''Nova-C'' is a

lunar lander A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2021, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 19 ...

Intuitive Machines Intuitive Machines, LLC is a private American company headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 2013 by Stephen Altemus, Kam Ghaffarian, Tim Crain. Intuitive Machines is completing its lunar program which will provide lunar surface acce ...

to deliver small commercial payloads to the surface of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

. Intuitive Machines was one of nine contractor companies selected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

in November 2018 to submit bids for the

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in sit ...

(CLPS) program. ''Nova-C'' is one of the lunar landers that will be built and launched under that program. Other selected landers included the ''Peregrine'' by

Astrobotic Astrobotic Technology is an American privately held company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of wi ...

and (at a later time) ''Xelene'' by

Masten Space Systems Masten Space Systems was an aerospace manufacturer startup company in Mojave, California (formerly in Santa Clara, California) that was developing a line of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rockets, initially for uncrewed research sub- ...

(Masten Space Systems suffered a bankruptcy in 2022, leaving their lunar lander plans in a state of confusion). The first ''Nova-C'' lander is manifested on the IM-1 mission in March 2023, with a second lander on the IM-2 mission later in the same year. The IM-3 mission is scheduled to launch in early 2024. All three landers will launch on

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pa ...

launch vehicle.

Overview

The ''Nova-C'' lunar lander was designed by Intuitive Machines, and it inherits technology developed by NASA's

Project Morpheus Project Morpheus was a NASA project that began in 2010 to develop a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) test vehicle called the Morpheus Lander. It is intended to demonstrate a new nontoxic spacecraft propellant system (methane and ox ...

. It features a main engine called the VR900 that uses

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ear ...

and

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an a ...

and produces of thrust, and an autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. After landing, the lander is capable of relocating by performing a vertical takeoff, cruise, and vertical landing. Methane and oxygen could potentially be manufactured on the Moon and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

using

In-situ resource utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials tha ...

. ''Nova-C'' is capable of 24/7 data coverage for its client payload, and can hold a payload of 100 kg. The ''Nova-C'' lander design provides a technology platform that scales to mid and large lander classes, capable of accommodating larger payloads.

IM-1 mission

''Nova-C'' was selected in May 2019 for NASA's

as one of the first three landers of this program, tasked with delivering small payloads to explore and test technologies to process some natural resources of the Moon. NASA awarded Intuitive Machines US$77 million for building and launching ''Nova-C''.Intuitive Machines Headed To The Moon In 2021
''Space Mining News'' 30 November 2018 During the IM-1 mission planned for March 2023, ''Nova-C'' will carry up to five NASA-sponsored instruments to land between

Mare Serenitatis Mare Serenitatis (Latin ''serēnitātis'', the "Sea of Serenity") is a lunar mare located to the east of Mare Imbrium on the Moon. Its diameter is . Geology Mare Serenitatis is located within the Serenitatis basin, which is of the Nectarian ...

and

Mare Crisium Mare Crisium (Latin ''crisium'', the "Sea of Crises") is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. The basin is of the Pre-Imbrian period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago. Characteristics Mare C ...

. In addition, the lander will also carry some payloads from other customers, including EagleCAM and 1–2 Spacebit rovers. The lander will operate for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 Earth days. DOGE-1 and EagleCAM will be deployed as secondary payloads. The DOGE-1 payload has a mass of 40 kg and was paid for with

Dogecoin Dogecoin ( or , Abbreviation: DOGE; sign: Ð) is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a "joke", making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the ...

Payloads

IM-2 mission

was selected in October 2020 in order to land its second Nova-C lander near the

lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon, at 90°S. It is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region features craters that ar ...

. As of April 2022, IM-2 is expected to be launched in 2023. The primary payloads will be the

PRIME-1 Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is a NASA Lunar project, initially expected to launch and be deployed in December, 2022, but likely to be launched in 2023. PRIME-1 will be the first on-site resource utilization demonstration o ...

ice drill, which will attempt to harvest ice from below the lunar surface with the aid of the MSolo mass spectrometer. ILO-1 prime contractor Canadensys is working to deliver "a flight-ready low-cost optical payload for the ILO-1 mission, ruggedized for the Moon South Pole environment". It could potentially be ready for integration on the IM-2 mission. The µNova payload will separate from the Nova-C lander after landing and function as a standalone hopper lander, exploring multiple difficult-to-reach areas such as deep craters on the lunar surface. A lunar

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Ear ...

will be deployed on this mission to facilitate communications between the lander and ground stations on Earth.

Spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in o ...

will deliver rideshare payloads on this mission aboard its Sherpa EScape (Sherpa-ES)

space tug ''Space Tug'' is a young adult science fiction novel by author Murray Leinster. It was published in 1953 by Shasta Publishers in an edition of 5,000 copies. It is the second novel in the author's Joe Kenmore series. Groff Conklin gave it a mi ...

called ''Geo Pathfinder''.

IM-3 mission

In August 2021, Intuitive Machines selected SpaceX to launch its third lunar mission, IM-3, in early 2024. It will deliver payloads to

Reiner Gamma Reiner Gamma (γ) is a geographical feature of the Moon known as a lunar swirl. It is one of the most visible lunar swirls from Earth, visible from most telescopes. It was originally thought to be a lunar highland, but scientists eventually reali ...

for the

program.

References