Athena is slated to land in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau
near the Moon's South Pole. The unmanned robot lander is the third spacecraft
actively heading for the moon. Firefly Aerospace, also based in Texas, successfully
placed its Blue Ghost lander on the moon on Sunday. From Japan, a lander
named Resilience carries a micro rover named Tenacious that will travel to the
surface of the moon.
Intuitive Machines-2
The Intuitive Machines-2 mission for Athena was launched on Feb. 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander is
carrying NASA technology that will measure the potential presence of
resources from lunar soil that could be extracted and used by future explorers
to produce fuel or breathable oxygen.
A passive Laser Retroreflector Array on the top
deck of the Athena lander will bounce laser light back at any orbiting or
incoming spacecraft to give future spacecraft a permanent reference point on
the lunar surface. Other technologies on the mission will demonstrate a robust
cellular network to help future astronauts communicate and deploy a propulsive
drone that can hop across the lunar surface to navigate its challenging
terrain.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
NASA continues to work with multiple American companies to deliver technology and science to the lunar surface through the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. CLPS is a pool of companies that can bid on contracts for end-to-end lunar delivery services, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth, and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA's CLPS contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum value of $2.6 billion through 2028.
NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a $62.5 million contract to send NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon using its American-designed and -manufactured lunar lander Nova-C.
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