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Chandrayaan-2 captures crashed Athena lander on Moon in never-before-seen pics
New high-resolution images from India's Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter have provided crucial new insights into the crash landing of Intuitive Machines' IM-2 Athena lander on the Moon, sharpening our understanding of the mission's final moments and unfinished Athena mission, the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines' second attempt to deliver Nasa science instruments near the lunar south pole touched down on March 6, 2025, in the rugged and shadowy terrain of Mons Mouton.
Athena lander seen on the Moon by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. (Photo: Isro/C. Tungathurthi)
advertisementWhile initial mission updates from Intuitive Machines confirmed the spacecraft had reached the Moon's surface, follow-up analysis revealed it had landed on its side inside a shallow crater, roughly 250 meters from its intended target.
The sideways orientation left the solar panels facing away from sunlight, and the antenna was partially blocked, cutting off communications less than 13 hours freshly unearthed imagery from Chandrayaan-2's Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC), taken mere hours after Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LROC) first spotted the stricken lander, offers unmatched detail and new images were shared to by independent German-based Indian researcher Chandra Tungathurthi, who found them in the Chandrayaan-2 data archives, further demonstrating the growing role of citizen scientists in planetary discovery.
Chandrayaan-2 OHRC close-up of IM-2 Athena's landing site. (Photo: Isro/C. Tungathurthi)
WHAT DO THEY REVEAL?The images, captured on March 7, reveal not only Athena's resting place in the crater but also a series of distinct, annotated drag marks in the lunar regolith trailing away from the spacecraft's patterns, streaks and gouges in the powdery soil provide clear visual evidence of a lateral, low-angle impact: Athena did not come to rest gently, but rather, slid or dragged after initial contact with the supports expert assessments, echoed by both Nasa and Intuitive Machines, that the lander suffered a loss of accurate altitude information during descent, probably due to persistent issues with its laser altimeter and difficulties navigating the stark polar shadows.
Distinctive
Without reliable altitude data, Athena tipped or skidded, failing to achieve a vertical touchdown and rolling onto its makes these Chandrayaan-2 images exceptional is not just their clarity, owing to the OHRC's remarkable 0.25-meter resolution, but the fact that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has yet to officially release incident, mirroring the IM-1 Odysseus lander's fate last year, shows both the risks and progress in commercial lunar Athena's tumble spelt a premature end for its ambitious science package, the data returned, and the subsequent images from Chandrayaan-2 point to the technical hurdles and unexpected lessons that define the new era of Moon missions.- EndsMust Watch
