ntuitive Machines, the start-up that got into the public eye last year, will launch a moon mission spacecraft to the lunar south pole in 2027.
This would be part of the Thursday awarded contract with NASA, valued at $116.9 million.
This would be NASA’s tenth Commercial Lunar Payload Services program of awards. Of these 10 awards, Intuitive Machines received 4. Intuitive Machines will send six NASA shipments through a spacecraft to the moon mission. The spaceship will also have some extra shipment capacity on the moon landing spaceship for trade customers.
The specific area of the lunar South Pole represents a significant interest for the scientific community, because of the plentitude of iced water that was discovered there.
Despite its huge potential, the zone is prominently difficult to research, due to its permanent shadowing, excessively low temperatures, and tough landscape.
Only one particular rover, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Pragyan rover, has shortly examined the zone.
One of NASA’s six shipments for the Intuitive Machines moon mission is a group of tools, developed by the European Space Agency, that will take some underground samples of the lunar regolith and examine its structure.
The ESA declared that these Intuitive Machines moon landing mission samples will help
have a closer look at the “potential resources on the moon and to prepare technologies that may be used to extract these resources in the future”.
The other cargo would also contain a radiometer that would examine the composition of the moon’s surface, a device that would evaluate the way the spaceship landing might impact the structure of the regolith.
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The Intuitive Machines moon landing spaceship will also carry a group of retroreflectors that will enable to precisely establish the coordinates of the lander.
The manager of the CLPS initiative, Chris Culbert, declared: “The instruments on this newly awarded flight will help us achieve multiple scientific objectives and strengthen our understanding of the Moon’s environment.”
He also added: “For example, they’ll help answer key questions about where volatiles - such as water, ice, or gas - are found on the lunar surface and measure radiation in the South Pole region, which could advance our exploration efforts on the Moon and help us with continued exploration of Mars.”
Before Intuitive Machines will launch this moon mission, it has two more lunar operations in the pipeline that must fulfilled first: a second moon mission spacecraft that is planned to launch during Q4 of the current year and a moon mission to the Reiner Gamma area of the moon in 2025.
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