Houston-based Intuitive Machines successfully launched its lunar lander for the second time at 7:16 p.m. ET Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
According to SpaceNews, the IM-2 was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which carried the lunar module into orbit. A landing attempt is expected to be made at Mons Mouton, near the moon's south pole, on March 6.
This is the second mission for the lunar module, which is why it is called “IM-2”.
A Falcon 9 rocket has successfully landed on SpaceX's A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after the reusable rocket launched the IM-2 mission into space.
The booster landing was the 100th for the drone and the 413th for all SpaceX drones. It was the ninth launch and return of the booster.
SpaceX designed each of its Falcon 9 rockets for 40 launches and returns.
Intuitive Machines engineers have named the IM-2 lander “Athena.” It will carry the payload of NASA’s Polar Ice Mining Experiment, known as NASA PRIME-1, to the polar region where ice is planned to be extracted to support future lunar missions.
The lunar lander launch is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, and the PRIME-1 payload includes drilling equipment designed to bore holes up to one meter below the lunar surface.
While the drill is working on the Moon, the spectrometer will analyze substances to identify volatile components such as water ice that could be useful for future manned missions.
The IM-2 lunar module will also be equipped with a laser retroreflector and a Micro Nova Hopper called “Grace” from Intuitive Machines, which is designed to “hop” across the lunar surface using a propulsion system.
The ability to jump will allow Grace to travel to places inaccessible to wheeled vehicles.
Grace will carry a system of cameras and instruments created by the German space agency DLR and the Hungarian company Puli Space.
The IM-2 lunar module will also carry a Nokia communications system that will test the functionality of 4G/LTE networks on the Moon by communicating with the Grace hopper and the Lunar Outpost Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform rover. The rover will be part of the IM-2 payload.
Other commercial payloads to be sent to the lunar surface include a small rover called Yaoki from Japan's Dymon Co. Ltd. and a data center called Freedom, developed by Lonestar Data Holdings.
The IM-2 will also feature thermal protection technologies from Columbia Sportswear.
Although the mission uses a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Intuitive Machines purchased it and modified it to increase its payload capacity by nearly a ton.
Intuitive Machines is the only private space company to successfully land a vehicle on the moon, CNN Science reports.
If the lunar module successfully lands at the moon's south pole, it will help NASA scientists determine whether the area contains enough water ice to convert into breathable air, drinkable water, and possibly rocket fuel.
The IM-2 mission will also launch NASA's Lunar Trailblazer satellite, designed to find and map areas of the Moon where water is present.
Trailblazer will orbit the Moon for two years and help NASA scientists better understand the water cycle on oxygen-free celestial bodies.
The mission is the fourth in NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which aims to reduce NASA's costs in delivering science and technology to the lunar surface.
NASA will pay Intuitive Machines $62 million to deliver two scientific payloads to the Moon.
Sourse: www.upi.com
