IM-2 mission checklist

Nokia is about to participate in the historic IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole, which will help lay the groundwork for future space exploration and crewed missions to the Moon. 

IM-2 will carry new scientific experiments to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, and it will trial new technologies as part of NASA’s Tipping Point initiative. New exploration vehicles will roll their wheels and fire their rockets for the first time on the lunar surface, and new sensors that are key to finding and extracting water on the Moon will undergo their first tests.

And of course, the IM-2 mission will deploy the first cellular network on the Moon.

There is a lot happening, and you can follow all the action as it unfolds on our IM-2 mission updates page. Meanwhile, here’s a detailed checklist of what to expect on the IM-2 mission from liftoff to conclusion.

Launch and voyage

In coordination with SpaceX, the liftoff of the IM-2 lunar mission is targeted for a four-day launch window that opens no earlier than Feb. 26. Athena, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C class lunar lander, will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The voyage to the Moon will take approximately eight days, the exact duration determined by the relative positions of the Moon and Earth on the launch date.

• Shortly after launch, Athena will separate from the rocket’s second stage and start her solo 384,000-km journey to the Moon. These first few hours of the flight will be a key test for the structural integrity of Nokia’s network as it will undergo extreme stresses during launch and separation.
• At several points along the journey, Athena will briefly fire her main engine to adjust her trajectory, ensuring that the mission will be precisely on course.
• As Athena approaches her destination, she will flip over and begin burning her engine once more to reduce her speed slow down. This maneuver will slip Athena into lunar orbit.

Orbit and landing

Roughly a week after launch, Athena will enter low lunar orbit, meaning she will be zipping along approximately 100 km above the Moon’s surface. From this altitude, Athena will completely orbit the Moon every two hours. At this stage, IM-2 will perform key mission tasks and begin the critical preparations for landing.

• After completing multiple revolutions around the Moon, Athena will begin executing her landing maneuvers. Athena will fire her engine again to bring the lander into an elliptical orbit that will pass approximately 10 km above IM-2’s landing site.
• At this point, Athena will be acting autonomously. The lander’s terrain cameras and range lasers will provide a constant information feed to the guidance systems. Athena’s engine will then execute its longest burn of the mission reducing its speed by 1800 meters per second so the lander can touch down softly on the lunar surface.
• Athena aims to land in the Mons Mouton region of the Moon, about 160 km away from the Moon’s south pole. The region was selected as a possible landing site for future crewed missions to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign.
• Safely on the surface, Athena will power up its direct-to-Earth communication link, sending the first images of its descent and landing site back to Intuitive Machines’ Nova Control in Houston.

Lunar surface mission

After a series of diagnostic checks, the surface aspects of the IM-2 mission will begin. There is a long list of mission tasks for all the partners participating in IM-2 to complete, ranging from lunar mobility and resource prospecting to testing new exploration technologies and scientific instruments. Among those tasks will be the deployment of the first cellular network on the Moon.

IM-2’s surface mission will last approximately ten days, the greater part of a single lunar day. The exact duration will be determined by the timing of Athena’s landing as well as surface conditions. While we’ve listed the major mission activities below, their exact order will be determined by mission controllers after landing.

Nokia’s Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS)

Nokia’s LSCS is a 4G/LTE network that has been completely re-conceptualized and re-engineered for the unique requirements of a lunar mission. The main mission goal for the LSCS is to connect Athena to two vehicles on the lunar surface, demonstrating that cellular technology can meet the critical communications needs of future missions.

• Shortly after landing, Nokia will begin activating the LSCS. Using Intuitive Machine’s direct-to-Earth link, Nokia will first initiate the LSCS’s remote monitoring software and then power up the “network in a box” (NIB) integrated into Athena. The NIB will complete health status and ready-for-operation checks and start sending telemetry data to Nokia’s Mission Control Center on Earth.
• After all checks, the NIB will establish a direct cellular link to the device module in Lunar Outpost’s MAPP rover, which will still be in its garage on Athena. This will constitute the first cellular call on the Moon. The NIB will then connect to the second lunar vehicle, Intuitive Machine’s Micro Nova Hopper.
• As the MAPP rover and Hopper explore the lunar surface, Nokia will continuously collect telemetry data from LSCS subsystems to monitor and evaluate the network’s performance. At periodic points, Nokia will execute comprehensive cellular data tests to push the LCSC network to its limits. 
• After the mission is completed, the collected data will be used to further refine Nokia’s lunar propagation models which will be invaluable for refining the network’s design and deployment for future missions.

Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP)

Lunar Outpost’s MAPP rover will explore the lunar landscape surrounding the landing site. Using advanced sensors, the rover can navigate the challenging environment avoiding obstacles and traveling to previously unreachable areas.

• After the rover powers up and connects to the Nokia network, Athena will lower its garage down to the lunar surface. The MAPP rover will then roll forward several meters and raise its antennas. These Nokia-designed antennas will be key to remaining connected with the LSCS as the rover travels as far as 2 km away from the landing site. 
• The LSCS will transmit imagery and telemetry data from the rover to Athena, which will then relay that feed back to Earth. Lunar Outpost will use this connectivity to issue commands, sending the rover to different points of interest in the Mons Mouton region.
• The MAPP rover’s specially designed wheels will collect a sample of lunar regolith, which the rover will then photograph. After sending this image and location date to NASA, Lunar Outpost will transfer ownership of the regolith sample to NASA, marking the first commercial transaction of space resources.

Intuitive Machines’ Micro Nova Hopper

The Micro Nova Hopper, named Grace, is a rocket-powered drone designed to descend into the depths of craters on the Moon. At the Moon’s south pole, there are areas within craters that have never seen the Sun and are therefore the most likely location for deposits of water ice. Grace’s mission is to venture into one of these permanently shadowed craters and test new water prospecting sensors that will help future explorers find and extract ice from the Moon’s surface.

• Once connected to the Nokia network, Grace will make a spectacular entrance. Firing its hydrazine engine, Grace will launch directly upwards 20 meters from its housing on Athena’s side. Then it will land on the lunar surface near the landing site.
• Intuitive Machines will then issue commands to Grace over the Nokia LSCS, initiating a series of hops that will bring it closer to its destination: a crater several hundred meters from Athena.
• In its penultimate jump, Grace is designed to descend 15-20 meters into the darkness of the crater, where it will lose both line of sight to Athena and most likely its connection to the LSCS.
• Working autonomously, Grace will then use its instruments to analyze the rock and soil inside the crater for concentrations of hydrogen, which would indicate the presence of water. Grace’s cameras will also photograph its environs.
• Grace will then execute its final hop, landing outside of the crater. There it will re-establish its connection to the network and Intuitive Machines will send its newfound data back to Earth through its Lunar Data Network.

Other IM-2 surface mission goals

Though Nokia’s participation in IM-2 will focus on providing connectivity to the MAPP rover and Micro Nova Hopper, the mission will support several other scientific experiments and technology tests. Here are some of the highlights.

• NASA’s PRIME-1, short for Polar Resources Ice Mining Equipment 1, will demonstrate the ability to search for signs of ice just below the Moon’s surface at Athena’s landing site. PRIME-1 has two components: a drill that will bore a meter through lunar regolith and a mass spectrometer that will measure any volatile gases that the drill brings up.
• Dymon will deploy a small, lightweight rover called YAOKI, which will capture images of the lunar surface while maneuvering quickly and efficiently within a 50-meter radius of Athena.
• NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will test out an instrument called the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA). The array is a system of reflective mirror-like retroreflectors designed to bounce laser light back to its source, other spacecraft or lunar orbiters. By measuring how long it takes for the light to get back to its source, the data from LRA can help determine the distance between them, which could help guide future spacecraft to safe landings on the lunar surface.

After roughly ten days, the IM-2 mission will conclude as the lunar day ends. Once the sun disappears over the lunar horizon, IM-2’s lander, vehicles and equipment will no longer be able to draw power from their solar panels. IM-2 will then join a very exclusive club of historic landing sites on the Moon, preserved for posterity. 

All images courtesy of Intuitive Machines