Goodnight, Odysseus... Thanks for Putting My Message on the Moon!

Intuitive Machines

Happy Leap Day, everyone! Just thought I'd share these images that were released by Intuitive Machines this week as its Odysseus ('Odie') lunar lander was put to sleep due to low battery power today...nevertheless completing the successful seven-day IM-1 mission.

This mission was very significant to me. To NASA, this was the United States' first landing on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. To the burgeoning commercial space industry, this was the first privately-built spacecraft to successfully touch down on the lunar surface.

And to myself, Odie's accomplishment marked the conclusion of me waiting around 15 years for a lander mission to come along that would put my virtual presence on the surface of the Moon! NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—which bears a microchip containing my name as well as those of 1.6 million other people—has been revolving around Earth's natural satellite since June of 2009.

But it wouldn't be till IM-1 this month that my dream of looking up at the Moon and thinking about how I had a presence intact on its surface, courtesy of a Lunagram message (shown at the very bottom of this Blog entry) that I submitted to a company named Lunaprise back on Christmas Day of 2020, became a reality.

Much thanks to Intuitive Machines, NASA (whose Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative for the Artemis program made IM-1 a reality), SpaceX (which flawlessly launched Odie to the Moon on February 15), Lunaprise and the Arch Mission Foundation (which helped provide the NanoFiche disc that contains Lunagrams as well as the Arch Mission's Lunar Library) for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this historic endeavor!

There are other Moon-bound spacecraft, such as NASA's VIPER rover and Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, that will hopefully bring my presence to other locales on the lunar surface over the next two years. But it will be Odysseus, just like NASA's Phoenix lander (which was the first robotic probe to land my name on Mars back in 2008), that will be the lunar explorer I'm most fond of.

Ad Lunam.


Intuitive Machines


SpaceX




Intuitive Machines

A Major Milestone Has Been Reached for NASA's First Artemis Rover...

NASA

Mission Manager Update: All VIPER Flight Instruments Installed! (News Release)

The VIPER team continues to push forward with the build of the flight rover that’ll go to the surface of the Moon. As of this writing, all of VIPER’s flight instruments are installed, and the rover is more than 80% built!

This is a major accomplishment and shows the great progress being made by the dedicated VIPER team, who are excited to see the rover coming together.

What comes next – the confirmational tests of the rover – will strengthen our confidence in the rover’s ability to survive launch, landing and the challenging environment of the lunar South Pole.

For example, as we assemble and install various subsystems onto the rover, we also perform channelization tests. Channelization tests let us confirm that through our design and build of the rover system – from piece-parts to cable harnesses and connectors, and mechanical installation activities, and even through avionics software – the connections all work.

Now, you might think, “Of course what we installed should work!” but it’s important to remember how complicated these space systems are (and planetary rover systems in particular).

An example of an upcoming channelization test for VIPER is to command the flight vehicle’s high-gain antenna to move in a particular way: Does it actually move in the correct direction and to the correct position? Sometimes we will perform even more complex tests, like sending a command to the NIRVSS instrument to take an image: Is the image taken successful? Is the field of view of the image correct? Did the image make its way into the rover’s avionics for downlink?

We make these determinations now because we don’t want to discover any issues later in the assembly flow that could result in us needing to perform some disassembly to correct matters.

So we test as we go, to decrease risk later when we’re performing whole-rover environmental tests. This way if the rover doesn’t work as expected after one of VIPER’s environmental tests, we know it once worked fine, and that can help us more quickly problem-solve what might have gone wrong.

The pace in which we’ve been working through the build and subsystem checkouts has been blistering lately, and we’ve had a good run of successes.

Go VIPER!

– Dan Andrews, VIPER Project Manager

Source: NASA.Gov

The Power Source for America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Has Arrived in Florida...

NASA / Leejay Lockhart

NASA’s Europa Clipper Solar Array Hoist at Kennedy Space Center (Photo Release)

Technicians hoist a five-panel solar array protected by a lid for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The arrays are each 46.5 feet long (14.2 meters).

