Athena located from lunar orbit
Click for original master image.
Using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have now located and photographed Intuitive Machines lunar lander Athena where it sits on its side on the Moon.
The picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows that location with the small arrow. This is definitely on Mons Mouton, the intended landing zone about 100 miles from the Moon’s south pole. However at the best magnification provided by the LRO science team, the rover is not visible. Reader James Fincannon was puzzled by this and downloaded the highest resolution version of this image and sent it to me. I have added it to the picture as the inset. Athena is the little white dot in the center of a small 65-foot-wide crater. Note that its shadow falls in the opposite direction of all the shadows in the craters, as the lander projects upward from the surface while the craters descend downward.
One can’t help questioning the quality of the lander’s landing software, if it ended up picking the center of this small crater to touch down, especially considering there appear to be large relatively clear flat areas all around.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original master image.
Using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have now located and photographed Intuitive Machines lunar lander Athena where it sits on its side on the Moon.
The picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows that location with the small arrow. This is definitely on Mons Mouton, the intended landing zone about 100 miles from the Moon’s south pole. However at the best magnification provided by the LRO science team, the rover is not visible. Reader James Fincannon was puzzled by this and downloaded the highest resolution version of this image and sent it to me. I have added it to the picture as the inset. Athena is the little white dot in the center of a small 65-foot-wide crater. Note that its shadow falls in the opposite direction of all the shadows in the craters, as the lander projects upward from the surface while the craters descend downward.
One can’t help questioning the quality of the lander’s landing software, if it ended up picking the center of this small crater to touch down, especially considering there appear to be large relatively clear flat areas all around.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Murphy in action
The bare foot always finds the tack, and the low tire always finds the pothole.
Scratch that-reverse it.
Couldn’t agree more, Robert. IM’s two missions have revealed that they are doing a poor job of managing their software. This kind of thing you can test for on the ground, but that was obviously done insufficiently or incorrectly.
They had similar issues on the first mission (recall the performance of the IM-1 mission: “the spacecraft had been designed to stay upright when landing even on a slope of 10 degrees or more. The navigation software was programmed to look for a spot where the slope was five degrees or less. Because the laser instruments on Odysseus for measuring altitude were not working during descent, the spacecraft landed faster than planned on a 12-degree slope”).
Not learning the lessons from the first mission is very disappointing. Software should be designed to handle contingencies and questionable data. This is NOT new technology. Managing multiple data streams, along with real-time error-checking and decision-making algorithms are common. I have zero sympathy for them, and their investors should be seeking management heads.
I have to admit that I am looking toward the landing of the giant HLS Starship with a bit of trepidation. Of course, if anyone knows software validation it must be SpaceX! And I suspect that being many orders of magnitude more massive will help things a bit too.
Oh, and who had three Superheavy catches out of three attempts on their bingo card?!
Scott Manley just tweeted out an observation which seems relevant here:
https://x.com/DJSnM/status/1899645147601924277
Yeah, the landing software is looking more and more suspect.
This video — mostly history, but with some salient insights — is well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OXk4RKZhaY
The commentaries by Neil Armstrong and Mr. Ottinger are priceless.
Ray, putting humans in the thing is a whole ‘nuther level. Not only will SpaceX and NASA spend vastly more time and money validating the guidance and control (undoubtedly building on their game-changing Falcon and Starship landing software), but the crew will form a *highly!* motivated backup system. And, the HLS will necessarily have enough fuel to abort back into orbit if things go south.
But, yeah… trepidation. Me too. Can’t wait!
Point well-taken Patrick. The first one will not be manned, of course, but I fully expect that the SpaceX team will conduct themselves as if it were!
It should have been the Angry Rabbit:)
Ray, I sure hope so, and expect success. The frequency of minor, and major, problems with Falcon 9 and Starship lately is certainly concerning. I know the SpaceX crew are addressing the recent issues with great alacrity… if Elon has to start sleeping on the factory floor, “alacrity” is about to take on a whole new meaning!