Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA/ESA, Matthias Maurer

While Intuitive Machines continues to deal with its crippled Moon lander and technical hiccups, the private group is readying its next lunar lander for launch this year.

Building off its Nova-C class lunar lander design, IM-2 is targeted for another shot at the Moon’s south pole – but this time, the spot of choice is the Shackleton Connecting Ridge.

That locale may be the down-selected site for an Artemis human landing.

A spectacular, specially produced near-ground level oblique view of the “Connecting Ridge” between Shackleton and Henson craters. The lunar south pole (SP) occurs on the rim of Shackleton crater. The ridge along the rim of the South Pole-Aitken impact basin is a potential Artemis landing site (001) and another (004) occurs on the rim of Shackleton crater. (Image credit: ETHZ\LPI\Valentin T. Bickel and David A. Kring)

Drill to depth

The IM-2 outing is loaded with some key investigations.

For one, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) involves two instruments: The TRIDENT drill is built to extract lunar soil (regolith) up to three feet (one-meter) below the lunar landscape.

Also part of the experiment is MSolo, short for Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations. Its task is to analyze the composition of the TRIDENT-collected specimen for water and other components.

Useful data for follow-on efforts

According to NASA, samples from multiple depths will be analyzed. In addition, this equipment will measure the composition of gases emanating near the drill activity.

Artwork depicts the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C IM-2 lander carrying NASA’s Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines

IM-2 is to help engineers and scientists get a better feel for resources on the Moon. Doing so, the lander can provide data useful for preparing the NASA Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).

Similarly, science gained via IM-2 can help plan for Artemis human Moon outreach.

Deployable hopper

Onboard IM-2 is Micro Nova (µNova). This is a $41.6 million, NASA-funded small, deployable hopper lander capable of carrying a 2.2-pound (1-kilogram) payload more than 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers).

µNova could also hop into and out of permanently shaded regions, known in lunar shorthand as PSRs.

PSRs are sunlight-shy spots that might contain water ice, a resource that, if present, could be converted to rocket fuel, drinkable water and oxygen – all ingredients to help sustain a human presence on the Moon.