NASA’s Lunar Mission Heats Up With Intuitive Machines Contract Award for R&D

Space exploration company, Intuitive Machines, has been awarded a contract by NASA for lunar logistics research and development. Namely, for NASA’s Artemis mission. In a bid to understand and navigate the lunar landscape during future Moon missions, Intuitive Machines will work with NASA to better understand logistical and cargo delivery capabilities on the lunar surface. 

Both organisations aim to overcome present challenges when traversing the Moon and its rocky, unpredictable terrain. Prior to the aforementioned funding, Intuitive Machines was previously awarded a NASA Artemis contract that entailed the development of a communication and navigation service. This contract award, however, is a new step taken in a global effort to further research the Moon and leverage the lunar economy. 

Why has Intuitive Machines been awarded a lunar contract

Announced on 24 January, Intuitive Machines was awarded approximately $US 2.5 million by NASA. The funding was provide via the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnership (NextSTEP) Appendix R. With the money awarded, Intuitive Machines will study “lunar logistic handling and offloading.” They will also place resources into research and developing space cargo and mobility solutions, Intuitive Machines said in a statement. 

But why was the contract awarded? NASA intends to use the commercial sector to manage and understand the difficulties associated with traversing “the lunar environment”. Further, Intuitive Machines outlined that those challenges were “identified by NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture.” NextSTEP is intended to last over a “one-year performance period”, commencing in the months to come.

Intuitive Machines CEO, Steve Altemus, said: “Intuitive Machines has been methodically working on executing lunar delivery, data transmission, and infrastructure service missions, making us uniquely positioned to provide strategies and concepts that may shape lunar logistics and mobility solutions for the Artemis generation.”

What Intuitive Machines intends to achieve under the contract award

There are a range of development projects in the works that align with NASA’s mission. Firstly, a segment of the award will go towards developing technology that will aid lunar payloads. The technology in question is Intuitive Machines’ heavy-cargo-class lunar lander – which is currently under construction. 

Another portion of the funding will be applied to surface mobility expertise, Intuitive Machines said. This expertise was procured during NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle Service contract, Intuitive Machines added. Altemus concluded: “We look forward to bringing our proven expertise together to deliver innovative solutions that establish capabilities on the Moon and place deeper exploration within reach.”

NASA’s lunar exploration efforts are heating up

NASA is progressing with their Moon exploration efforts despite calls for the mission to be abandoned by Elon Musk. The tech-billionaire previously labelled NASA’s Artemis mission a distraction. In spite of this, NASA pumped $24 million into the campaign this month. Reason being is to expand and improve aspects of their mission plan. 9 companies were awarded segments of the funding – Intuitive Machines being one of them.

While criticisms have been made, NASA appears to be pushing forward. And with the onboarding of Intuitive Machines signals NASA does not intend to pull back on their mission to explore the lunar surface. As such, NASA’s plan to send the first female and man of colour to the Moon, as well as their mission to study the lunar environment will continue – for now.