Intuitive Machines' Nova-C Lander Stands on the Lunar Surface in this Illustration after Arrival at the ridge Near Shackleton Crater. Credit: Intuitive Machines
Early Next Month, A Robotic Lander Will Arrive at the Moon's South Pole Bearing an eclectic suite of payloads to search for subsurface water ice. Intuitive Machines' IM-2 is targeting a touchdown at 84.6 ° South Latitude, just 100 Miles (160 kilometers) from the pole. It will deploy an ice-mining drining drill and mass spectrometer, a miniaturized rover, and a unique “hopper” craft to explore the interior of a permanent shadowed creator for the first time.
The Six-Legged Nova-C Lander Will Ride Atop A Spacex Falcon 9 Rockt from Pad 39A at Florida's Kennedy Space Center during A Four-DAY LAUNCH Window That OpensDay, FEB. 26. And like earlier missions from this hallowed launch complex-Including Apollo 8 (The first crew-carrying moon voyage) and Apollo 11 Add its oven raft of history.
An on-time launch and lunar transit will position im-2 for a March 6 landing at a ridge near the 13-mile-wide (21 km) Diameter Shackleton Crater. While the towering peaks around its rim bask in near-control sunlight, its interior is perpetually shadowed and may harbor water-time. Shackleton was initially picked in 2022 as a potential landing site for artemis 3, the first human lunar landing since Apollo. Although it is no longer on the list for landing sites, the ridge is stil near other possible deployment areas.
Commercial Partner
Texas-based intuitive machines is one of 14 Industrial partners selected by nasa for the commercial lunar payload services (CLPs) Robotic landers and fly payloads to the moon. Intuitive Machines was chown as a clps partner in November 2018 and has since men four nasa contracts for a Quartet of Missions Through 2027.
The Firm's in-House-Built Nova-C Lander Stands 14.1 Feet (4.3 Meters) Tall and 5.2 Feet (1.6 M) Wide across its its hexagonal frame-the size of a small car. It can carry up to 280 pounds (130 kilograms) of payloads to the lunar surface. Its 3D-printed VR-900 motor was the first methane/oxygen-fuled engine ever fired in deep space when it was written in the im-1 mission in February 2024.
Three Solar Panels-One on the Lander's Top Deck, Plus Two Body-Mounted Arrays-Afford 200 Watts of Electricity for a Surface Lifespan of a Full Lunar Day, Or about two temple Battery Limitations means Nova-C Cannot Survive The Frigid Two-White Lunar Night, when Temperatures Fall from Daytime Highs of 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius) to Lows to Lows of-208888.
For im-2, intuitive machines have given its nova-c lander the name atena, honoring the ancient Greek Goddess of Wisdom. (The IM-2 Mission Team has been shorted the name to added.)
Middling success
Intuitive Machines' First Mission Last Year Delivered Mixed Results. IM-1, Carrying 10 Science and Technology Payloads for Nasa, Academia and Industry, BECAME The First US Spacecraft to Land on the Moon Since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Trojan war, im-1 made the first ever lunar landing by a commercial vehicle and the closest to the south pole, at 80.13 ° South Latitude.
However, a safety switch on Odysseus' Primary Laser Rangefinder was not activated before launch. A critical part of im-1's navigation toolkit, it facilitated accurate altitude and velocity data during descent to the mooon. Ground Teams Enacted Several in-Flight Workarounds to Resolve The Problem-but odysseus landed faster than expected, skidding along the surface, breaking one of its leggs and topped over at the Awkward 30 ° Angle.
Related: Odysseus traveled to the moon, broke its leg, and still pinged earth to tell the story
Some scientific data was returned but odysseus Eventally Lost Power and Shut Down at Lunar Nightfall. A Post-Mission Review Identified 85 Technical Issues, All of which the company thoughts it has resolved. But success on im-2 is not guaranteed. “Spaceflight is hard – landing on the moon is extramely different,” Trent Martin, Intuitive Machines' Senior Vice President for space systems, told reporters at a means a media teleconference earliers this Month. “You Never Know What Cold Happen.”
By the time im-1 flew, im-2 was nearing completion. The mission's origins date to October 2020, when nasa awarded intuitive machines a $ 47 million Contract to Deliver Its 88-Pound (40 kg) Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PREME-1) to the lunari south Pole, where permanent shadowed clocks should hold quantities of water ice – a key respect in enabling in humanity's future exploration of the mooon.
