After the failure of the first American company’s moon landing attempt last month, a second company is due to take off for the moon from Florida between Tuesday and Wednesday night (Pool/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)
After the failure of the first American company’s moon landing attempt last month, a second company must take off from Florida for the moon between Tuesday and Wednesday night, hoping in turn to become the first private company to successfully land there.
The mission, called IM-1, sends a more than four-meter-tall lander developed by Intuitive Machine, a Texan company founded in 2013.
The machine will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which is scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center at 12:57 a.m. (05:57 GMT) on Wednesday.
Shortly after liftoff, the lander should separate from the rocket’s upper stage and power up. Communication should then be established with the Intuitive Machine control room located in Houston, Texas.
Schematic of the Nova-C Odysseus class lander built by Intuitive Machines, part of NASA’s Artemis program to return to the Moon and establish a permanent base there (AFP/Gal ROMA)
This is the first lunar attempt for the company, but the second under NASA’s new CLPS program, which mandates private companies to carry scientific instruments to our natural satellite in preparation for the return of astronauts.
In January, Astrobotic failed to reach the Moon due to a fuel leak and its lander had to be deliberately destroyed in flight.
NASA assumes the risk of failure of this mission, which is entrusted to young companies, insisting that it is aware that not all of them will succeed. But the game is worth it, she says: By being a simple customer on board vehicles that aren’t related to it, the space agency says it can send more stuff, more often, and for less money.
This is “a pivotal moment in space exploration, where private companies play an increasingly important role,” Intuitive Machines said.
In addition to six NASA instruments, the Moon Lander also carried six private cargoes, including sculptures by contemporary artist Jeff Koons representing the phases of the Moon.
– next week –
If all goes well, the lander will attempt to land on the moon next week, on February 22.
It would be the first American device to do so since the end of the Apollo program, more than 50 years ago.
A Feb. 7, 2024, photo of the Nova-C lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center, Florida (NASA/SpaceX/Handout)
The model of this lander is called Nova-C, and the copy used for this first mission was named Odysseus.
The planned landing site is a crater near the Moon’s south pole, which has yet to be explored.
The six instruments of the American space agency on board should make it possible to study this particular atmosphere.
Four cameras, for example, will observe the landing phase and projected dust during landing, to compare its effects with the Apollo moon landings conducted near the equator.
The Moon’s south pole is important to NASA, as it is where the space agency intends to land its astronauts as part of the Artemis mission. Reason: There is water in the form of ice, which can be used.
But since the sun is permanently low in the horizon, it can also be extremely cold.
“Because the environment is so harsh, this will give us a reference point to understand how solar panels and equipment work there,” Susan Lederer, head of the program’s scientific arm, said at a press conference Monday. CLPS.
The Artemis 3 mission, which will be the first manned mission to land there, is now planned for 2026.
– Mission Development –
The contract signed by NASA for this first intuitive machine mission is worth $118 million.
Two other missions from the company to the Moon, IM-2 and IM-3, are planned for this year.
NASA has always been a “primary customer,” said Trent Martin, vice president in charge of space systems for the company.
In addition to Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, a third American company, Firefly Aerospace, is also slated to attempt the venture in 2024.
Tests by other companies, Israeli and Japanese, in 2019 and 2023 ended in crashes.
However, national agencies have recently landed on the moon: India this summer, then Japan in January. They thus became the fourth and fifth countries after the Soviet Union, the United States and China to successfully complete the operation.
