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Intuitive Machines ’ second moon mission is still on track to set up before the ending of this class , after the company only had to make minor adjustment to the lunar lander designing , executive director said during an earnings call Thursday .
The company made history earlier this year when it became the first commercial troupe to put down a spacecraft on the lunar surface . That mission , anticipate IM-1 , was not without its quirks — the lander ultimately issue forth in a fiddling too blistering and ended up tipped over on the airfoil — but it prove out the lander ’s core components , engine , and subsystems .
That same lander grade , which the fellowship call Nova - C , will be returning to the moonlight afterwards this year in that 2nd delegacy . Critically , the IM-2 commission will fork out NASA payloads that will search the lunar South Pole for water ice , a resource that could finally be process into actuation for rockets or to patronise a permanent lunar astronaut home ground .
The Intuitive Machines team identified just “ a fistful of adjustments ” that will be implemented on the second lander , CEO Steve Altemus said during the earnings call .
“ We really do n’t see any wallop to the schedule based on the change from IM-1 , ” he said . “ They are fairly straightforward . ”
Among the variety that the company will be follow out are melioration to the optical maser range finder switch system , he add . The optical maser rangefinder are a navigational subsystem on the lander , and they facilitate determine variable like ALT and horizontal velocity . military mission controllers acquire very late in the game that the laser range finder on the first lander were not functional — because engineer did not sour on a physical switch on the component while it was still on the ground . ( They managed to land the space vehicle anyway through some very flying thinking . )
The second delegation may be bear on because NASA is still nail down the landing situation , which will be somewhere on the lunar south pole on a ridge near the Shackleton volcanic crater . When the space agencyoriginally herald the landing place site locationfor the IM-2 mission , they note that datum from the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft designate that the area could have chalk below the Earth’s surface .
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Intuitive Machines end the quaternary quarter of 2023 with $ 30.6 million in revenue and a immediate payment Libra the Balance of just $ 4.5 million . That number was give a important boost after an intuitional investor exercise $ 50.6 million in warrant and the company closed a $ 10 million strategic fairness investment .
As a result of these investment funds , as of March 1 , the company ’s cash balance swelled to nearly $ 55 million — the largest balance wheel “ relative to any one-fourth - ending ” since the company start public in February 2023 .
Beyond the 2d moon foreign mission , 2024 will likely be a polar year for the party , which is awaiting the decision on NASA honour that could be highly lucrative . That includes the prize for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle , which NASA will announce early next calendar month , and the next lunar lander contract under the delegacy ’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme .
