Athena Spacecraft Declared Dead After Toppling Over On Moon

The Athena lunar lander from Intuitive Machines has prematurely ended its mission after tipping onto its side shortly after touching down near the moon's south pole, failing to fully accomplish its planned water-searching objectives. From a report: Athena was expected to operate for about 10 days before powering down as lunar night fell over the spacecraft's landing site at Mons Mouton, a plateau that lies about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the south pole. But photographs delivered by the lander before it powered down confirmed the vehicle is lying on its side. "With 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," the company said in a statement. "The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission."

Intuitive Machines, however, highlighted that, although Athena did not operate as intended, the lander was able to briefly operate and transmit data after touchdown. That made the mission the "southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ever achieved." Intuitive Machines also said that Athena was "able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA's PRIME-1 suite, before the lander's batteries depleted." PRIME-1, which includes a drill that was expected to dig into the lunar surface to hunt for water, was able to move, according to a statement from NASA that states the device "demonstrated the hardware's full range of motion in the harsh environment of space."

Weeble Wobble

[Rockoon]

It was when mankind lost the technology that powered the weeble-wobble that it was doomed to remain on a single rock forever.

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[kackle]

+1, "...but they don't fall down."

It's funny/depressing how each generation doesn't seem to learn what they need to from the previous.

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[excelsior_gr]

You jest, but I would expect that the necessary weight, also accounting for the reduced gravity would quicklydismiss the idea. I don't know about the mankind but weeble wobbles are certainly doomed to stay on this rock.

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[gosso920]

"I've fallen! And I can't get up!" - Athena

future archeology

[harvey the nerd]

Please archive and post the diagrams, instructions, program notes etc for future moon inhabitants...

Data

[DamnOregonian]

I have recently learned that these sorts of things don't constitute a failure, but data.

So congratulations to Intuitive Machines's... uhh, data acquisition.

But seriously- even in failure- landing shit on the moon is cool as hell.

Re:

[DamnOregonian]

I feel like your mother and I have talked to you about using the internet before you take your medication

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[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

That patronizing accent ...

ELIZA: Tell me more about your more bitter.

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[Tablizer]

Orangie's chaos is merely data collection. He's load-testing and fuzz-testing democracy. We should thank him for his contribution to science!

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[DamnOregonian]

Fuzzing democracy- lol
Nice.

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[4wdloop]

Rapid Unscheduled Faceplant?

So now we know

[greytree]

So now we know why aliens travel in flying saucers:

You can't land a saucer on it's side.

Re: So now we know

[flyingfsck]

I think Intuitive Machines will figure out how.

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[e3m4n]

Its the alien version of cow tipping. That's why it toppled over.

Re:why aliens travel in flying saucers

[Tablizer]

But their fares are too high, and their security inspections are sometimes over the top, or rather bottom.

Re: OBSESSION with FOX

[LindleyF]

"Deep State" was just Trump's way of complaining whenever he found the limits of his power. It wasn't actually a thing. But it may be now; Project 2025 wants to create one.

Fell over?

[Kangburra]

Did it fall or was it pushed?

Re:

[gosso920]

"IT fell." - NYPD

Nothing intuitive about it

[SuperDre]

It's the second lander they've send, and it's the second lander that topples over, so nothing "Intuitive Machines" about it. They're just a bunch of amateurs who didn't learn from their first attempt or any other lander before it. It isn't hard to create a lander which can't topple down, so after the first failure they should have known better, and the first failure shouldn't even have happened.

Re: Nothing intuitive about it

[flyingfsck]

I think it is a flight control issue rather than a balance or leg issue - it should not land while moving horizontally at speed - should go down vertical.

300 million years ago : a woodlice flipping itself

[thesjaakspoiler]

And we're still struggling with that after 70 years of space exploration ...

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[caseih]

That's why it's important we abandon attempts to land on the moon and focus on Mars instead.

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[DamnOregonian]

Indeed. Why focus on learning to land your plane in the same geographical area you took off from when you can fly around the world once and then do it, instead?

To have one lander fall over is unfortunate

[Bruce66423]

To have two do so looks like carelessness!

After Oscar Wilde

Sad and Watch that CG

[BrendaEM]

I should think that the center of gravity was a bit high.

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[caseih]

Starship's CG is even higher.

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[BrendaEM]

Rockets are a bit different. Rockets such as Robert H. Goddard's, where the thrust came from the upper part down, which also includes the escape system on the Apollo--aren't that stable in flight. Without diminishing thrust, a lander without a launch retention system--has its own challenges.

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[DamnOregonian]

Confused where you're going with this reasoning.

The lander is essentially a rocket, but with a lower center of mass than a Starship, as parent mentioned.
The vast majority of uncrewed landers attempting landing on the moon have crashed. The moon is not smooth at any scale.

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[caseih]

Not sure what your point was there. Starship is designed to land tail-first on earth, the moon, and mars. It has a tall CG and thus will be prone to tipping over too, if the guidance sensors and software failed in any way.

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[registrations_suck]

Gravity is everywhere.

It's mass that has a center.

Robot wars had this figured out.

[stealth_finger]

Can they not design some kind of self righting tool into it?

life alert commercial

[trelanexiph]

I'm sorry but all I can think about are those life alert commercials where the woman falls and hits the button.
"Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!"

I'm old :(

Re:

[trelanexiph]

I just realized I might want to invest in one of those buttons... just in case.

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[e3m4n]

Her name in the commercial was Mrs Fletcher.

Eventually they will get it

[UnknowingFool]

Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.

Battlebots

[registrations_suck]

They should have brought on someone with Battlebots expertise. Some of those guys know how to upright their machine if it gets knocked over.

this seems to be a reoccurring theme

[v1]

I wonder if there's any way for them to "take rolling over into account" when designing these things? Like placing panels on more than one side of the space craft? Sure it adds more weight, but when there seems to be such a high chance of it falling over, it might be worth it? Or add some sort of self-righting mechanism? (though I'd imagine that would be heavier than adding panels)

I was just thinking "why haven't we had a big problem with this on Mars?" But it probably comes down to the moon's low gravi

Simple solution to probes toppling over

[Attila]

Hire someone who plays Kerbal Space Program. We've been coming up with solutions for this for years.

Cats!

[groobly]

They need to put a cat into their lander..

Re:

[PPH]

Peanut butter sandwich on the bottom.

I don't blame you

[Bu11etmagnet]

I don't blame you [youtu.be]

Scrap metal...

[RealMelancon]

Someone is going to go up there and pick up the scrap metal ? Probably not :)