Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines is completing its lunar program which will provide lunar surface access, lunar orbit delivery, and communications at lunar distance.

Created: 2018-11-22

Updated: 2024-07-24

Company - Intuitive Machines

Founded
Country
2013
USA
Funding
$100M+
Website
https://www.intuitivemachines.com/
Social
Intuitive Machines

Product/Service - Nova-C

Classification
Cargo Transportation & Landers
Category
Commercial Lunar Lander
Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
In-Space Communications Relay
Fields
Moon
Status
Demonstrated
First launch
2024

Lunar Landers

Awarded $77 million by NASA. The company has proposed to fly as many as five payloads to Oceanus Procellarum, a scientifically intriguing dark spot on the Moon, by July 2021

The first lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines, which had been scheduled for launch late this year, has been delayed to early 2022 by its launch provider, SpaceX.

With its ability to carry some 220 pounds of space instruments, Nova-C will be fitted with five NASA payloads for its journey. After arriving on the moon, the lander is expected to send data back to Earth for a period of 13.5 Earth days.

Intuitive Machines Selects SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket for Second Moon Mission. IM-2 Polar Mission will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 2022. 

NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to deliver four science and technology demonstration payloads to Reiner Gamma on the Moon at the firm fixed price of $77,500,000. The near 100kg surface payload delivery mission is the Houston-based company’s third Moon contract award under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The CLPS payloads will be incorporated into the already announced IM-3 commercial mission and fly on board a Nova-C lander.

The company announced 2023, August 14 as part of its second quarter financial results that its IM-1 lunar lander mission is slated for launch on a Falcon 9 during a six-day window that opens Nov. 15 at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A backup launch window is available in December.

Intuitive Machines said in Dec 2023 that it is delaying the launch of its first lunar lander mission a month to mid-February, citing changes in SpaceX’s launch manifest, SpaceNews, 2023-12-19.

IM-1 Mission

Lunar Data Relay

IM selected a York Space Systems S-CLASS satellite with a lunar communications payload to launch on its upcoming IM-2 lunar South Pole mission scheduled for late 2022. The satellite will orbit the Moon to provide communications like a satellite that orbits Earth.

Data relay (KHoN)
All five of our Data Relay Satellites (Khon) utilize our rideshare services to place the satellites into a variety of orbits to support continuous data relay services of satellites in cislunar space and lunar surface systems. The Khon satellites are developed under contract with York Space Systems and are privately owned and operated by Intuitive Machines.

Our Lunar Data Network (LDN) is a private and secure network that supports missions and is evolving to meet future cislunar market needs. Offered commercially, LDN supports line-of-sight and data relay services for spacecraft in cislunar space and systems on the lunar surface. Our secure, interoperable LDN comprises of Nova Control, global ground stations, base-band units installed at each ground station, and lunar data relay satellites starting in 2023.

Lunar Access - Rideshare

Fifty years after humanity first landed on the Moon, Intuitive Machines is proud to offer Lunar Access Services to Earth's nearest neighbor. Our Lunar Access Services provide a reliable and affordable means for governments to explore, companies to develop, and individuals to place an object in cislunar space or on the lunar surface.

Getting to space should be easy and custom-tailored to fit your needs. Our lunar transfer orbit delivery services can accommodate up to 1000 kg of payload and deliver customers into a myriad of high-energy orbits. We launch payloads for deployment after launch vehicle separation and from the steadfast platform of our landers in lunar orbit.

SPAC

Commercial lunar lander company Intuitive Machines has completed its merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raising far less money than originally anticipated. The companies announced only $55 million of “committed capital from an affiliate of its sponsor and company founders.”

The companies did not mention any proceeds of the SPAC itself, which could have been depleted by redemptions, where SPAC shareholders request their money back rather than hold stock in the merged company (SpaceNews, 2023-02-13).

Status Comment / Notes

Link

Product/Service - Micro-Nova

Classification
Surface Spacecraft
Category
Hopper
Drone
Moon Drone
Space Drone
Status
Development
First launch
2024

Drone / Hopper

On our second mission, we'll land and deploy a small rocket-fueled drone, which will use its thrusters to hop across the lunar surface - then, for the 1st time ever, descend into pitch black craters.

