The company is confident that more reliable tests of the lander will ensure another successful landing
Intuitive Machines has announced several changes that will be made to its Nova-C lunar lander ahead of its second mission planned for later this year. These changes are based on the experience gained from the first IM-1 mission, which took place in February and resulted in a successful but imperfect lunar landing.
Intuitive Machines is upgrading Nova-C's communications, tracking and landing systems, according to the company's May 14 financial report, Chief Executive Steve Altemus said. The purpose of these updates — improve the accuracy of tracking the location of the lander in space and on the lunar surface.
«As a result of an internal review, software and hardware improvements have been made that will enhance our ability to accurately track a vehicle in space and on the ground 20 times more accurately on our next mission», — Altemus stated.
Other changes include «technical adjustments» communication systems with the landing module and determining its orbit. In particular, it is planned to change the configuration of the antennas on Nova-C to improve throughput and continuity of communication.
These improvements will be implemented in the IM-2 lander, scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2024. According to Altemus, technical improvements for IM-2 are the result of internal development of the company and will not affect the launch timeline or require additional capital investment.
During the IM-1 mission, engineers failed to disable the safety switch for the laser rangefinder on the lander before launch, preventing it from being used during landing. Intuitive Machines executives claim that if the rangefinders had worked as planned, the landing would have been completely successful. Therefore, «more robust testing and inspection processes» will be introduced for IM-2. descent vehicle.
In addition to IM-2, the company is working on a third lander, IM-3, scheduled for launch in 2025. For all three missions, the main customer is NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Following the completion of IM-3 and a temporary hiatus from CLPS missions, Intuitive Machines plans to pursue a fully commercial mission using already awarded payload contracts. This will allow the company to maintain the frequency of lunar missions in anticipation of the next order under the CLPS program, planned for 2027.
In April, the company signed one of three NASA research contracts under the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services program. This is the first step that could lead to a potentially larger rover grant for future Artemis missions.
In addition, Intuitive Machines expects to receive a contract from NASA under the Near Space Network Services program. Under this program, the company will provide communications services for missions on and around the Moon.
Another prospect for the company is the opportunity to submit a proposal for NASA's revised Mars sample return program. According to Steve Altemus, Intuitive Machines intends to offer a set of solutions based on the technological architecture that the company is developing to deliver lunar soil to Earth. This could allow samples collected by the Perseverance rover to be delivered faster and at a lower cost than the agency's baseline plan. However, Altemus did not go into details.