① Since there have been few changes to the lander design, the current IM-2 mission is still aimed at launch within 2024; ② As the “big financier” of the lunar landing project, NASA will now officially announce the lunar rover project contractors and contracts for the next wave of “Moon Express” services.
Financial Services Association, March 22 (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) After becoming the first private company in human history to successfully perform a soft landing on the moon last month, the US stock listed company Intuitive Machine recently revealed that it is steadily advancing its plan to “land on the moon twice” this year.
In mid-February of this year, the “Odysseus” lunar lander developed by intuitive machines and carried out the IM-1 mission took off aboard the “Falcon 9” and landed at the south pole of the moon after an 8-day journey. This is not only a “small step to land on the moon” taken by private companies, but it is also the first time the US has landed on the moon after a lapse of half a century.
(The “Odysseus” lunar lander took off aboard the “Falcon 9”, source: SpaceX)
As a publicly traded company, Intuitive Machine also released earnings this Thursday. Of course, during regular conference calls, analysts are more concerned about when the company will go to the moon again.
There are few design adjustments, and the IM-2 mission is aimed at the end of the year
It is worth mentioning that there are also some regrets in the IM-1 mission — since the lander touched the moon too fast, it ended up “lying” on the moon in an overturned position. As a result, some communication wires were covered, the solar panels were not charged properly, and the probe's mission time on the moon was shortened.
The Intuitive Machine confirmed that for the next IM-2 mission, the Nova-C lander of the same model as the previous mission will be used, while the design required only minor adjustments.
Company CEO Steve Altmaus explained that through the reconstruction of this mission, the company has confirmed the antenna, camera, and laser rangefinder activation switches and software adjustments that need to be adjusted. The changes in these parts are all relatively straightforward, and I don't actually see any impact on the timeline. The IM-2 mission is still planned for 2024.
During the first mission, the staff discovered that the laser rangefinder wasn't working until the last stage — because the lander forgot to turn on a physical switch before it was delivered to heaven, so they were only able to complete the mission through a compromise.
Steve also revealed that the company is currently cooperating with NASA to confirm the landing site for the next mission, which may be adjusted to the connecting ridge of the Sharkton crater in the lunar south pole. NASA wants to find areas where water ice may exist near the South Pole.
As the big financier of this mission, NASA's ultimate goal is to send American astronauts back to the moon and at the same time establish a permanent human lunar base. Water and ice resources in the south pole of the Moon can be processed into rocket propellants or simply used to supply humans living on the Moon. To this end, NASA has set up a project called “Commercial Lunar Payload Service” to sponsor private enterprises to participate in the “interplanetary logistics” business, so that NASA itself can purchase cheap and easy to use “lunar express” services.
NASA is about to send money again
According to Intuitive Machine's Quarterly Report, the company achieved revenue of 30.6 million US dollars in the fourth quarter (most of the money was provided by NASA), while at the same time, 4.5 million US dollars remained on the account by the end of the year.
However, the company also revealed that as one of the company's investors exercised a share warrant of 50.6 million US dollars at the beginning of the year, and after completing a strategic equity investment of 10 million US dollars, the cash account reached 55 million US dollars as of March 1. This is also the richest situation on hand “at the end of the reporting period” since the company went public in early 2023.
2024 is also a very important year for intuitive machines. In addition to the second lunar landing mission, NASA will also announce a series of new contracts. Among them, NASA will hold a press conference on April 3 to announce which companies will be selected to advance the development of the lunar rover project. In addition, NASA will also announce the status of the next batch of “commercial lunar payload service” contracts during the year.
(Source: NASA website)