{"id":632681,"date":"2024-08-30T02:30:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T23:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/intuitive-machines-wins-116-9m-contract-for-a-moon-mission-in-2027\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T02:30:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T23:30:30","slug":"intuitive-machines-wins-116-9m-contract-for-a-moon-mission-in-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/intuitive-machines-wins-116-9m-contract-for-a-moon-mission-in-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"#Intuitive Machines wins $116.9M contract for a moon mission in 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Intuitive Machines, the venture-backed startup that went public last year, will send a moon lander to the lunar south pole in 2027 as part of a $116.9 million contract awarded by NASA on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is NASA\u2019s tenth award under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program; of these, four have gone to Intuitive Machines. The company will deliver six NASA payloads to the moon as part of the deal, though there will be additional payload capacity on the lander for commercial customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lunar south pole is a region of major scientific interest, due, in part, to the relative abundance of water ice that has been detected there. But the region is notoriously challenging to explore, with many parts permanently in shadow, with extremely low temperatures and rough terrain. Only a single rover has ever briefly explored the region: Indian Space Research Organization\u2019s Pragyan rover that was deployed from the country\u2019s Chandrayaan-3\u00a0lander in August 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the six NASA payloads to hitch a ride on this mission is a suite of instruments, designed by the European Space Agency, that will remove subsurface samples of lunar regolith and analyze their composition. The samples will help assess \u201cpotential resources on the moon and to prepare technologies that may be used to extract these resources in the future,\u201d the ESA said<\/a> in a descript<\/a>ion of the payload.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other payloads include a radiometer that will explore the composition of the moon\u2019s surface, an instrument that will measure how the spacecraft landing might affect the composition of the regolith and a group of retroreflectors that will help determine the location of the lander accurately. (Retroreflectors were also on Intuitive Machines\u2019 first lunar lander.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe instruments on this newly awarded flight will help us achieve multiple scientific objectives and strengthen our understanding of the Moon\u2019s environment,\u201d Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative, said in a statement. \u201cFor example, they\u2019ll help answer key questions about where volatiles \u2013 such as water, ice or gas \u2013 are found on the lunar surface and measure radiation in the South Pole region, which could advance our exploration efforts on the Moon and help us with continued exploration of Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Intuitive Machines launches this lander, it has two lunar missions in the pipeline that it must complete first: a second lunar mission that is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of this year and a mission to the Reiner Gamma region of the moon in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Intuitive Machines launched its first lunar lander mission in February. While the lander did successfully land on the lunar surface, it came in slightly too quickly and tipped over nearly onto its side. While the landing ultimately ended the mission early, due to the positioning of the lander\u2019s solar panels in relation to the sun, the company says the mission still proved out the lander\u2019s core components and systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intuitive Machines, the venture-backed startup that went public last year, will send a moon lander to the lunar south pole in 2027 as part of a $116.9 million contract awarded by NASA on Thursday.\u00a0 This is NASA\u2019s tenth award under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program; of these, four have gone to Intuitive Machines. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":632682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/intuitive-machines-lander.webp?resize=1200,675","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[151507,5026,5019],"class_list":["post-632681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-intuitive-machines","tag-nasa","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}