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Despite its later start, Intuitive Machines has a faster, more direct shot and should land within a week of liftoff. It will take Astrobotic two weeks just to get to the moon and another month in lunar orbit, before a landing is attempted on Feb. 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there are rocket delays, which already have stalled both missions, either company could wind up there first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a wild, wild ride,\u201d promised Astrobotic\u2019s chief executive John Thornton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His counterpart at Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, said the space race is \u201cmore about the geopolitics, where China is going, where the rest of the world\u2019s going.\u201d That said, \u201cWe sure would like to be first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two companies have been nose to nose since receiving nearly $80 million each in 2019 under a NASA program to develop lunar delivery services. Fourteen companies are now under contract by NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astrobotic\u2019s four-legged, 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) lander, named Peregrine after the fastest bird, a falcon, will carry 20 research packages to the moon for seven countries, including five for NASA and a shoebox-sized rover for Carnegie Mellon University. Peregrine will aim for the mid-latitudes\u2019 Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, named after the long-ago silica magma that formed the nearby Gruithuisen Domes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nova-C<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Intuitive Machines\u2019 six-legged, 14-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) lander, Nova-C, will target the moon\u2019s south polar region, also carrying five experiments for NASA that will last about two weeks. The company is targeting 80 degrees south latitude for touchdown. That would be well within Antarctica on Earth, Altemus noted, and 10 degrees closer to the pole than India landed last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists believe the south pole\u2019s permanently shadowed craters hold billions of pounds (kilograms) of frozen water that could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel. That\u2019s why the first moonwalkers in NASA\u2019s Artemis program \u2014 named after Apollo\u2019s twin sister in Greek mythology \u2014 will land there. NASA still has 2025 on the books for that launch, but the General Accountability Office suspects it will be closer to 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astrobotic will head to the south pole on its second flight, carrying NASA\u2019s water-seeking Viper rover. And Intuitive Machines will return there on its second mission, delivering an ice drill for NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Landing near the moon\u2019s south pole is particularly dicey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so rocky and craggy and full of craters at the south pole and mountainous, that it\u2019s very difficult to find a lighted region to touch down safely,\u201d Altemus said. \u201cSo you\u2019ve got to be able to finesse that and just set it down right in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Houston has long been associated with space, Pittsburgh is a newcomer. To commemorate the Steel City, Astrobotic\u2019s lander will carry a Kennywood amusement park token, the winner of a public vote that beat out the Steelers\u2019 Terrible Towel waved at football games, dirt from Moon Township\u2019s Moon Park, and a Heinz pickle pin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lander is also carrying the ashes or DNA from 70 people, including \u201cStar Trek\u201d creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Another 265 people will be represented on the rocket\u2019s upper stage, which will circle the sun once separated from the lander. They include three original \u201cStar Trek\u201d cast members, as well as strands of hair from three U.S. presidents: George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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