Probe “Athena” – New moon mission launched into space by private US company
With the probe “Athena”, the US space company Intuitive Machines is sending another lander to the moon. If all goes well, the lunar lander is expected to land on the mountain Mons Mouton on March 6th.
Almost a year after the launch of its lunar lander "Odysseus", the US space company Intuitive Machines has sent another lander to the moon. The new lunar mission IM-2 with the lander "Athena" was launched into space on Wednesday at 7:16 p.m. (local time, 1:16 a.m. CET) on board a SpaceX rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as can be seen from a video broadcast. Its landing on the moon is planned for around March 6.
If all goes well, the lunar lander will land on the mountain Mons Mouton - a huge plateau that is closer to the south pole of the moon than any other place it has flown to so far. The probe will carry several scientific instruments to search for water ice, including a drill and a mass spectrometer. The US space agency hopes that the experiments will provide new insights into the south pole of the moon.
Also included is the Lunar Radiometer (LRAD), a scientific measuring instrument for non-contact temperature measurement developed in Germany, as the German Aerospace Center (DLR) announced. It was developed at the DLR and the Institute of Geological Sciences at the Free University of Berlin.
Exploring the moon with landing missions remains a major technical challenge, explained LRAD project manager at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Matthias Groam. If it were possible to carry out the measurements "within the shadowed craters," he believes this would be "a globally unique achievement."
According to the DLR, water ice is "extremely important" for establishing a long-term human presence on the moon, as it can be used "both as drinking water and for the extraction of hydrogen and oxygen." In addition to supplying oxygen for breathing, both gases can also be liquefied and used as rocket fuel. This would then not have to be laboriously transported from Earth to the moon, but could be extracted directly there.
Last year, Intuitive Machines was the first private company to send a lander to the moon. It was also the first moon landing by the USA in more than 50 years. However, the lander "Odysseus" from the Texas-based company tipped over after landing in April 2024 and was therefore only able to carry out some of its research. The company is hoping for more success this time.
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