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Intuitive Machine’s PRIME-1 ice mining drill to be delivered to the Moon by 2022

Illustration of Intuitive Machines’ Lunar Lander. Credits: Intuitive Machines

As part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to deliver ice harvesting equipment called Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) to the Moon’s south pole. In a press release from yesterday, Intuitive stated that the instrument package includes a drill to excavate ice ladened regolith and a mass spectrometer to characterize the volatiles, the data from which will be used by the VIPER mission to follow shortly thereafter. Knowing how much water is available and how accessible it is will inform subsequent in situ resource utilization efforts needed for sustainable human outposts planned for later this decade.

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Mitigation of the risks and challenges of lunar dust

Astronaut Gene Cernan covered in Lunar dust after an EVA during the Apollo 17 mission. Credits: NASA

Catch my presentation at the Moon Society’s Lunar Development Conference that took place on July 19 and 20 in which I describe the hazards posed by lunar dust and several solutions needed for space settlement. This is definitely on the critical path for large scale operations on the moon.

There were a couple of technical glitches in the presentation, one of which was playing a simplistic animation of deploying a dust-free landing pad beneath an initial lunar lander using telerobots. You can view the animation here. Hat tip to Doug Plata and the Space Development Network for the source material used in the presentation. Many of the conference presentations are available on the Moon Society’s YouTube Channel.

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Print your own Dynetics Human Landing System model at home

Dynetics, one of three companies awarded a contract by NASA to develop a Human Landing System (HLS) for the Artemis Program, has just come out with a 3D printing file accompanied by a booklet of step-by-step instructions for hobbyists to make their own scale model of the company’s HLS. This is great way to inspire young people to get into STEM fields and hopefully get involved in space exploration and settlement.

Image of Dynetics’ 3D Printing Instructions and completed HLS Model. Image Credits: Dynetics
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Lockheed Martin’s McCandless Lunar Lander

Selected by NASA as a pre-qualified provider for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, the company offers commercial lunar mission services including pre-launch integration and testing of payloads, launch, transportation to the Moon’s surface, power and data handling, and deployment of payloads (e.g rovers). Lockheed Martin published a user guide for the McCandless Lander in September of last year.

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

Named for astronaut Bruce McCandless perhaps best known for the iconic image of him flying untethered in Earth orbit while testing the Manned Maneuvering Unit during the Shuttle program, the lander honors his legacy after working for Lockheed Martin for over two decades as an advocate for space exploration and commercial space development.

Photo by Robert Gibson courtesy of NASA
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Masten’s instant lunar landing pad

The Movave, CA company has just received a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I grant to develop an innovative method to mitigate damaged due to abrasion from high-velocity regolith ejected by lunar lander exhaust. Masten’s Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) injects alumina particles into the rocket plume to create a coating over the regolith at the landing site.

FAST instant landing pad deployment during lunar landing. Source: Matthew Kuhns,
Masten Space Systems Inc
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MAXIM – Maximum Impact Moon Mission

The University of Southern California’s Department of Astronautical Engineering has just published the final report of Dr. Madhu Thangavelu’s, course ASTE 527 Space Concepts Studio, the theme of which features the MAXIM architecture proposed for NASA’s Artemis program for return of humans to the moon. Be sure and watch the recorded presentation of the report which features the classic video “Wanderers” with commentary written and narrated by Carl Sagan. The class is held each fall and has an archive of each year’s reports, an excellent repository of creative concepts for space development.