The next lunar lander launch is nearly here — and it's packed with mobile spacecraft and cutting-edge technology.
Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar mission lander, named Athena, arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday (Jan. 28), in preparation for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Athena — which is Intuitive Machines' second lander — aims to validate resource prospecting, mobility, and communications infrastructure in the Mons Mouton region, a tall mountain near the moon's south pole. The region is a potential landing site for NASA's Artemis 3 crewed mission.
The four-day launch window for the mission opens no earlier than Feb. 26, Intuitive Machines said in a statement.
Payloads aboard Athena include a drill (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain, or TRIDENT) and the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo). It also carries a Micro Nova Hopper, which will target a permanently shadowed crater and seek to detect hydrogen, and the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover.
Once Athena touches down, the Micro Nova Hopper and MAPP rover will deploy to explore the lunar terrain. They will establish a connection using Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS), the first-ever 4G/LTE network on the moon. This is a move away from radio frequency communication and will enable real-time command and control, telemetry transmission, and even high-definition video streaming, in what could be a big step toward establishing sustainable lunar infrastructure.
IM-2 is part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, a NASA effort to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the moon, aiding the agency's Artemis program. Intuitive Machines's first lunar lander, Odysseus, became the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the moon in February last year, marking a historic success, despite tipping over onto its side.
Both Athena and Odysseus are based on Intuitive Machines' Nova-C class lunar lander spacecraft, which takes the shape of a tall, hexagonal cylinder.
"Each lunar mission builds on the last, and Athena's arrival in Florida demonstrates our dedication to delivering on the company's vision to providing a reliable cadence of lunar delivery services," Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus in the statement.
"This commitment to flying missions reinforces our broader efforts of developing a heavy cargo lander, establishing a lunar data relay satellite constellation, and providing sustainable infrastructure services at the moon to enable further exploration of the solar system," Altemus added.
While Athena is preparing for launch, two other private spacecraft — the Blue Ghost lunar lander from Firefly Aerospace and the Resilience lander from ispace of Japan — are already in the early stages of their own journeys to the moon after sharing a Falcon 9 launch on Jan. 15.
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