NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston contracts for science and exploration missions to the South Pole of the moon in 2024. The commercial delivery is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and the Artemis program.
IM-1 Mission
The IM-1 mission launch is currently scheduled for a six-day period that opens November 16 on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
The Intuitive Machines 1 (IM-1, TO2-IM) mission objective is to place a lander, called Nova-C, on the crater rim of Malapert A near the south pole of the Moon. The commercially built lander will carry five NASA payloads and commercial cargo. The scientific objectives of the mission include studies of plume-surface interactions, radio astronomy, and space weather interactions with the lunar surface. It will also be demonstrating precision landing technologies and communication and navigation node capabilities. IM-1 was selected through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA contracts with a commercial partner, in this case Intuitive Machines, that provides the launch and lander.
The Nova-C Lander is a hexagonal cylinder, 4.0 meters tall and 1.57 meters wide, on 6 landing legs with a launch mass of 1908 kg. It is capable of carrying approximately 100 kg of payload to the surface. It uses solar panels to generate 200 W of power on the surface, using a 25 amp-hr battery and a 28 VDC system. Propulsion and landing use liquid methane as fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer powering a 3100 N main engine mounted on the bottom of the lander. Communications are via S-band. The scientific payload includes the Laser Retro-Reflector Array (LRA), Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL), Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator (LN-1), Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), and Radio wave Observation at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES). In total there are five NASA and four commercial payloads planned.
Launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than 15 November 2023. After launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, the Nova-C spacecraft will go into a 185 x 60,000 km Earth orbit, followed by a translunar injection and a maneuver to put it in a 100 km lunar orbit. The lander will land on the Moon on the rim of Malapert A crater near the south pole. The lander is capable of operating for about 14 Earth days in sunlight.
IM-2 Mission
Nova-C IM-2 or PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) is a NASA mission to land two instruments on the moon using Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C commercial lunar lander on the Nova-C IM-2 mission.
The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) will be the first in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the Moon. Additionally, for the first time, NASA will robotically sample and analyze for ice from below the surface. The landing site will be near the lunar South Pole on a ridge not far from Shackleton crater
The data from PRIME-1 will help scientists understand in-situ resources on the Moon, including resource location mapping. PRIME-1 contributes to NASA’s search for water at the Moon’s poles, supporting the agency’s plans to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by the end of the decade.
Following instruments are on board:
The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT): TRIDENT will drill up to 1 meter deep, extracting lunar regolith, or soil, up to the surface. The instrument can drill in multiple segments, pausing and retracting to deposit cuttings on the surface after each depth increment.
Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo): This modified-for-spaceflight, commercial-off-the-shelf mass spectrometer will evaluate the drill cuttings for water and other chemical compounds. Soil samples from multiple depths will be analyzed.
Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a series of eight small mirrors to measure distance and support landing accuracy. It requires no power or communications from the lander and can be detected by future spacecraft orbiting or landing on the Moon.
Versions of TRIDENT and MSolo will also fly on NASA’s VIPER rover mission that will search for ice at the lunar South Pole in 2024. PRIME-1’s early use of the drill and MSolo helps to increase the likelihood of reliable operation of those payloads on VIPER’s mobile platform in the following year.
IM-3 Mission
Intuitive Machines 3 (IM-3) is a lunar landing mission that will deliver payloads to the Reiner Gamma region of the Moon. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2024.
The IM-3 mission will carry:
Four NASA payloads
A rover
A data relay satellite
Secondary payloads to be determined
Intuitive Machines 3 (IM-3), or TO CP-11 (PRISM 11) is a lunar landing mission. It will carry four NASA payloads to the Reiner Gamma region of the Moon, as well as a rover, a data relay satellite, and secondary payloads to be determined. Scientific objectives include gaining an understanding of the Reiner Gamma swirl mini-magnetosphere region and its magnetic and plasma properties. IM-3 is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA contracts with a commercial partner, in this case Intuitive Machines, that provides the launch and lander.
Spacecraft and Subsystems
The main component of IM-3 is the Nova-C Lander, a tall hexagonal cylinder on 6 landing legs. It is capable of carrying 100 to 130 kg of payload to the surface. It uses solar panels to generate 200 W of power on the surface. Propulsion and landing use liquid methane as fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer.
NOVA-C will carry approximately 92 kg of payload to the surface, comprising a camera and four investigations. It will also carry the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover. Lunar Vertex is a combination of the rover payload and stationary instruments on the lander to study the plasma and dust environment. The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) experiment is a collection of small mobile robots designed to explore the surface as an autonomous team. MoonLIGHT (Moon Laser Instrumentation for General relativity High-accuracy Test) is a laser retroreflector managed by the European Space Agency. The Lunar Space Environment Monitor (LUSEM) will measure high-energy particles at the lunar surface and is managed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in South Korea. The rover will also carry a multispectral microscope
The mission is also scheduled to carry a data relay satellite, Khon2, which it will deploy to travel to the L2 Earth-Moon libration point. The mission can also carry approximately 1000 kg of secondary payloads to lunar transfer orbit.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.