A Jumping Lunar Robot Is About to Explore a Pitch-Black Moon Crater for the First Time

A new age Commercial moon research is just around the corner, and one of the most exciting missions that can start so far – one with Rovers, a drill and even a hopper spaceship that will try to “jump” in a permanently dark lunar crater to too “Jump” ice.

The IM-2 missionbased on intuitive machines in Texas, should start on A Spaceex Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday, February 26th NASAHow the US room driving agency tries to create a new lunar economy This can support the upcoming planned human missions to the moon.

“NASA and the space industry create a new company and bring science and payloads on the surface of the moon,” says Laura Forczyk, founder of the Astralytical space company based in Georgia. “And these unwritten missions prepare us to send people.”

IM-2 is financed by a NASA program called Commercial Lunar Payoad Services or CLPS, which began in 2018 during the first Trump administration. The aim was to give private companies money to build Lander to travel to the moon, to carry NASA instruments and other devices to the moon surface before the planned return of the man in this decade Artemis program. Up to 2.6 billion US dollars By 2028, 47 million US dollars were planned for this mission with intuitive machines.

The CLPS program has achieved mixed results so far. His first mission, which is based in Pennsylvania, astrobototic hiking liker, suffered a fuel leather and suffered set up his attempt to land In January 2024. The next CLPS mission contained intuitive machines first landing, IM-1, the landed on the side. “We were able to get some data back, but we don’t want to land on our site on our site,” says Trent Martin, Senior Vice President of Space Systems on intuitive machines.

IM-2 will join another CLPS mission to the moon that has already been started Blue Ghost Lander From Firefly from Texas, which is supposed to try landing in early March. The Blue Ghost aims at a region in the northern hemisphere of the moon, the sea of ​​calm, near the Apollo 11 mission, which landed in 1969. IM-2, which will try your landing later in March, is aimed at the south pole of the moon, a region of region of probably greater scientific interest.

Scientists believe that it could be trapped at the poles of the moon, especially in permanently shaded regionsOr PSRS. These are craters near the poles that never get sunlight on their inside due to the inclination of the moon for the sun. The temperatures on the moon surface can fluctuate between -150 and 120 degrees Celsius (-250 and 250 degrees)). With PSRS, however, the temperatures never rise above -170 degrees Celsius.