Robot With Large Drill Headed for Surface of Moon

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a lunar lander from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, kicking off the latest attempt to touch down on the Moon's surface.

Houston-based startup Intuitive Machines' lander, dubbed Athena, is equipped with various scientific instruments, including a tiny "hopper" robot, three separate rovers — and a drill.

The drill was designed to burrow roughly three feet below the Moon's surface and drop the retrieved soil into a pile nearby. A mass spectrometer will then analyze the excavated samples for signs of frozen water, among other chemical compounds.

The drill is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which is dedicated to helping the agency "explore the Moon as it prepares for human missions."

As such, if Athena's drill were to detect significant amounts of water ice near the Moon's tallest mountain, Mons Mouton, which is only roughly 37 miles from the south pole, it could have considerable implications for NASA's upcoming crewed landings as part of its Artemis program.

Athena will also be carrying a rover, called the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), which will test out the first-ever cellphone network on the Moon through a partnership with Finnish telecom and consumer electronics company Nokia.

The lander's much smaller "hopper" robot will feature thrusters to allow it to cover long distances. It will attempt to communicate with MAPP with the help of an antenna before exploring the shadowed regions of a nearby crater.

The plan is for Athena to touch down on the Moon on March 6. But considering Intuitive Machines' first attempt last year ended in its Odysseus lander tripping on a rock and falling over during landing, the stakes are high.

It's an unusually busy time, with two other robotic landers other than Athena also en route to the Moon.

Firefly Aerospace's lander, dubbed Blue Ghost, is headed towards Mare Crisium, a massive basin on the Moon's near side. Earlier this week, the lander captured striking close-up views of the lunar surface. The goal is to attempt to land in the early hours of Sunday.

Japanese space company ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 was launched on the same Falcon 9 rocket as Blue Ghost on January 15. Its Resilience lander and accompanying Tenacious micro rover will attempt to land near a basaltic plain on the far side of the Moon later this spring.

Despite the flurry of activity, now that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has gained considerable influence over NASA — and the rest of the country — NASA's long-planned crewed missions to the surface of the Moon could be in peril. Both Musk and president Donald Trump have voiced their desire to send humans to the surface of Mars instead, undermining the space agency's Artemis program.

Where that leaves Intuitive Machines' attempt to probe the lunar surface for signs of water ice is up in the air — but given the many failed Moon landings over the last several years, surviving the descent in one piece is far from a guarantee anyway.

More on lunar landers: NASA Spacecraft Shoots Japanese Moon Lander With Laser