Overview

• The 'Athena' lander, operated by private US company Intuitive Machines, successfully landed near the Moon's South Pole, though its operational status is still unclear.
• This marks the company's second lunar landing attempt after its 2024 mission, in which the 'Odysseus' lander tipped over post-landing.
• Athena's mission includes searching for water ice using NASA-provided tools and deploying a German-made 'Grace Hopper' drone to explore a permanently shadowed lunar crater.
• The lander also carries technology to test the establishment of a 4G mobile network on the Moon, a potential milestone for lunar infrastructure.
• The mission is expected to last 10 days, after which the lunar night will render the lander inoperative, limiting the timeframe for experiments.