#Athena came to rest inside a crater, 250m from its intended target. “With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the #solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, #IntuitiveMachines does not expect Athena to recharge 🔋”. Issues with Athena’s laser altimeter may have contributed to the bad landing https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-company-says-moon-mission-over-after-landing-sideways-again

#IM2#SpaceNavigation

Electric propulsion systems are not #energy limited. An arbitrarily large amount of energy can be delivered (from a #solar ☀️ or #nuclear ☢️ power system) to a given mass of propellant so that the exhaust velocity (or specific impulse) can be much larger than that available from a #chemical propulsion system. Electric propulsion systems are termed " #power 🔋 limited" https://sci.esa.int/web/smart-1/-/34201-electric-spacecraft-propulsion?section=electric-versus-chemical-propulsion

#ESA#ElectricPropulsion