With both solar arrays deployed, Europa Clipper will span more than 100 feet long, about the length of a basketball court. The solar arrays power the spacecraft so that it can study Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, which is more than five times as far from the Sun as the Earth.

Launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is no earlier than October 2024.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Leejay Lockhart


NASA / JPL - Caltech

ODYSSEUS HAS A NEW HOME! But Photos of the Spacecraft on the Lunar Surface Have Not Been Released Yet...

NASA Tech Contributes to Soft Moon Landing, Agency Science Underway (News Release)

For the first time in more than 50 years, new NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations are operating on the Moon following the first successful delivery of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and executed procedures to softly land near Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon at 5:24 p.m. CST on February 22. The lander is healthy, collecting solar power and transmitting data back to the company’s mission control in Houston.

The mission marks the first commercial uncrewed landing on the Moon.

Carrying six NASA science research and technology demonstrations, among other customer payloads, all NASA science instruments completed transit checkouts en route to the Moon. A NASA precision landing technology demonstration also provided critical last-minute assistance to ensure a soft landing.

As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the lunar delivery is in the region where NASA will send astronauts to search for water and other lunar resources later this decade.

“For the first time in more than half a century, America returned to the Moon. Congratulations to Intuitive Machines for placing the lunar lander Odysseus carrying NASA scientific instruments to a place no person or machine has gone before, the lunar South Pole,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships under NASA’s CLPS initiative. Further, this success opens the door for new voyages under Artemis to send astronauts to the Moon, then onward to Mars.”

During the journey to the Moon, NASA instruments measured the quantity of cryogenic engine fuel as it has been used, and while descending towards the lunar surface, teams collected data on plume-surface interactions and tested precision landing technologies.

Odysseus’ surface operations are underway and expected to take place through Thursday, February 29.

New lunar science, technology

NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing (NDL) guidance system for descent and landing ultimately played a key role in aiding the successful landing. A few hours ahead of landing, Intuitive Machines encountered a sensor issue with their navigation system and leaned on NASA’s guidance system for an assist to precisely land.

NASA’s instrument operates on the same principles of radar and uses pulses from a laser emitted through three optical telescopes. It measures speed, direction and altitude with high precision during descent and touchdown.

“We are thrilled to have NASA on the Moon again, and proud of the agency’s contribution to the successful landing with our NDL technology. Congratulations for completing this first lunar delivery for NASA, paving the way for a bright future for our CLPS initiative,” said Nicky Fox. “Some of the NASA science instruments on this mission will bring us insight on lunar plume interactions and conduct radio astronomy. The valiant efforts and innovation demonstrated by Intuitive Machines is exemplary and we are excited for the upcoming lunar deliveries that will follow this first mission.”

Now that they are on the lunar surface, NASA instruments will focus on investigating lunar surface interactions and radio astronomy. The Odysseus lander also carries a retroreflector array that will contribute to a network of location markers on the Moon for communication and navigation for future autonomous navigation technologies.

Additional NASA hardware aboard the lander includes:

-- Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator: A small, CubeSat-sized experiment that will demonstrate autonomous navigation that could be used by future landers, surface infrastructure and astronauts, digitally confirming their positions on the Moon relative to other spacecraft, ground stations or rovers on the move.

-- Laser Retroreflector Array: A collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The array is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come.

-- Radio Frequency Mass Gauge: A technology demonstration that measures the amount of propellant in spacecraft tanks in a low-gravity space environment. Using sensor technology, the gauge will measure the amount of cryogenic propellant in Nova-C’s fuel and oxidizer tanks, providing data that could help predict fuel usage on future missions.

-- Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath: The instrument will observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine how natural and human-generated activity near the surface interacts with and could interfere with science conducted there.

-- Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies: A suite of four tiny cameras to capture imagery showing how the Moon’s surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft’s engine plume during and after descent.

NASA is committed to supporting its U.S. commercial vendors as they navigate the challenges of sending science and technology to the surface of the Moon.

