Feb. 26 (UPI) — Houston-based Intuitive Machines successfully completed the second launch of its lunar lander mission at 7:16 p.m. EST Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The IM-2 launch used a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to send the lunar lander into space with a landing attempt planned at Mons Mouton in the moon’s south pole region on March 6, SpaceNews reported.
The mission is the lunar lander’s second, which is why the mission is named “IM-2.”
The Falcon 9 booster rocket landed on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas positioned in the Atlantic Ocean after the reusable booster rocket sent the IM-2 mission into space.
The booster landing was the droneship’s 100th and the 413th for all SpaceX droneships. It was the booster rocket’s ninth launch and recovery.
SpaceX designed each of its Falcon 9 booster rockets for 40 launches and recoveries.
Intuitive Machines engineers named the IM-2 lander “Athena,” which will carry NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment payload, dubbed PRIME-1 by NASA, to the polar region where ice might be mined 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 a drill that is designed to bore up to a meter beneath the lunar surface.
As the drill bores into the moon, a spectrometer will measure substances to identify volatiles, such as water ice, that might support future manned missions.
The IM-2 lunar lander also will carry a laser retroreflector and Intuitive Machines’ Micro Nova Hopper vehicle named “Grace,” which is designed to “hop” across the moon’s surface using the vehicle’s propulsion system.
The hopping capability enables Grace to hop into places where wheeled vehicles cannot go.
Grace will carry a camera system and instruments designed and built by German aerospace agency DLR and the Hungarian firm Puli Space.
The IM-2 lunar lander also will carry a Nokia communications system that will test the viability of 4G/LTE communications networks on the moon by communicating with the Grace hopper and Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform rover. The rover will be among the IM-2’s payload.
Other commercial payloads to be carried to the moon’s surface include a small rover named “Yaoki” from the Japanese company Dymon Co. Ltd. And a data center called “Freedom” that was produced by Lonestar Data Holdings.
The IM-2 also will carry thermal protection technologies created by Columbia Sportswear.
While the mission is using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to reach space, Intuitive Machines bought the particular Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX and modified it to enable near a ton more of payload capacity for the mission.
Intuitive Machines is the only private space company to successfully land a vehicle on the moon, CNN Science reported.
If the lunar lander successfully touches down on the moon’s south pole, it will help NASA scientists to determine if the area contains water ice in sufficient amounts to convert into breathable air, drinking water and possibly be used as rocket fuel.
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer satellite also will be deployed during the IM-2 mission and is designed to detect and map areas where water is located on the moon.
The Trailblazer will orbit the moon over a two-year mission and help NASA scientists to better understand water cycles on celestial bodies that lack air.
The mission is the fourth for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program and designed to help lower NASA’s cost for bringing science and technology to the moon’s surface.
NASA is paying Intuitive Machines $62 million to carry its two science payloads to the moon.