Intuitive Machines won the largest of those awards for development of a “hopper” that can carry a one-kilogram payload up to 2.5 kilometers across the lunar surface. “That’s going to give us high-resolution mapping of maybe volatiles on the surface of the moon,” Bridenstine said. “It’s going to help us understand how to pinpoint very precise landing spots on the surface of the moon.”

micro nova(µNova)
We meet the demands of science and technology by providing extreme lunar mobility with µNova (Micro Nova) Hopper.

  • µNova is a propulsive drone that deploys off of a Nova-C lander and hops across the lunar surface on our IM-2 mission.
  • The µNova Hopper can accommodate up to 1 kg of science payloads and expand the exploration footprint to 25 km from the initial landing location.
  • µNova can also hop into and out of permanently shaded regions (PSR), providing a first look into undiscovered areas that may provide the critical science needed to sustain a human presence on the Moon.

With landing gear, Micro-Nova is about 76.2-centimeters in length, width, and height, which is roughly the size of five one-dollar bills. Intuitive Machines engineers will mount Micro-Nova on a nearly four-meter Nova-C lander, which is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Nova-C will deliver Micro-Nova to the lunar south pole in December 2022.

On July 16, 2021, NASA and Intuitive Machines finalized a $41.6 million Tipping Point contract to develop, fly, and operate a deployable “hopper lander” on the Moon. For this mission design, Micro-Nova can carry a 1-kilogram payload more than 2.5 kilometers to access lunar craters and enable high-resolution surveying of the lunar surface under the flight path.

Intuitive Machines’ Micro Nova is a miniature Nova-C lander designed to search for water ice in permanently shaded regions of the Moon. Affectionately known as “The Hopper,” the spacecraft is designed to carry 8 kg of payloads up to 25 km from the IM-2 mission landing site.

Joint Polar Satellite System

Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines” or the “Company”), today announced The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) awarded Space & Technology Solutions, the DBA for Space Networks Solutions LLC, a joint venture led by Intuitive Machines with KBR (NYSE: KBR), a cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract meant to support work related to the Joint Polar Satellite System, NASA’s Exploration and In-space Services. The single-award contract has a five-year base performance period and a maximum ordering value of $719 million.

Status Comment / Notes

As of December 2024, Intuitive Machines Mission-2 is scheduled for mid-2024.

Created: 2023-02-10

Updated: 2024-07-08

Link

Product/Service

Classification
Surface Spacecraft
Category
Commercial Rover
Fields
Lunar Rover
Status
Development
First launch
Not announced

NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines $30 million as a prime contractor to complete a Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Feasibility Assessment.

According to the contract, the company’s global team will create a feasibility roadmap to develop and deploy a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (“LTV”) on the Moon using Intuitive Machines’ Nova-D cargo-class lunar lander. 

The Intuitive Machines say that the Moon RACER team has the most comprehensive capabilities for designing and deploying a lunar terrain vehicle that fulfils NASA’s criteria. 

Created: 2024-07-09

Updated: 2024-07-26

Product/Service - URV (Universal Re-entry Vechicle)

Classification
Cargo Transportation & Landers
Category
Transport Service (Re-Entry)
Microgravity Flight Service (Reusable Satellite)
Microgravity Flight Service (LEO)
Fields
Spaceplane
Space Capsule
Status
Cancelled
First launch
Dormant

Universal Re-entry Vehicle (URV)

Payload sizes start at 21.5 kg for the smallest ISS deployed version.

Status Comment / Notes

Has been removed from the website as of 2023.

Created: 2024-02-24

Updated: 2024-02-24

Link

Sources


Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://www.intuitivemachines.com/

[2] https://spacewatch.global/2020/02/intuitive-machines-unveils-2021-moon-landing-navigation-approach/

[3] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-first-commercial-moon-landing-services-for-artemis-program

[4] https://spacenews.com/intuitive-machines-secures-launch-contract-wins-lawsuit/

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title Type Date Summary
Space companies face difficult investment environment News 2022-10-11
CLPS - The Start of the Lunar Economy? Article 2022-03-13
For lunar cargo delivery, NASA accepts risk in return for low prices News 2021-05-03
NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Deliver Lunar Ice Drill in 2022 News 2020-10-16 >

NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to deliver the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) drill, combined with a mass spectrometer, to the Moon by December 2022.

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