Latest news with #IntuitiveMachine
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Eclipse captured from moon's point of view as lander takes images during 'historic' event
This week's eclipse has been photographed from the moon's point of view. But rather than being the lunar eclipse that was seen from Earth, on the moon it was a solar eclipse. The images were taken by a camera on board the unmanned Blue Ghost spacecraft which successfully landed on the planet earlier this month. Operator Firefly Aerospace said it was the first time in history that a commercial company had operated actively on the moon during an eclipse. In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth lines up between the moon and the sun, hiding the moon from sunlight. On Friday, the moon turned red in an event known as a blood moon. The full lunar eclipse was visible from North and South America, while in the UK only a partial lunar eclipse was visible. The first picture of the cosmic event from the moon shows the Earth beginning to block out the sun. The solar eclipse can also be seen in a reflection of the lander's solar panel in the same picture. In a caption on X accompanying the 14 March photo, Firefly Aerospace wrote: "BlueGhost" caught her first look at the solar eclipse from the Moon around 12.30 am CDT - notice the glowing ring of light emerge in the reflection of our solar panel as the Earth began to block the sun!" A second image, captured from the landing site, shows the "diamond ring" as the sun is about to emerge from totality behind Earth. A third photo showed the Blue Ghost turn a reddish colour during the event. Firefly Aerospace said: "The red hue is the result of sunlight refracting through the Earth's atmosphere as the sun is blocked by our planet, casting a shadow on the lunar surface. The glowing ring of the eclipse is again seen on Blue Ghost's solar panel." Blue Ghost's three solar panels have been powering the lander's research instruments for a 14-day mission on the moon. Read more from Sky News:Rocket with replacement crew for stranded astronauts launchesWhat can being in space for so long do to your health? The four-legged Blue Ghost, which is the size of a compact car, touched down on 2 March near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon's Earth-facing side. It is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown. It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet. Firefly Aerospace became the second private firm to carry out a moon landing, though it declared itself the first company to make a "fully successful" soft landing. Houston-based Intuitive Machine's Odysseus lander made a lopsided touchdown last year, landing mostly intact but dooming many of its onboard instruments. Only five nations have been successful in soft-landings in the past: The then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
Sky News
15-03-2025
- Science
- Sky News
Eclipse captured from moon's point of view as lander takes images during 'historic' event
This week's eclipse has been photographed from the moon's point of view. But rather than being the lunar eclipse that was seen from Earth, on the moon it was a solar eclipse. The images were taken by a camera on board the unmanned Blue Ghost spacecraft which successfully landed on the planet earlier this month. Operator Firefly Aerospace said it was the first time in history that a commercial company had operated actively on the moon during an eclipse. In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth lines up between the moon and the sun, hiding the moon from sunlight. On Friday, the moon turned red in an event known as a blood moon. The full lunar eclipse was visible from North and South America, while in the UK only a partial lunar eclipse was visible. The first picture of the cosmic event from the moon shows the Earth beginning to block out the sun. The solar eclipse can also be seen in a reflection of the lander's solar panel in the same picture. In a caption on X accompanying the 14 March photo, Firefly Aerospace wrote: "BlueGhost" caught her first look at the solar eclipse from the Moon around 12.30 am CDT - notice the glowing ring of light emerge in the reflection of our solar panel as the Earth began to block the sun!" A second image, captured from the landing site, shows the "diamond ring" as the sun is about to emerge from totality behind Earth. A third photo showed the Blue Ghost turn a reddish colour during the event. Firefly Aerospace said: "The red hue is the result of sunlight refracting through the Earth's atmosphere as the sun is blocked by our planet, casting a shadow on the lunar surface. The glowing ring of the eclipse is again seen on Blue Ghost's solar panel." Blue Ghost's three solar panels have been powering the lander's research instruments for a 14-day mission on the moon. The four-legged Blue Ghost, which is the size of a compact car, touched down on 2 March near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon's Earth-facing side. It is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown. It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet. Firefly Aerospace became the second private firm to carry out a moon landing, though it declared itself the first company to make a "fully successful" soft landing. Houston-based Intuitive Machine's Odysseus lander made a lopsided touchdown last year, landing mostly intact but dooming many of its onboard instruments. Only five nations have been successful in soft-landings in the past: The then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Robot Survived Failed Lunar Landing But Was Trapped Inside and Died Afterward
