that part of the moon.
The mission was part of a NASA program known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, to contract private companies to carry science instruments and technology demonstrations to the moon at a lower cost. Another robotic spacecraft that is part of CLPS, the Blue Ghost lander by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, touched down on Sunday and is conducting science experiments on another part of the moon.
Athena landed on Thursday on a flat-topped mountain named Mons Mouton, about 100 miles from the moon’s south pole. It was the southernmost landing site of any spacecraft.