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NASA has assembled a collection of six instruments it wants to get to the lunar surface, and it has turned to Texas-based Intuitive Machines to do it. The latest award in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is valued at a whopping $116.9 million. The mission will aim to land the NASA payloads near the lunar south pole, where shadowy craters could help future explorers understand the origin of water throughout the solar system.
The CLPS program has been running since 2018 with the goal of delivering important science instruments to the Moon using private aerospace firms. NASA considers this part of the Artemis initiative, which will culminate with the first crewed lunar landings in 50 years later this decade. Before humans begin exploring the Moon’s southern latitudes, it’s ideal to have an idea of what resources they might be able to access.
“By supporting a robust cadence of CLPS flights to a variety of locations on the lunar surface, including two flights currently planned by companies for later this year, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before,” said NASA’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Intuitive Machines is the first, and so far, only private firm to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon. Other companies like ispace and Astrobotic have tried and failed to reach the Moon in one piece. Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander suffered a fuel leak that made landing impossible, and ispace crashed when attempting to land. It wasn’t entirely smooth sailing for Intuitive Machines, though. The company’s Odysseus lander did make it to the surface, but it tipped over in a way that limited its ability to collect sunlight for power. However, NASA considers the mission a success as all the payloads functioned as intended. The company’s upcoming Nova-C lander (above) will carry the experiments.
The Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications will send yeast to the Moon.
Credit: NASA
The six instruments heading to the Moon with Intuitive Machines have a total weight of 174 pounds (79 kilograms). The Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications will deliver yeast samples to the surface to see how they fare in the low gravity, high radiation environment. A lunar prospecting experiment will attempt to drill down one meter to search for signs of water ice and other useful resources. Similarly, the Surface Exosphere Alterations by Landers experiment will analyze lunar regolith for changes caused by the lander’s engines.
NASA is also interested in the radiation environment on the Moon. The Fluxgate Magnetometer will analyze energy and particle pathways surrounding the Moon. Meanwhile, the Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System will serve as an infrared mapper to gather data on surface composition, terrain type, and temperature. Finally, there’s a Laser Retroreflector Array that will allow scientists to accurately measure the distance to the lander.
NASA and Intuitive Machines currently expect the mission to launch the Nova-C lander in 2027, which is after the planned launch date for Artemis III in 2026. However, it seems likely that NASA will again have to delay this historic crewed landing.