It is with heavy hearts we report that an intrepid little robot that made it all the way to the Moon has met a horrible end. On Thursday, Intuitive Machine's lunar lander Athena touched down in a crater near the Moon's south pole — sideways. That caused it to tip over, and unable to collect solar energy in its awkward position, the NASA-sponsored spacecraft was declared dead less than 24 hours after arriving. The fate was even more tragic for a robot, dubbed the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), that hitched a ride inside the lander. The little, barely one-and-a-half foot long rover, built by Colorado-based startup Lunar Outpost, survived the trip in one piece and was even ready to roam the rocky satellite's craggy surface. But in a cruel twist, Athena's sideways landing blocked MAPP's only exit, and trapped inside, it eventually met a slow death. "Intuitive Machines landing on its side prevented MAPP's deployment," Lunar Outpost said in a statement on X. "Our data paints a clear picture that MAPP survived the landing attempt and would have driven on the lunar surface and achieved our mission objectives had it been given the opportunity." Nonetheless, the robot did bravely manage to send some data back to Earth proving that it was still deployable. MAPP also did enough to demonstrate that some of its scientific capabilities work in space, the company said. Had MAPP been able to break free — or if Athena had stuck its landing — it would have been the first US robotic rover deployed on the surface of the Moon — not to mention the first private rover to roam extraterrestrial soil. Its bevy of systems included a device to connect to an experimental 4G network built by Nokia that would have been broadcast from the Athena lander. MAPP was also equipped to collect a sample of lunar regolith — the Moon's loose surface soil — that the company planned to sell to NASA for $1. This gesture would've marked the first commercially collected regolith sample, setting the legal and financial precedent for space resource utilization in the future, Lunar Outpost said in a press release. Those ambitions, at least for the time-being, were resoundingly squashed when the Athena missed its intended landing spot, a flat-topped mountain called Mons Mouton roughly 100 miles from the lunar south pole. With it unceremoniously tipped on its side, what was originally intended to be a ten-day mission for the lander barely lasted one. Still, this won't be the last we'll hear from either company. Intuitive Machines has two more Moon missions scheduled with NASA for 2026 and 2027, while Lunar Outpost says it's planning additional expeditions, including a return to the south pole and a visit to a curious lunar landscape feature called Reiner Gamma. More on lunar happenings: Amazing Video Shows Spacecraft Touching Down on Surface of Moon
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch Athena lander attempt lunar landing
(NewsNation) — A lunar lander designed by Intuitive Machine is landing Thursday on the moon, where it will attempt to establish the first cellular network on the moon. There may not yet be any humans on the moon to pick up the signal, but the IM-2 Athena lander, which launched in February on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is carrying Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System. The mission also includes the Micro-Nova Hopper, which will explore shadowed lunar craters and test sensors that could help identify resources like water ice. Starliner astronauts avoid engaging in politics about their return The mission is part of NASA's partnership with the private industry to increase the capacity for space exploration by working with industry-driven space missions. The landing comes shortly after Blue Ghost's successful landing on the moon. NASA and the private industry's focus on the moon is part of an effort to put humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in decades and work toward establishing a long-term human presence on the moon. The ability for humans to live on the moon for extended periods is critical for launching crewed explorations deeper into our solar system, including the goal of putting humans on Mars. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sky News
26-02-2025
- Science
- Sky News
Space mission to blast off to moon's south pole - with suitcase-sized 'hopper' on board
Two space mining missions are blasting off this week, with one heading to the southern-most point ever visited on the moon's surface. A robotic moon lander called Athena will embark on Intuitive Machine's second mission to the moon. It made history a year ago by becoming the first private company to successfully land on the moon's surface - although the lander did fall over. Athena will be carrying a set of instruments and a drill to study the rocks and soil beneath the moon's surface and will help scientists identify where possible water sources could be. After lift-off, currently scheduled for shortly after midnight on 27 February, Athena will aim to land on 6 March and then spend ten days gathering data. There are also moon rovers aboard. One is a suitcase-sized hopper which will jump into a deep crater where scientists suspect there is ice and snap some images before jumping back out. 2:11 Catching a lift with Athena before it breaks off on its own is Odin, a robotic spacecraft that will perform a flyby mission of an asteroid. Odin's mission marks US company AstroForge's first attempt to hunt for platinum in space. It should take just five days to reach the far side of the moon, but will then wait for another 300 days in deep space before approaching its target asteroid. 0:15 It will then gather images of the asteroid in preparation for the company's next mission, Vestri, which will land on the asteroid and begin extraction. The same rocket, a SpaceX Falcon-9, will also launch a NASA-developed moon-mapping satellite called Lunar Trailblazer. The Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the moon detecting water on the surface. According to NASA, it will help scientists "determine the form, abundance, and distribution of water across the lunar surface". There's a race to find water on the moon because it may make it feasible to build a base there, making deep space exploration easier.
