HOUSTON – Even the goddess of wisdom can’t overcome the forces of gravity.
Yesterday, NASA announced that the company Intuitive Machines had called an early end to its IM-2 mission to the Moon after the company’s Nova-C lunar rover, nicknamed “Athena,” landed on its side 820 feet away from its intended landing point on Mons Mouton. With the rover on its side in a bitterly cold crater, it will not be able to align its solar panels to recharge its batteries, leaving it effectively dead on the lunar surface, according to Astronomy Magazine.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 captured an image on March 6, 2025, after landing in a crater from the Moon’s South Pole. The lunar lander is on its side about 820 feet from the intended landing site, Mons Mouton. In the center of the image between the two lander legs is the PRIME-1 suite, which shows the drill deployed. Credit: Intuitive Machines (cropped)
“Our targeted landing site near the lunar South Pole is one of the most scientifically interesting, and geographically challenging locations, on the Moon,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in NASA’s statement. “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow, and we will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development as we get ready for human exploration of Mars.”
Intuitive Machines, in its own statement, noted that this mission was “the southernmost lunar landing and surface operations ever achieved,” and claimed that the mission was able to “accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted.”
The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1, or PRIME-1, suite is a lunar drill intended to study water ice beneath the surface of the Moon. While the rover was not able to actually deploy the drill, NASA announced they were at least able to test the full range of motion for the hardware. Similarly, a mass spectrometer was able to send back some data before the batteries ran out, though NASA noted it likely only detected emissions from the lander’s own propulsion system.
Astronomy reports that one of Athena’s other payloads, a small rover built by Lunar Outpost, was able to power on and transmit data, but could not be deployed.
Athena’s mission had been planned to last 10 days, but was ultimately canceled after only 13 hours.
“While this mission didn’t achieve all of its objectives for NASA, the work that went into the payload development is already informing other agency and commercial efforts,” said Clayton Turner, associate administrator for space technology, NASA Headquarters, in NASA’s statement. “As we continue developing new technologies to support exploration of the Moon and Mars, testing technologies in-situ is crucial to informing future missions.”
Although it is our closest celestial neighbor and a place human beings famously visited between 1969 and 1972, the Moon remains a challenging place to deliver scientific equipment. Intuitive Machines sent a different lander – this one named Odysseus, after Homer’s hero – to the Moon last year, which broke a leg on landing and settled at an angle; it was able to operate for six days, but also had to terminate its mission early because its solar panels could not align to charge its batteries.
And two other projects that arrived on the same SpaceX rocket as Athena have also faced issues: the Lunar Trailblazer, a mapping satellite operated by Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, is currently out of contact and may be off-course on its route to the Moon, and a small satellite named Odin, designed to collect data for potential asteroid mining, also lost contact with its operators at the startup company Astroforge. Odin has been deemed as likely lost, showing that it’s not only the Greek gods who have difficulties in outer space.
While NASA and companies like Intuitive Machines may be trying to save face, it’s worth acknowledging that developing methods to safely and reliably deliver anything from Earth to the Moon – much less anyplace further afield – is a tremendously difficult affair, especially under the harsh constraints of startup companies attempting to turn a profit.
These challenges could certainly use the wisdom of Athena.
Intuitive Machines is already scheduled to send two more missions to the Moon in the next two years.
“While we’re disappointed in the outcome of the IM-2 mission,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, “we remain committed to supporting our commercial vendors as they navigate the very difficult task of landing and operating on the Moon.”
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