“In daring to confront one of humanity’s greatest challenges, Intuitive Machines created an entire lunar program that has ventured farther than any American mission to land on the Moon in over 50 years,” said Altemus. “This humbling moment reminds us that pursuing the extraordinary requires both boldness and resilience.”

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“Odysseus has a new home” https://t.co/oVgLobxH8T

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 22, 2024

Odysseus Has Arrived at the Moon!

Earlier today, Intuitive Machines' (IM) Odysseus spacecraft fired its main engine and successfully conducted a 408-second-long Lunar Orbit Insertion burn...allowing the robotic lander to be captured by the Moon's gravity after a week-long voyage from Earth. With the nearly 7-minute-long maneuver accomplished, Odysseus is now orbiting 92 kilometers (57 miles) above the lunar surface!

This orbit is obviously temporary as Odysseus—whose technical name is Nova-C—prepares to conduct its challenging lunar landing attempt Thursday afternoon. The time of touchdown on the Moon is set for 2:30 PM, PST (4:30 PM, CST)...which is earlier than the original landing time of 2:49 PM, PST (4:49 PM, CST) that was announced by Intuitive Machines two days ago.

Intuitive Machines shared these three photos taken by Odysseus as it closed in on the Moon since Tuesday night. It's going to be thrilling to see other pictures that IM will share through tomorrow morning—before Nova Control in Houston, Texas, focuses on successfully guiding Odysseus to the surface near the Moon's Malapert A crater.

Godspeed, Nova-C! Have a safe journey to the lunar South Pole tomorrow!


Intuitive Machines

Flight controllers analyzed the post-Lunar Orbit Insertion engine burn data and updated the anticipated flight maneuver timing, including an expected 1630 CST landing opportunity on Thursday. The landing opportunity will be Odysseus’ hardest challenge yet. The lander continues to… pic.twitter.com/T6ULovaOPf

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 21, 2024

The Latest Update from a Spacecraft 5.5 Billion Miles Away...

SwRI / Dan Durda / JHUAPL / Ken Moscati

NASA’s New Horizons Detects Dusty Hints of Extended Kuiper Belt (News Release)

New observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hint that the Kuiper Belt – the vast, distant outer zone of our solar system populated by hundreds of thousands of icy, rocky planetary building blocks – might stretch much farther out than we thought.

Speeding through the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt, almost 60 times farther from the Sun than Earth, the New Horizons Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (SDC) instrument is detecting higher than expected levels of dust – the tiny frozen remnants of collisions between larger Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and particles kicked up from KBOs being peppered by microscopic dust impactors from outside of the solar system.

The readings defy scientific models that the KBO population and density of dust should start to decline a billion miles inside that distance and contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests the outer edge of the main Kuiper Belt could extend billions of miles farther than current estimates – or that there could even be a second belt beyond the one we already know.

The results appear in the February 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“New Horizons is making the first direct measurements of interplanetary dust far beyond Neptune and Pluto, so every observation could lead to a discovery,” said Alex Doner, lead author of the paper and a physics graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder who serves as SDC lead. “The idea that we might have detected an extended Kuiper Belt — with a whole new population of objects colliding and producing more dust – offers another clue in solving the mysteries of the solar system’s most distant regions.”

Designed and built by students at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder under the guidance of professional engineers, SDC has detected microscopic dust grains produced by collisions among asteroids, comets and Kuiper Belt objects all along New Horizons’ 5-billion-mile, 18-year journey across our solar system – which after launch in 2006 included historic flybys of Pluto in 2015 and the KBO Arrokoth in 2019. The first science instrument on a NASA planetary mission to be designed, built and “flown” by students, the SDC counts and measures the sizes of dust particles, producing information on the collision rates of such bodies in the outer solar system.

The latest, surprising results were compiled over three years as New Horizons traveled from 45 to 55 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun – with one AU being the distance between Earth and Sun, about 93 million miles or 140 million kilometers.

These readings come as New Horizons scientists, using observatories like the Japanese Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, have also discovered a number of KBOs far beyond the traditional outer edge of the Kuiper Belt. This outer edge (where the density of objects starts to decline) was thought to be at about 50 AU, but new evidence suggests that the belt may extend to 80 AU, or farther.

As telescope observations continue, Doner said, scientists are looking at other possible reasons for the high SDC dust readings. One possibility, perhaps less likely, is radiation pressure and other factors pushing dust created in the inner Kuiper Belt out past 50 AU.

New Horizons could also have encountered shorter-lived ice particles that cannot reach the inner parts of the solar system and were not yet accounted for in the current models of the Kuiper Belt.

“These new scientific results from New Horizons may be the first time that any spacecraft has discovered a new population of bodies in our solar system,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder. “I can’t wait to see how much farther out these elevated Kuiper Belt dust levels go.”

Now into its second extended mission, New Horizons is expected to have sufficient propellant and power to operate through the 2040s, at distances beyond 100 AU from the Sun. That far out, mission scientists say, the SDC could potentially even record the spacecraft’s transition into a region where interstellar particles dominate the dust environment.

With complementary telescopic observations of the Kuiper Belt from Earth, New Horizons, as the only spacecraft operating in and collecting new information about the Kuiper Belt, has a unique opportunity to learn more about KBOs, dust sources and expanse of the belt, and interstellar dust and the dust disks around other stars.

Source: NASA.Gov

Photos of the Day: Odysseus Looks Back at Earth While Heading to the Moon...

Earlier today, Intuitive Machines posted these images on Twitter/X showing Earth as it slowly shrank in the distance while the Odysseus lunar lander headed to the Moon.

These photos were taken shortly after Odysseus separated from its Falcon 9 second stage booster following launch on Thursday morning. In the pic directly below, you can see the SpaceX rocket engine floating above Earth as the six-legged lander left it behind.

Odysseus continues to be in excellent health according to Intuitive Machines...and the spacecraft's lunar landing attempt remains scheduled for next Thursday, February 22.

Here's hoping that it'll continue to be smooth sailing for Odysseus as it aims to become the first privately-made lander to safely soft-land on the Moon! Stay tuned.

A Lot More Rock Specimens Were Collected from Asteroid Bennu Than Expected...

NASA / Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

NASA Announces OSIRIS-REx Bulk Sample Mass (News Release - February 15)

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu when it returned to Earth on September 24, 2023; the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and over twice the mission’s requirement.

The mission team needed at least 60 grams of material to meet the mission’s science goals, an amount that had already been exceeded before the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head was completely opened. In October 2023, curation processors from the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston were able to collect small rocks and dust from inside the large canister that housed the TAGSAM head, as well as from inside the TAGSAM head itself through the head’s mylar flap.

Disassembly of the TAGSAM head was paused in late October 2023, when the team encountered two stubborn fasteners keeping them from being able to complete the process to reveal the final sample within.

After designing, producing and testing new tools, the ARES curation engineers successfully removed the fasteners in January and completed disassembly of the TAGSAM head. The remaining Bennu sample was revealed and carefully poured into wedge-shaped containers.

1.81 ounces (51.2 grams) were collected from this pour. Combined with the previously measured 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) and additional particles collected outside of the pour, the bulk Bennu sample mass totals 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams).

NASA will preserve at least 70% of the sample at Johnson for further research by scientists worldwide, including future generations.

From NASA Johnson’s repository, the Bennu material will be containerized and distributed for researchers to study. As part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, a cohort of more than 200 scientists around the world will explore the regolith’s properties, including researchers from many US institutions, NASA partners JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and more.

Later this spring, the curation team will release a catalog of the OSIRIS-REx samples, which will make the asteroid sample available for request by the global scientific community.

Source: NASA.Gov

Odysseus Is On Its Way to the Moon!

SpaceX

IM-1 Mission Nova-C Lunar Lander Successfully En Route to the Moon Following Its Launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (Press Release)

HOUSTON (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) ("Intuitive Machines") ("Company"), a leading space exploration, infrastructure and services company, has announced that its IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander has launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and successfully commissioned in space by establishing a stable attitude, solar charging and radio communications contact with the Company’s mission operations center in Houston.

"We are keenly aware of the immense challenges that lie ahead," said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. "However, it is precisely in facing these challenges head-on that we recognize the magnitude of the opportunity before us: to softly return the United States to the surface of the Moon for the first time in 52 years."

The IM-1 mission launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, February 15, 2024. It reached its intended orbit approximately 48 minutes later and established first communication with the lander at 1:59 a.m. EST.

The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission is the Company’s first attempted lunar landing as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services ("CLPS") initiative, a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface as part of CLPS intend to lay the foundation for human missions and a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.

Source: Intuitive Machines

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SpaceX

IM-1 Mission Vehicle Health Update 🧵

1/6 The IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander continues to be in excellent health, and we are preparing for our engine commissioning maneuver.
Following nominal launch vehicle separation, the spacecraft autonomously brought up all sensors… pic.twitter.com/vPdV7fHyWz

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 16, 2024

The Chiefs Are the Champions...

Congratulations to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs for winning Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas tonight! I wanted the Detroit Lions (led by former L.A. Rams quarterback Jared Goff) to reach the Big Game this year, but since they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship, I decided to root for Mahomes to earn his third championship ring since 2020 instead.

I hope the Rams regain their status as a serious title contender next season... It would be epic (and nerve-racking) to see them go up against the Chiefs in 2025's Super Bowl LIX! Carry on.

The Mamba Has Officially Been Immortalized Outside of Crypto.com Arena...

Lakers Reveal Kobe's Statue (News Release)

The level of inspiration that Kobe Bryant provided in his twenty years as a Laker is hard to quantify.

When his statue was revealed following a poignant ceremony outside of Crypto.com Arena on Thursday afternoon, that inspiration was sure to hit Lakers fans, Kobe's former teammates and especially his family in myriad ways.

"Kobe has so many people that have supported him all over the world from the very beginning, and this moment isn't just for Kobe, but it's for all of you that have been rooting for him all of these years," said Kobe's wife, Vanessa, in the anchor leg of five speeches honoring the Black Mamba. "To the fans here in LA, this is a special city. Kobe was so proud to represent. You welcomed him with open arms and have been so important to him, our family and his legacy. It brings me joy to see how much love you have for all of us. We love you back."

Kobe's statue, standing 19 feet tall, portrays an image of No. 8 after he scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006. Kobe was 27 years old in his 10th NBA season, at the midpoint of his spectacular Hall of Fame career. Kobe is pointing up with one finger, an image that can be interpreted in many ways.

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For Kobe. For the die-hard Laker fans. For our family.

Mamba forever. pic.twitter.com/uExf0oEWgY

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 9, 2024

Kobe Bryant's statue features his pose from his 81-point game.

Mamba Forever. pic.twitter.com/fkk2r4FDKI

— KICKS CREW (@kickscrew) February 9, 2024

Legends live forever. pic.twitter.com/8RkQA4ls6v

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 9, 2024

The Psyche Spacecraft Successfully Shoots a Laser Beam at a Radio Dish in the Mojave Desert...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser (News Release)

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission.

An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space. This shows that it’s possible for the giant dish antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which communicate with spacecraft via radio waves, to be retrofitted for optical, or laser, communications.

By packing more data into transmissions, optical communication will enable new space exploration capabilities while supporting the DSN as demand on the network grows.

The 34-meter (112-foot) radio-frequency-optical-hybrid antenna, called Deep Space Station 13, has tracked the downlink laser from NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration since November 2023. The tech demo’s flight laser transceiver is riding with the agency’s Psyche spacecraft, which launched on October 13, 2023.

The hybrid antenna is located at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, near Barstow, California, and isn’t part of the DSOC experiment. The DSN, DSOC and Psyche are managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

“Our hybrid antenna has been able to successfully and reliably lock onto and track the DSOC downlink since shortly after the tech demo launched,” said Amy Smith, DSN deputy manager at JPL. “It also received Psyche’s radio frequency signal, so we have demonstrated synchronous radio and optical frequency deep-space communications for the first time.”

