Space Technology: SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Athena Lander, NASA's Lunar Pioneer To The Moon

Illustration Photo: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Athena Lander, NASA's Lunar Pioneer to the Moon

KOMPUTER JADUL-,  NASA on February 26, 2025, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center, carrying NASA's Athena lunar lander and Lunar Trailblazer orbiter.

The launch activity, which took place at 7:16 p.m. EST from Launch Complex-39A, marked a significant step in a lunar exploration mission.

Athena, developed by Intuitive Machines, is specifically designed to investigate the presence of water ice deposits on the lunar surface.

The vehicle is highly equipped with ten scientific instruments, including the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1). PRIME-1 consists of two main components, namely:

• TRIDENT (Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain): A drill tool specifically designed to extract samples from the entire subsurface of the moon.
• MSolo (Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations): A mass spectrometer tasked with analyzing all samples taken by TRIDENT.

The two instruments work together to provide critical data on the presence of water ice, supporting future in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) efforts.

In addition to Athena, NASA also launched Lunar Trailblazer, an orbiter that aims to map water ice deposits across the moon's surface.

The data collected by Lunar Trailblazer will improve scientists' understanding of the distribution of ice, especially in the Mons Mouton region, the planned landing site for the Athena spacecraft.

Athena is expected to reach lunar orbit within four to five days after launch.

After that, the spacecraft will attempt to land within 1.5 to three days. Overall, Athena's mission is planned to last about ten Earth days.

To expand its lunar exploration capabilities, Athena carries two secondary vehicles:

MAPP: A rover designed by Lunar Outpost, designed to establish a cellular network on the moon using the Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS) developed by Nokia Bell Labs.

Grace: A roving robotic technology developed by Intuitive Machines, designed to explore a very dark crater that is inaccessible to wheeled vehicles.

Improving Landing Accuracy: IM-2’s Main Focus

The mission follows the success of Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which successfully landed the first soft-landed rover on the Moon by a private company, despite landing problems that affected data transmission.

Trent Martin, senior vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines, said improving landing accuracy is a major focus of the IM-2 mission.

NASA’s contract for IM-2 was initially for $47 million, but was increased to $62.5 million due to additional requirements, including collecting temperature data.

Athena and Lunar Trailblazer are part of a broader lunar exploration effort, joining missions such as Firefly Aerospace’s Ghost Riders in the Sky and ispace’s Resilience lander, both launching in early 2025.

The Falcon 9 launch of Athena and Lunar Trailblazer marks a major step forward in lunar exploration, paving the way for a much deeper understanding of the resource data on Earth’s natural satellite.