Photo: NASA
There is little doubt that the celestial bodies in our solar system are rich in at least some of the resources we need to expand our space exploration efforts. The problem is we don't really know where to find those resources. Thus, the trick is picking the most likely landing sites for missions, especially the ones that don't rely on rovers.
The Moon is presently the main target for prospectors. With lunar missions planned by several of the world's nations, finding local resources, more specifically water, is crucial to their success. Sadly, it was only earlier this week that we learned NASA killed its most daring Moon water hunter project, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).
But that doesn't meant the agency is giving up on such efforts. Although in the foreseeable future it will not have a rover traveling the Moon in search of water, a fixed-position miniature mining machine will be sent up there with this exact goal.
The tool is called Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), and it is technically a combo between a drill called TRIDENT and a mass spectrometer named MSolo – both of them copies of the hardware that was supposed to be used by the VIPER.
The PRIME-1 will launch from Earth on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, and it will be installed in a lander called Nova-C made by space company Intuitive Machines – the first American private entity to put a lander on the surface of the Moon – it happened when the Odysseus reached the lunar South Pole back in February.
The Nova-C is a lander, meaning it can't move from place to place, so selecting the best possible landing site, the one with the biggest chance of yielding results, was crucial. Intuitive Machines said this week it might just have found that place with help from NASA.
The company said the landing region the Nova-C and the PRIME-1 are now targeting is a 200-meter diameter elliptical region located on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge. That's a place in the South Pole region that connects three of the Moon's craters, Shackleton, De Gerlache, and Sverdrup.
The place was selected because it has favorable terrain, is line of sight with Earth to allow for communications, and has the proper solar angle for energy generation. On top of it all there is a good chance there is ice stability within one meter of the lunar surface.
The launch window for the IM-2 mission, as the flight is called, runs from November 2024 to January 2025, but the company says it targets departure at the end of this year. IM-2 is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which enlists the help of private companies to advance the impressive goals the agency set for itself.
But that doesn't meant the agency is giving up on such efforts. Although in the foreseeable future it will not have a rover traveling the Moon in search of water, a fixed-position miniature mining machine will be sent up there with this exact goal.
The tool is called Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), and it is technically a combo between a drill called TRIDENT and a mass spectrometer named MSolo – both of them copies of the hardware that was supposed to be used by the VIPER.
The PRIME-1 will launch from Earth on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, and it will be installed in a lander called Nova-C made by space company Intuitive Machines – the first American private entity to put a lander on the surface of the Moon – it happened when the Odysseus reached the lunar South Pole back in February.
The Nova-C is a lander, meaning it can't move from place to place, so selecting the best possible landing site, the one with the biggest chance of yielding results, was crucial. Intuitive Machines said this week it might just have found that place with help from NASA.
The company said the landing region the Nova-C and the PRIME-1 are now targeting is a 200-meter diameter elliptical region located on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge. That's a place in the South Pole region that connects three of the Moon's craters, Shackleton, De Gerlache, and Sverdrup.
The place was selected because it has favorable terrain, is line of sight with Earth to allow for communications, and has the proper solar angle for energy generation. On top of it all there is a good chance there is ice stability within one meter of the lunar surface.
The launch window for the IM-2 mission, as the flight is called, runs from November 2024 to January 2025, but the company says it targets departure at the end of this year. IM-2 is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which enlists the help of private companies to advance the impressive goals the agency set for itself.
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