It brings me no pleasure to announce that Intuitive Machine’s Athena Moon lander has been declared dead. An ex-Moon lander. Ceased to be, bereft of life, and joined the choir invisible. Onboard was a miniature data center provided by Lonestar, complete with a Phison enterprise-grade SSD. And on that SSD, as we’ve learned from a post on Linkedin authored by Lonestar’s CEO, Chris Stott, are the lyrics to a song by Imagine Dragons for Bethesda’s troubled space RPG, Starfield.
Two moon shots then, one quite literal and one metaphorical—and both victims, it seems, of a particularly bumpy landing.
The stricken spacecraft made something of a successful touchdown (read: did not explode on impact), but is now confirmed to be lying on its side with its solar panels unable to gather precious sunlight to power the rest of its mission. In a statement, Intuitive Machines announced the lander’s current state:
“Images downlinked from Athena on the lunar surface confirmed that Athena was on her side. After landing, mission controllers were able to accelerate several program and payload milestones, including NASA’s PRIME-1 suite, before the lander’s batteries depleted.
“With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge. The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission.”
It’s in these sorts of moments that we could all do with some time to reflect, and perhaps think existentially about our hubris as a species and our deep-seated desire to reach for the great beyond.
Luckily Imagine Dragons is way ahead of us, as the lyrics to Children of the Sky (A Starfield Song) have now become poignant in a way that was perhaps otherwise intended:
“Some days when I’m dreaming, I think of how far I have come
All my life’s led to this and now I see what I’ve become
I always had doubted that I could ever be someone
That mattered, that shattered all these glass ceilings up above
“We’re children of the sky, flying up so high
Let me be that one to find the brightest sun
We’re children of the sky, guided by the light
Let me reach new heights, stars amongst the night
Children of the sky”
Modern poetry, I think you’ll agree. The Athena lander, much like Starfield, reached for the heady heights of success but crucially missed the mark. It strived to be something more than the collection of its parts, but crucial missteps prevented it from carrying out its mission.
For Athena it was the pursuit of science, ruined by a rocky landing. For Starfield, it was the pursuit of a grand space adventure, marred by dull planets, old-school quest design, bugs that stopped being amusing years ago, and a general sense that we’ve moved past the idea that a massive open-world RPG should be a collection of somewhat-interesting stuff in among vast swathes of nothingness.
That’s my personal take on it, anyway, although our Starfield review makes many of the same critiques. If I may quote once more from the Imagine Dragons canon, I feel that another song may sum up Athena’s fate even more poignantly, and perhaps Starfield’s, too:
“I’m an apostrophe
I’m just a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see
I’m just a product of the system, a catastrophe
And yet a masterpiece, and yet I’m half-diseased
And when I am deceased
At least I go down to the grave and die happily
Leave the body and my soul to be a part of thee
I do what it takes”
Rest in peace, Athena. And as for Starfield? Bethesda says it’s still working on it, despite a recent radio silence of its own. While the moon lander now rests on rocky shores, perhaps Starfield still has a redemption story yet to come. Here’s hoping, at the very least.