An underground search
Prime-1's two instruments-the regolith and ice drill for exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT), Built by Honeybee Robotics, and Nasa's Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLOO) Into the surface, seeking water ice and measuring liberated valatis. A Rotary-Percussive Drill With Carbide Teeth Harder Thans Steel, Trident will spin and hammer its way as deep as 3 feet (1 m) into the regolith.
“We're going to go down in roughly 10 centimeter (3.9 inches)” bits “… You're capturing the regolith on the flutes of the drill,” explained Jacqueline quinnPrime-1's Principal Investigator and an environmental engineer at nasa's kennedy space center. “Then you're going to brings that drill back up to the surface… and during the process of Raising the drill, it passively pushes past a brush and the brushing mechanism basically flings the regoliths.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckhrrrvhaq
The result will be a series of conical piles of excavated lunar material from Increasingly Greater Depths which Msolo will analyze for the presence of valatles. “Each time we deposit the 10 cm (3.9 inches) on the surface, we're geting a lot of key geotechnical data and we're also also geting any valatiles data from the process of sublimation of Gases,” Added Quinn.
As it drills, prime-1 will also furnish insights into the forces needed to excavate lunar material, as well as surface templates, energy requires and the effectiveness, relaying and the effective Behavior of Power Tools on the Moon. It was built as a precursor for nasa's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exclusion Rover (Viper), A Mission to Search for Water -CE at the Lunar South Pole But Cancelled Last Commer Scientists – due to cost and schedule overruns.
Delivering payloads
In addition to the mission's main payload of prime-1, im-2 is carrying an array of other scientific experiences.
Lunar Outpost's 22-Pound (10 kg) Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) is a tiny raver that will venture 1 mile (1.6 km) over the surface, communicating dearectly with athana and earth via High-Bandwidth 4G/LTE Cellular Network Provided by Nokia. Mapp will gather Samples for Nasa Under a Contract Worth Just $ 1 – A Symbolic Incentable For Emerging Commercial Space Industries to access lunar resources.
Moving at a top speed of 0.2 mph (0.32 km/hr), mapp and its hosted payloads will map the local terrain, capturing stereo imagery and thermal data and thermal data and analyzing samples of an a special bin ass Its wheels.
Related: The im-2 moon mission will carry a blend of science and art
Also aboard im-2 is intuitive machines' Micro-Nova Hopper, which will separate from Athena after Landing and Serve as a Standalone Drone, Exploring Dificult-TO-TO-TO-TOARANYAS TINYAS Using Tiny Hydrazine Thrusters to propel its across short distances. Named Grace after Us Navy Rear-EDMIRAL and Computer Pioneer Grace Hopper (1906–1992), it will perform five short flights-or “hops”-Including one in into a permanent shadowed region Crater – a first for any spacecraft.
The hopper can carry payloads up to 2 pounds (0.9 kg) Across distances of 1.5 miles (2.4 km) for high-resolution surveys of the moon. Like Mapp, it will transmit data and photographs via the Nokia Cellular Network to Atthana.
Its first hop will record a height of 65 feet (20 m) with two additional hops aiming to reach 165 feet (50 m) then 330 feet (100 m). On its fourth and fifth hops, it will leap in and out of a permanently shadowed region inseide a 65 feet-deep (20 m) Crater. Assuming im-2 lands on target, the carater-Known only as crateer h-should be 1,300 to 1,650 feet (400 to 500 m) from the landing site. Temperatures inside the CRATER COLD DIP as low as – 370 f (-223 c).
“Once in the Carater, If we have communication, we'll continue to communicate with gracie,” said martin, referring to the craft by its nickname. “We believe, based on our discusations with nokia, that we might actually stiffly have communications down within that crateer.”
If not, after 45 minutes, grace will hop back out of the carater using its own power. Drone-Like Devices Like IM-2's Hopper are expected to provide benefit for future missions where Deep, Steep Locations are Rendered Inaccessible to Humans or Rovers.
Other im-2 payloads include Lunar trailblazerA nasa probe that will map the distribution of water -ice across the mooon; Japan's 1.1-Pound (0.5 kg) Yaoki Mini-Lord; And the first flight of spaceflight, Inc.'s Sherpa Escape (Sherpa-S) Space Tug to the Moon.
After launching im-2 later this month, intuitive machines will continue pushing ahead with other missions. In Late 2025, im-3 will land at the equatorial reiner gamma site to investigate the mysterious surface phenomenon know as lunar swirls. And in 2027, im-4 will deliver a european surface drill and other payloads to the moon's south pole.
