NASA CLPS Lunar Lander Providers Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines Advancing Moon Exploration and Commerce
Recipients of first 3 CLPS Task Orders, scheduled to land on Moon within 2022, Astrobotic of Pittsburgh (TO-1 / Lacus Mortis / US$79.5M) and Intuitive Machines of Houston (TO-2 / Vallis Schröteri / $77M, TO-3 / MSP / $47M) leading effort to return USA robotic landers to Moon surface; Astrobotic awaiting flight readiness of ULA Vulcan Centaur, itself waiting on pair of Blue Origin BE-4 engines reportedly on track for delivery, enabling 2022 launch per ULA CEO; Intuitive Machines CTO tells panel at SXSW that Houston is “the place to be” to benefit from space commercialization; Pennsylvania Gov Tom Wolf and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo tout Astrobotic / CMU economic benefits to region
Wet Dress Rehearsal (propellant loading, countdown sequencing) of flagship ‘Mega Moon Rocket’ SLS expected 17 March at KSC Launch Pad 39B pending NASA test readiness review / subsequent press conference March 14 and inaugural launch to Moon orbit NET May; Rocket Lab Capstone orbiter launch window now set for 3-15 May; Intuitive Machines IM-1 launching NET June; Roscosmos Luna-25 NET 23 July; ISRO Chandrayaan-3 NET Aug; Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter NET 1 Aug; ispace HAKUTO-R NET Oct, Astrobotic Peregrine Mission One NET Nov; IM-2 NET Dec, JAXA SLIM launching late 2022
Seeking to overcome range constraints of single-landing craft and speed limitations of ground rovers, international science engineering teams utilizing computer modelling promote alternative rocket ‘hopper’ concept first used on Lunar surface during Surveyor 6 (1967) and Pogo-stick style locomotion; NASA CLPS lunar lander provider Intuitive Machines is to carry Micro-Nova, capable of traversing 2.4km with 900 gram payload capacity, on IM-2 mission near Shackleton Rim; Micro-Nova may allow investigation of otherwise inaccessible PSRs, thought to contain water ice
Instant (15-sec) lunar landing pad concept in-Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) may save Artemis program US$120M/landing according to Masten CEO Sean Mahoney; Plan calls for lander rocket plume fed with Al2O3 ceramic particles fusing with regolith to create 1-mm thick crust during landing, preventing widespread dust dispersion; Masten continues test program with next-gen Xogdor 0.75 x 8m resuable VTVL rocket; Programming languages developed by AdaCore to be utilized during $75.9M XL-1 Nov 2023 CLPS mission to MSP
Astrobotic now employs 150+ from Pittsburgh HQ, from which Peregrine lander (100kg capacity) to be controlled as it descends onto and operates from Lacus Mortis in 2022; AON3D of Montreal to supply additive 3D printed components, funded by $11.5M investment round; CAES of Arlington providing avionics flight control processor; Griffin lander (500kg capacity) to deliver VIPER / Neutron Spectrometer System by 2024; PRISM-identified science missions 1A to Reiner Gamma, 1B to Schrödinger crater in 2024; 2A with 6° of MSP, 2B to Gruthuisen Domes in 2025 yet to be awarded to CLPS providers
Partnering With Crowdsourcing Platform Wevolver, 
NASA SBIR / SBTT Awards $750K/EA To 6 Businesses With Moon Focus: Paragon Space Development Corporation Of Tucson AZ (ISRU Collector Of Ice); Lunar Resources Of Houston TX (Molten Regolith Electrolysis Oxygen Capturing, Filtering & Storage System); Advanced Cooling Technologies Of Lancaster PA (Thermal Management System For Lunar Ice Miners); CesiumAstro Of Austin TX (Commercial Communications & Sensing System); Flight Works Of Irvine CA (High Performance Pump-fed Lunar Transfer Stage For Small Launchers); Blueshift Of Broomfield CO (Modeling Rover Interactions With Lunar Regolith In PSRs)
CLPS Providers Astrobotic And Intuitive Machines Striving For Q4 Lunar Landings With Peregrine And Nova-C Landers; Emulated Interface Pairing Of NASA Water Detectors MSolo, NSS, And NIRVSS With Peregrine Successful, Instruments To Fly On Both Mission One (2021, Set To Launch On ULA Vulcan Centaur) And Rover Delivery Mission VIPER (2023); Intuitive Machines Delivering 5 NASA / 5 Commercial Payloads During IM-1 (2021) And IM-2 / TRIDENT Drill PRIME-1 (2022), Both Riding On SpaceX Falcon 9, As Is MASTEN XL-1 Lander For Task Order 19-C (2022)
USA Newspace Company Intuitive Machines Set For