Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission, CLPS mission with NASA and commercial payloads Options

[Phil Stooke]

I am starting a new thread for this mission which should fly this year.

Phil

[Thorsten Denk]

Any rough idea about the date (month)?

Thorsten

[mcaplinger]

Any rough idea about the date (month)?

IM was saying 1Q 2022 but recently tweeted "Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission launch is moving outside of Q1 2022 to later this year. We will provide updates as they become available."

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/Columbia1938/status/1494818072376614927

This tweet suggests a summer 2022 launch date for IM-1, about a 3 or 4 month delay. I can't vouch for the veracity of the tweet, but other commentators say near the end of the year, so this is more encouraging.

Phil

[mcaplinger]

As of 3/25/2022, https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/ says 3Q 2022 and https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/...on?id=IM-1-NOVA says "mid to late 2022".

[Phil Stooke]

IM-1 likely near the end of the year now (Q4 according to a chart at the Lunar Surface Science Workshop now underway).

News from that LSSW meeting, only 30 minutes old as I type: Lunar Flashlight, a cubesat designed to survey volatiles in shadows at the south pole, was to fly on Artemis-1 but is now - this is the news - manifested as a secondary payload on the IM-1 Falcon 9. Stated by Barbara Cohen at the meeting.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Set to launch on 22 December (this year...) according to NASA:

https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/leag2022/pdf/5027.pdf

This link goes to an abstract for the upcoming LEAG annual meeting. The abstract is a summary of the CLPS program so far.

For me the most intriguing thing is a brief reference to the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission (launch late 2022) which says that it will land in Mare Crisium.

The last statement from Intuitive Machines themselves is that the landing site is on the Aristarchus Plateau. There was an LPSC abstract on mapping the landing site. Their orbital debris (ODAR) report said they would land between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Crisium. I took that to be a simple mixup between east and west longitudes with the real target still at Aristarchus. But now this puzzling statement!

So, is the landing site the Aristarchus Plateau, or Mare Serenitatis (which was stated by Intuitive at LEAG a couple of years ago) or somewhere between Serenitatis and Crisium, or in Crisium itself? Does 'between Serenitatis and Crisium' mean somewhere in the middle, or does it mean that the choice is between Serenitatis and Crisium?

It's like trying to follow Chang'e 4. Maybe we will get clarification at the meeting. I will report on it.

Phil

[antipode]

Perhaps a bit O/T but from that paper Phil posted we get this:

TO CP12 (PRISM1B): Two PRISM payload suites
are included in the delivery to Schrödinger Basin on the
lunar farside in 2025. Instruments include long-lived
seismometers [8], a heat flow drill with a
magnetotelluric sounder investigating the subsurface.
TO CS3 (Science): This science delivery is
planning to land at the farside mid-latitudes in 2025.
Low-frequency radio astronomy with standalone
operations through the night will be performed

Whats the plan for data relay for these farside missions?

another Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Several possibilities are being discussed. Commercial relay services are being considered separate from CLPS, and also relay services provided by the CLPS mission, by release of a relay satellite into orbit before landing or as a rideshare. Relay via the Gateway is also possible.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

See more here:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Hum...around_the_Moon

https://www.sstl.co.uk/what-we-do/lunar-mission-services

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Here is the announcement of the Schrodinger mission:

https://www.draper.com/press-release/nasa-a...loads-moon-2025

It says the mission will deploy two small relay satellites in lunar orbit.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

And back to IM-1, here is Jeff Foust retweeting (from Thomas Zurbuchen) its expected launch date as January 2023:


https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1550220907607629831


so upcoming lunar launches (no earlier than dates) as currently stated:

Artemis 1 end of August/early September carrying several lunar and other cubesats*

ispace Hakuto-R to Atlas crater c. November 2022

Astrobotic PM-1 to Lacus Mortis c. December 2022 (they are still giving this likely date, others might expect a slip)

Intuitive Machines IM-1 to Aristarchus Plateau (probably, despite some confusion in various statements) c. January 2023


* I assume talk of Artemis 1 and future Artemis missions will be outside our scope here on UMSF, but the small cubesat missions should be OK. One will attempt a landing, the Japanese OMOTENASHI mission. It is only a tech demo but will still be interesting to watch.


Phil

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1560343096533176324

A tweet from Marcia Smith at the Planetary Science Division Town Hall, with a graphic of CLPS missions. Once again IM-1 is said to be landing at Mare Crisium. Not a squeak out of Intuitive, though - and I have asked them via their somewhat ineffective website. Come on, IM, you can do better than this.

Phil

[mcaplinger]

OT but given Masten's recent bankruptcy I'm surprised to see them still listed.