Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lunar lander draws direct heritage and lessons learned from NASA’s Project M lunar lander and Project Morpheus experience.
Project M and its terrestrial counterpart, Project Morpheus, were designed, developed and tested by NASA Johnson Space CEnter to demonstrate new technologies for planetary landing included autonomous hazard avoidance, precision landing, and high performance cryogenic liquid Oxygen (LOX) and liquid Methane (LCH4) integrated propulsion. The core team that was instrumental in the success of the Morpheus lander left government service and founded Intuitive Machines.
Key Features:
100 kg payload capacity to the surface of the moon
(250Kbps-6Mbps) 24/7 Data coverage
At least 200 watts of power on the surface
Payload mounting locations per customer
Modular and adaptive design
Soft touchdown ~ 1m/ second
Hazard avoidance navigation
Land anywhere on the moon
Over 9 square meters of payload mounting surface
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 47397 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
Intuitive Machines Selected by NASA for Robotic Return to the Moon in 2021
Intuitive Machines will join NASA's new era of lunar exploration with a robotic landing on the Moon in 2021, under a contract award announced today (May 31) by NASA.
The firm, fixed-price contract for no more than $77,247,500, with an additional incentive of $2,500,000, calls for Intuitive Machines to develop, launch and land its Nova-C spacecraft on the lunar surface with a payload of NASA and private experiments. The mission will be the first under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The award places Intuitive Machines on a path to become the first private U.S. company to land a spacecraft on the Moon.
"We are grateful for the tremendous privilege and honor to be awarded this contract. I have dreamed of going to the moon since, as an 11-year-old boy, I saw Neil Armstrong's historic first step onto that new world. Today, Intuitive Machines begins a journey back to the moon in the culmination of my boyhood dream," said Dr. Kam Ghaffarian, Executive Chairman of Intuitive Machines.
"All of us at Intuitive Machines have great passion for space and exploration," said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. "Our experience in developing autonomous systems, precision navigation, and cryogenic propulsion lends itself perfectly to the challenge of landing Nova-C on the Moon. In our first mission, we provide lunar science payload delivery and technology advancement for NASA, academia, and our strategic partner Boeing."
"Our vision is to take the challenge of this historic step with an eye toward a permanent presence on the Moon," said Dr. Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines' Lunar Architect. "We are working with Boeing to extend core Nova-C technologies of propulsion and automation to the development of large scale and human landers."
"We are very excited about this incredible opportunity to once again put the United States on the surface of the Moon," Altemus adds. "We have a strong team of brilliant minds motivated to accomplish this mission. We have worked relentlessly over the past few years, and we will continue to do so until we land the Nova-C on the Moon and put boots on the ground shortly thereafter."
The lunar payload and delivery service business of Intuitive Machines encompasses small, medium and large landers, as well as the development of lunar infrastructure that will pave the way for planetary missions. The 2021 Nova-C mission will have a payload capacity of 220 pounds (100 kg) and transmit scientific data back to Earth during 13.5 days of activity on the Moon's surface.
Nova-C uses a first-in-class, deep-throttling liquid oxygen/methane engine that is scalable to landers of different sizes. Intuitive Machines also is working to enable space exploration beyond the Moon with its development and implementation of space-storable cryogenic propellants.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 47397 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-17-2021 03:51 PM
NASA release
NASA Selects Intuitive Machines for New Lunar Science Delivery
NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston a contract to deliver research, including science investigations and a technology demonstration, to the Moon in 2024. The commercial delivery is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and the Artemis program.
The investigations aboard Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander are destined for Reiner Gamma, one of the most distinctive and enigmatic natural features on the Moon. Known as a lunar swirl, Reiner Gamma is on the western edge of the Moon, as seen from Earth, and is one of the most visible lunar swirls. Scientists continue to learn what lunar swirls are, how they form, and their relationship to the Moon's magnetic field.
"This delivery to the Moon will help the U.S. expand our capabilities and learn more about this interesting region," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Observing lunar swirls can give us information about the Moon's radiation environment and perhaps how to mitigate its effects. With more and more science and technology demonstrations on the lunar surface, we can help prepare for sustainable astronaut missions through Artemis."
Intuitive Machines will receive $77.5 million for the contract and is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and payload operations. This is Intuitive Machines' third task order award, the first of which is a delivery to Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon during the first quarter of 2022. This award is the seventh surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS partner.
"These investigations show how CLPS is capable of delivering payloads to the lunar surface that will address our primary scientific goals for lunar exploration and discovery," said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We aim to learn more about lunar swirls and this payload manifest is designed to obtain data unique to the geographical feature of Reiner Gamma."
The four investigations Intuitive Machines will deliver to Reiner Gamma are collectively expected to be about 203 pounds (92 kg) in mass and include:
Lunar Vertex is among NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) selections. It is a combination of stationary lander payloads and a rover that will make detailed measurements of the magnetic field, plasma environment and regolith properties. The lander and rover data will augment observations collected in orbit. Combined, the observations will help show how these mysterious lunar swirls form and evolve – and how they connect to local magnetic fields in the same regions. Lunar Vertex is funded through the agency's Science Mission Directorate and is led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) consists of mobile robots programmed to work as an autonomous team to explore the lunar surface, collect data, and map different areas of the Moon in 3D. CADRE uses its inertial measurement unit, stereo cameras, and a Sun sensor to track the position of each robot as they explore the lunar surface. CADRE is funded by NASA's Game Changing Development program under the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate and is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
MoonLIGHT retroreflector is a laser retroreflector, which reflects laser beams sent from Earth directly back from the Moon to receivers on Earth. This allows very precise measurement of the distances between the reflector and the ground station. This technique can be used to investigate relativity, the gravitational dynamics of the Earth-Moon system and the deep lunar interior. MoonLIGHT is managed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Lunar Space Environment Monitor (LUSEM) uses a pair of apertures to detect high-energy particles on the lunar surface. LUSEM will monitor variations in the near-surface space environment when the Moon is inside and outside Earth's magnetotail – the trailing end of the magnetic fields surrounding our planet, which can serve as a buffer for incoming radiation. LUSEM is managed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in South Korea.