Georgia Tech-developed algorithms land on the moon in second lunar mission

Last year, the United States returned to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. It did so via IM-1, the inaugural mission of Houston-based company Intuitive Machines. Ava Thrasher, a Georgia Tech grad student last year, watched with interest as Intuitive Machines’ inaugural mission succeeded, in part due to algorithms developed by professor John Christian. Now, after working alongside Christian and in collaboration with Intuitive Machines for a second lunar mission, Thrasher said in a Tuesday interview she was anxious to see if her own algorithms would find success in space.

“There’s definitely a bit of nerves. I’ve never put a piece of code directly into space before, so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out,” said Thrasher, who is now a research engineer at Georgia Tech’s Space Exploration and Analysis Laboratory.

Thursday’s IM-2 landing on the moon’s south pole was the latest development of the Artemis campaign, an endeavor to study the moon, “and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars,” according to NASA’s website. To study the moon, however, NASA must first get its scientific instruments on the moon. The agency began the Commercial Lunar Payload Service in 2018 to accomplish that, contracting with American companies like Intuitive Machines to safely deliver NASA’s precious cargo.

In mission IM-2, that cargo includes a drill designed to extract soil from up to three feet below the moon’s surface, and a spectrometer that will analyze the soil for water. Both tools are being transported via a lunar lander named Athena, which was shot into space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After detaching from the rocket, the lunar lander cruised toward the moon and began to orbit the celestial rock. On Thursday, Athena descended to its destination: Mons Mouton, a plateau roughly the size of Delaware.

Getting there required Thrasher and Christian’s algorithms, which use moon craters as reference points for Athena to find its way.

Athena is equipped with a catalog of known moon craters that serve as a map of sorts. Coupled with a camera that will take pictures of the surface below, the algorithms allowed Athena to use craters as landmarks to guide itself on the treacherous descent.

“You match what you see in the picture to what you have in the map,” Christian explained. “Correspond those two things to one another and use that to figure out where you are.”

The lunar lander operated autonomously, relying on the camera and algorithms to find its way. If all goes according to plan, Athena will bring NASA’s instruments to Mons Mouton and drilling will begin, with scientists hoping to find evidence of water in the ground.

“NASA’s Artemis campaign includes conducting more science to better understand planetary processes and evolution, to search for evidence of water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration,” reads NASA’s website.

After beginning her work on IM-2 in fall 2022, the project is now out of Thrasher’s hands. There’s nothing for her or Christian to do now but watch the livestream like everyone else, hoping the landing goes off without a hitch.

“I’m on the edge of my seat obviously,” said Thrasher. “I knew I wanted to do space stuff since I was old enough to look up and see stars.”

Christian said there is something special about students being able to see their work go into space. That’s what motivates him, his students and many other aerospace engineers.

“It’s a little nerve wracking sometimes, but that’s why we do it,” Christian said. “We want to build things that fly.”