In late 2023, the hybrid antenna downlinked data from 20 million miles (32 million kilometers) away at a rate of 15.63 megabits per second – about 40 times faster than radio frequency communications at that distance. On January 1, 2024, the antenna downlinked a team photograph (shown below) that had been uploaded to DSOC before Psyche’s launch.

Two for One

In order to detect the laser’s photons (quantum particles of light), seven ultra-precise segmented mirrors were attached to the inside of the hybrid antenna’s curved surface. Resembling the hexagonal mirrors of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, these segments mimic the light-collecting aperture of a 3.3-foot (1-meter) aperture telescope.

As the laser photons arrive at the antenna, each mirror reflects the photons and precisely redirects them into a high-exposure camera attached to the antenna’s subreflector suspended above the center of the dish.

The laser signal collected by the camera is then transmitted through optical fiber that feeds into a cryogenically-cooled semiconducting nanowire single photon detector. Designed and built by JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory, the detector is identical to the one used at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, in San Diego County, California, which acts as DSOC’s downlink ground station.

“It’s a high-tolerance optical system built on a 34-meter flexible structure,” said Barzia Tehrani, communications ground systems deputy manager and delivery manager for the hybrid antenna at JPL. “We use a system of mirrors, precise sensors and cameras to actively align and direct laser from deep space into a fiber reaching the detector.”

Tehrani hopes that the antenna will be sensitive enough to detect the laser signal sent from Mars at its farthest point from Earth (2 ½ times the distance from the Sun to Earth). Psyche will be at that distance in June on its way to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to investigate the metal-rich asteroid Psyche.

The seven-segment reflector on the antenna is a proof of concept for a scaled-up and more powerful version with 64 segments – the equivalent of a 26-foot (8-meter) aperture telescope – that could be used in the future.

An Infrastructure Solution

DSOC is paving the way for higher-data-rate communications capable of transmitting complex scientific information, video and high-definition imagery in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars. The tech demo recently streamed the first ultra-high-definition video from deep space at record-setting bitrates.

Retrofitting radio frequency antennas with optical terminals and constructing purpose-built hybrid antennas could be a solution to the current lack of a dedicated optical ground infrastructure. The DSN has 14 dishes distributed across facilities in California, Madrid, and Canberra, Australia.

Hybrid antennas could rely on optical communications to receive high volumes of data and use radio frequencies for less bandwidth-intensive data, such as telemetry (health and positional information).

“For decades, we have been adding new radio frequencies to the DSN’s giant antennas located around the globe, so the most feasible next step is to include optical frequencies,” said Tehrani. “We can have one asset doing two things at the same time; converting our communication roads into highways and saving time, money and resources.”

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech


NASA / JPL - Caltech

Odysseus Will Head to the Moon as Early as This Valentine's Day...

SpaceX

Intuitive Machines Lunar Lander Encapsulated and Scheduled for Launch (Press Release)

Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) ("Intuitive Machines") ("Company"), a leading space exploration, infrastructure and services company, announced that its IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander completed all integration milestones and is safely encapsulated within SpaceX’s payload fairing in preparation for launch.

In coordination with SpaceX, launch of the Company’s IM-1 mission is targeted for a multi-day launch window that opens no earlier than 12:57 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 14th from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"As we prepare to embark on our IM-1 mission to the Moon, we carry with us the collective spirit of perseverance, fueled by the dedication and hard work of everyone on our team," said Intuitive Machines President and CEO Steve Altemus. "Their tireless efforts have brought us to this moment, where we stand on the precipice of history, humbled by the gravity of our mission, yet emboldened by the boundless possibilities that lie ahead."

The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission will be the Company’s first attempted lunar landing as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services ("CLPS") initiative, a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface as part of CLPS intend to lay the foundation for human missions and a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.

Source: Intuitive Machines

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SpaceX