In February 2025, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully launched 3rdmoon landing mission of 2025 named ‘Intuitive Machines (IM-2)’ mission carrying Athena lander, a Nova-C class robotic lunar lander of Houston, Texas (the United States of America, USA)-based Intuitive Machines Inc., onboard the Falcon 9 rocket from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
- The 15-feet tall (4.7 meters (m))Athena lander is expected to land on Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain some 160 kilometers (kms) from moon’s South Pole on March 6, 2025.
- In February 2024, SpaceX launched the Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission which carried Odysseus (Nova-C) lunar lander.
Note: NASA is providing financial assistance of USD 62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its drill and other experiments on the moon.
About IM-2 Mission:
i.It is a crucial part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis program.
ii.The Athena lander aboard 3-foot (1 m) drone Grace, named after the late computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper, which will attempt various test hops before venturing into the crater (an estimated 65 ft deep).
iii.The main experiment of the mission is Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) drill. It comprises spectrometer and drill that will be used to search for those volatiles suspected to be in lunar regolith.
iv.The lander is carrying various commercial payloads, including Intuitive Machines, Micro Nova Hopper, a vehicle designed to hop across the lunar surface using its own propulsion system.
- Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover and Japanese company Dymon Co. Limited; and communications payloads by Nokia that will conduct test trials of 4G/LTE communications with both hopper and Lunar Outpost rover.
- Data center payload from Lonestar Data Holdings and thermal protection technologies from Columbia Sportswear.
Other Key Payloads:
Apart from IM-2, the Falcon-9 rocket carried 3 secondary payloads:
i.Odin, a spacecraft built by California (the United States of America, USA)-based asteroid mining startup, AstroForge that will fly by a near earth asteroid to determine suitable conditions for future mining missions.
ii.Chimera is an orbital transfer vehicle built by San Francisco, California (USA)-based Epic Aerospace.
NASA Launched Satellite on Mission to Detect Water on the Moon
On February 27 2025, NASA has successfully launched dish-water sized satellite named ‘Lunar Trailblazer’ into space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the USA.
- The primary objective of the mission is to detect water on the Moon’s surface.
- It is developed by Bethesda, Maryland (the USA)-based Lockheed Martin for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
About Lunar Trailblazer Satellite:
i.It weighs about 200 kilograms (kgs) and measures about 3.5 meters (m) wide with its solar panels fully deployed.
ii.It consists of two primary instruments: the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM).
iii.HVM3 will help in detecting the spectral evidence of water and minerals on the lunar surface, while LTM will determine surface temperatures.
- Both instruments are tasked to provide comprehensive information on the distribution form, and abundance of lunar water.
About Intuitive Machines Inc.:
President- Stephen Altemus
Headquarters- Houston, Texas, the United States of America (USA)
Established- 2013
