{"id":10237,"date":"2023-12-06T19:29:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/three-robotic-missions-target-moon-landings-over-one-week-in-january\/"},"modified":"2023-12-06T19:29:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:29:55","slug":"three-robotic-missions-target-moon-landings-over-one-week-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/three-robotic-missions-target-moon-landings-over-one-week-in-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Three robotic missions target Moon landings over one week in January"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Intuitive Machines engineers loading the IM-1 mission Nova-C lunar lander into its custom container in Houston, TX. Image: Intuitive Machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japan\u2019s space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024.<\/p>\n

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are all exercising distinct launch and landing options to reach the lunar surface. But all three have announced timelines that would see them land on the Moon within days of each other, if everything stays on track at this point.<\/p>\n

While avoiding further timeline slipping is far from a certainty, Earth\u2019s satellite could see its busiest month ever in terms of new spacecraft arriving.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the last lander scheduled to launch could be the first to touch down on the Moon. Intuitive Machine\u2019s Nova-C lander is targeting liftoff between Jan. 12-16 and is set to land at the Moon\u2019s South Pole (80.297\u00b0S, 1.2613\u00b0E) on either Jan. 19 or 21.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Intuitive Machines said the landing opportunity for both days is in the afternoon in EST.<\/p>\n

Trent Martin, the Vice President of Lunar Access at Intuitive Machines, told Spaceflight Now in an Oct. 27 interview that they have instantaneous launch opportunities each day during their January window. He said because their lander needs to be fueled at the launch pad, crews will perform a wet dress rehearsal several days ahead of launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do a full fuel of our vehicle to ensure that we have the timeline down because we do a late fueling at the pad. We fuel with liquid oxygen and liquid methane, and we want to fuel as late as possible,\u201d Martin said. \u201cSpaceX has been very accommodating and they\u2019re providing us a service that gives us liquid oxygen, liquid methane. They\u2019ll fill up until the very last minute so that we\u2019re as full as possible, so that we have the highest chance of success at landing on the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A rendering of Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander on the Moon\u2019s surface. Image: Intuitive Machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This mission along with the Peregrine lander will mark the first two fulfilled contracts under NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.<\/p>\n

Onboard the Nova-C lander for NASA are the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL)<\/li>\n
  • Lunar Node-1 (LN-1)<\/li>\n
  • Lunar Retroreflector Assembly (LRA)<\/li>\n
  • Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS)<\/li>\n
  • Radio wave Observations at Lunar Surface of photo Electron Sheath (ROLSES)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    This mission also features a CubeSat payload called EagleCam from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which will be launched from the lander when it\u2019s about 30 meters above the surface.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe camera itself is actually multiple cameras, four cameras. So as this 1U CubeSat tumbles, it\u2019s taking video imagery as it falls to the surface. And so from that, within a day or two, we\u2019ll have video of us landing on the Moon,\u201d Martin said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m super excited about that one because that will be the first time that anyone\u2019s ever actually recorded themselves landing on another planetary body.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Intuitive Machines announced on Monday that its Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission arrived at the Cape in Florida ahead of its launch next month.<\/p>\n

    Double landing possibility<\/b><\/p>\n

    JAXA\u2019s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is spending the longest in space, having launched back on Sept. 7, but depending on the timing of the IM-1 landing, it could touch down on the same day from a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) standpoint.<\/p>\n

    According to a statement from JAXA on Tuesday, SLIM is set to begin its descent to the lunar surface at 12:00 a.m. JST on Jan. 20 (1500 UTC on Jan. 19) and touchdown at 12:20 a.m. JST (1520 UTC).<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) aims to demonstrate \u201clanding where it is desire to land\u201d, pin-point landing technique and obstacle detection technique. Graphic: JAXA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The next big milestone in SLIM\u2019s journey is coming up on Dec. 25 when it enters into lunar orbit. JAXA stated that the 200kg dry mass (700kg wet mass) lander will achieve a \u201cfull\u201d degree of success if it is able to land within a 100-square-meter target using its \u201cvision-based navigation\u201d system.<\/p>\n

    The target landing site for SLIM is the SHIOLI crater near the \u201cSea of Nectar,\u201d located at 13.3\u00b0S, 25.2\u00b0E. The lander is designed to operate until lunar sunset occurs.<\/p>\n

    Its payloads include the Multi-Band Spectral Camera (MBC), which will examine the composition of surrounding rocks, and a small probe called the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2), \u201cwhich separates from the main spacecraft just before landing and performs photo imaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cTo satisfy the limited size of the vehicle to be [mounted] on SLIM, we had to downsize LEV-2. However, downsizing causes a decrease in running performance,\u201d said Hirano Daichi, one of the researchers involved with LEV-2, in a statement. \u201cIn order to deal with this problem, we designed the vehicle to be a spherical object with expandable wheels and a stabilizer using the transforming technologies for toys.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cMoreover, we adopted the robust and safe design technology for children\u2019s toys, which reduced the number of components used in the vehicle as much as possible and increased its reliability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    A graphic illustrating the landing sequence for SLIM. Graphic: JAXA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Peregrine takes flight soon<\/b><\/p>\n

    The next lander to launch and the last one scheduled to land in January is Astrobotic\u2019s Peregrine lunar lander. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is set for 1:49 a.m. EST (0649 UTC) on Dec. 24. If needed, there are backup opportunities at 1:53 a.m. EST (0653 UTC) on Dec. 25 and 2:08 a.m. EST (0708 UTC) on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

    The mission will launch the lander on a translunar injection.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Astrobotic\u2019s Peregrine lunar lander in the clean room at Astrotech in Titusville, Florida. The spacecraft will be the main payload onboard the first launch of ULA\u2019s Vulcan rocket. Image: ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u201cWe will be close to Earth, but on a trajectory that will more or less intersect with the Moon\u2019s orbit. It\u2019s at that point, and this is within about an hour or so of launch, we\u2019re going to separate from the launch vehicle and our lander and Astrobotic\u2019s mission begins,\u201d said John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO, during a media teleconference on Nov. 29.<\/p>\n

    According to a Nov. 14 presentation by Dr. Joel Kearns, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, the landing window for the Peregrine Mission-1 landing is at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 am UTC) on Jan. 25.<\/p>\n

    Once they land, Thornton said Peregrine will operate for about 10 days at which point the Sun will set on that part of the Moon, after which he said it will likely become to cold to operate.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn time, we are developing capability to survive that night, but on these first missions, we\u2019re really focused on the hard enough problem, which is landing on the Moon in the first place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    As with the IM-1 mission, PM-1 will also host a slate of NASA payloads as a participant in the CLPS program. During the teleconference, Thornton said he mostly only thinks about the other companies trying to land on the Moon when asked about it by press, adding that many players are needed for the lunar economy to be a successful venture.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe need this industry to succeed. We need the CLPS program to succeed. That is the number one priority for us,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cOf course, there is some level of competition with our competitors, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s really secondary. The most important is the industry and most important is landing success.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    An illustration of the mission path for Astrobotic\u2019s Peregrine Mission-1. Graphic: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Intuitive Machines engineers loading the IM-1 mission Nova-C lunar lander into its custom container in Houston, TX. Image: Intuitive Machines In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japan\u2019s space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[697,503,877,625,190,1111,1469,1495],"class_list":["post-10237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrobotic","tag-intuitive-machines","tag-jaxa","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-nova-c","tag-peregrine","tag-slim"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}