Spacecraft lands on Moon but 'orientation' unclear

Intuitive Machines's Athena spacecraft blasted off from Earth on 26 February

A private US company says it has landed a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole, carrying scientific instruments including a hopping robot and the first lunar mobile communications antenna.

But Intuitive Machines said it had yet to confirm the "orientation" of the spacecraft, called Athena, and was working to confirm its condition.

The company is partnering with US space agency Nasa to look for evidence of water and ice on the lunar surface.

Lunar landings are very difficult, and the company will be hoping the touchdown was smooth after its first craft landed on its side last year.

The spacecraft Athena landed shortly after 1730GMT (1230EST).

A picture should soon be released showing Athena about 100 miles (160km) from the South Pole in an area of the lunar highlands called Mons Mouton.

If the landing has been successful, the craft will have 10 days to complete scientific observations and measurements.

The instruments on board include a jumping robot called Micro Nova Hopper or Grace, which is designed to leap and fly across the Moon's surface to reach a large crater that is in permanent shade.

The hopper should be released from the main spacecraft in coming days and fly up to 100m in altitude.

It will travel up to 1.2 miles (2km) and after five leaps, it should land inside the crater with a camera to take the first images of the interior.

The crater is in permanent shadow from the Sun's rays, so it has very low temperatures and is considered an ideal place to look for ice.

Intuitive Machines, which made the hopper, say it can travel to places that other machines, like robots with wheels, can't reach or would take a very long time to get to.

"These hoppers are really suited to the lunar environment because there's no atmosphere there, practically speaking, so doing a series of controlled leaps is a great way to move around," says Prof Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist with the Open University.

The IM-2 mission is also carrying three scientific instruments made by Nasa.

A drill called Trident will churn up rocks to reach the surface under the Moon to see if there is evidence of ice.

Then an instrument called a mass spectrometer will analyse any gases that are released.

The lander Athena is about the size of a telephone box

And a type of antenna mast developed with Nokia should also be planted on the Moon that uses the same 4G cellular technology as on Earth.

The mission is part of Nasa's long-term goal to take humans back to the lunar surface, as the agency hopes to send astronauts in 2027 with the Artemis programme.

"This is another step towards assessing the viability of the lunar South Pole as a place to go and set up future bases for humans," says Prof Barber.

Experts want to explore options for building settlements and find out if there are reserves of water that could provide drinking water and potentially be turned into oxygen.

"A lot of planning of future exploration is being predicated on the presence of water ice, but if you want to use it, you need to know where it is and how much there is," says Prof Barber.

Intuitive Machines flew a craft last year called Odysseus that captured pictures of the Moon's Schomberger crater

Nasa is partnering with a range of private companies that transport spacecraft and instruments to the Moon. It says this is cheaper than developing and blasting off their own missions.

Intuitive Machines successfully landed a craft called Odysseus on the Moon in February last year, but it tipped over during the descent, meaning not all the scientific work could be carried out.

Space agencies globally are competing to build human settlements on the Moon in a race to exploit resources and advance scientific understanding of other worlds.

In the US, the Moon mission is seen as a stepping stone for the longer-term and much more ambitious goal of human settlement on Mars.

The IM-2 mission could also help to answer broader questions about why there is ice in the inner solar system, closer to the Sun's warming rays.

"The permanently shadowed regions on the Moon are kind of a store and archive of ancient water that might have been delivered to the Earth-Moon system after their formation," explains Prof Mark Fox-Powell at the Open University.