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🔴 NASA NOVA-C Moon Lander Update - Teleconference · Elon Musk Podcast

0:00
Good morning everyone. I'm the CLIPS project scientist
0:03
for I am One, so I'm working with all the NASA payload teams
0:06
and Doctor Deborah Needham, our headquarters program scientists,
0:09
to ensure that operations maximize the science and
0:12
technology return from our payloads.
0:15
First, I want to give you a little overview of what CLIPS is
0:17
all about. The goal here is for us to
0:20
investigate the moon in preparation for Artemis really
0:23
to do business differently. For NASA.
0:26
One of our main goals is to make sure that we develop a lunar
0:29
economy. For clips, we NASA hitch a ride
0:33
on a lunar Lander that's developed by commercial
0:35
industry. These aren't NASA mittens,
0:37
they're commercial mittens. These commercial companies will
0:40
be bringing our instruments along for the ride, enabling our
0:43
investigations by providing power, data and calm to us.
0:47
With the commercial industry comes a competitive environment,
0:51
which means that our investment upfront ultimately gets far more
0:55
for far less. So instead of 1 mission in a
0:58
decade, it allows for more like 10 commercial missions to the
1:01
moon in a decade. Instead of four or five
1:04
instruments in that one decade, it's more like 4 to five dozen
1:08
instruments. Being risk risk tolerant allows
1:12
for high yield and high reward. And this is the beauty of clips
1:17
we'll learn from what doesn't doesn't work.
1:19
Testing many technologies. Conducting experiments at a
1:21
lower cost and significantly faster than traditional NASA
1:25
missions. This will allow us to prepare
1:28
for Artemis more efficiency, more efficiently.
1:31
When you change the frequency of missions and the risk Prosper
1:35
retains how you do things, opportunities arise for far more
1:39
science and technology investigations.
1:42
A far greater number of places you can go to on the moon, and
1:45
the diversity of people involved.
1:47
Blooms to inspire all future explorers.
1:51
This is clipped the first commercial miss, and for
1:55
intuitive Mccoons will hold a suite of six NASA payloads.
1:59
The landing site that we're going to is a relatively safe
2:03
and flat area, a little ways from the Mellippert, a crater
2:07
about 10° from the South Pole. The South Pole is generally
2:10
fairly rough area. This will give our commercial
2:13
vendor Intuitive Machines an opportunity to bring this suite
2:16
of payloads to an area that will be the farthest S that any
2:19
private Lander has ever been to on the moon.
2:22
And it will give us an opportunity to test our
2:24
instruments in this very harsh environment where the Sun is
2:27
always low on horizon, the temperature gets quite cold and
2:31
will help us keep what problems does face us in communicating
2:35
with the Earth when it's also rather low.
2:39
Our lane one payload is going to help us learn about
2:41
communicating from areas around the South Pole like this.
2:45
The NASA payloads on IM1 will also test technologies it'll
2:49
pave for the way for how to navigate to and land safely and
2:53
autonomously on the lunar surface, including NDL that
2:58
eases lasers to guide how fast and how close the Lander is
3:01
during landing. LRA That reflects laser light
3:05
right back to the incoming or orbiting spacecraft.
3:07
With the laser, to give future spacecraft a reference point on
3:11
the lunar surface lane, One will test technologies that'll act
3:15
like a lighthouse, but as a radio beacon.
3:18
Similar to how you use your GPS. R FM G will measure propellants
3:23
and fuel left in the tanks to allow for a safe landing,
3:27
ensuring that we have enough fuel when we land.
3:31
Scallops will image the engine exhaust turning up dust on the
3:34
surface. This will expose fresh surface
3:37
underneath, and the suite of cameras will then continue to
3:40
image that surface for science investigation.
3:43
And finally, Roses will investigate influences of the
3:46
Sun on the lunar surface, both for science and to help better
3:49
prepare for Artemis missions and to conduct radio astronomy for
3:53
the first time from the moon. All very exciting.
3:56
We'll defer back to you. Thank you so much, Sue.
4:01
We'll now hand it over to our eclipse payload team.
4:03
Let's begin with Farzin and the Jugarian for the navigation
4:07
Doppler lighter Farzin. Good morning navigation.
4:12
Doppler Lidar is a laser sensor that shoots 3 laser beams to the
4:17
ground and measures spacecraft velocity.
4:21
That's the speed and the direction of the flight and the
4:25
altitude above the ground is when the vehicle begins its
4:29
decent toward the landing site, so it comes on during the last
4:34
few minutes of the meeting. This is the critical phase that
4:38
every event, every maneuver, every truck, the firing has to
4:42
be perfectly on the queue. This is those minutes of terror.
4:46
By providing very precise velocity and altitude data, the
4:50
NDL enables the spacecraft to navigate this exactly to the
4:55
landing site and help it touchdown gently at the intended
4:59
location. So the NDL will play an
5:02
important role in the future landing missions as we are
5:06
moving toward landing in rough terrain and putting the Landers
5:10
at precise locations, perhaps at the edge of a Cliff or clothed
5:15
deployed assets. This I am 1 mission will be a
5:19
great demonstration of this technology for those future
5:23
missions, including human missions to the moon.
5:26
Thank you. Thank you, Farzin.
5:30
Next up we have Camera stadium for Lunar Node 1 camera.
5:36
Yes, good morning. I'm Tamara Stadium with NASA
5:38
Marshall Space Flight Center and I'm the Co Investigator for the
5:41
Lunar Node One payload Lunar Node One or lane one is a
5:45
navigation beacon demonstration. Its goal will be to demo
5:49
autonomous navigation technologies that are
5:52
desperately needed to support a growing lunar architecture.
5:56
As lunar activity increases around the moon though, 2 will
6:00
demand increase on Earth based systems like the Deep Space
6:03
Network for navigation needs. While these systems provide
6:06
great capability, the capacity will be outpaced by the number
6:10
of users. LN1 takes advantage of Cube Sat
6:14
flight hardware. It's a small platform, easily
6:17
integrated into future elements of lunar infrastructure.
6:21
LN1 utilizes the Multi Spacecraft Autonomous
6:25
Positioning System, or maps with maps.
6:28
Every lunar element serves as a node in a greater network and
6:32
nodes share packets that embed their time and state in a
6:35
standardized format. With reception of a packet, a
6:39
node is able to form range and range rate observation from a
6:42
source that is broadcasting out its local position.
6:46
In this approach, each asset can become a navigation reference L
6:51
and one will also demo A1 way ranging signal similar to that
6:54
used within GPS satellites. This enables an alternate
6:58
approach to determine distances between assets and when combined
7:02
with map transmission of position and time, allows it to
7:06
operate in a similar manner to AGPS.
7:08
Through the light lane, one demonstrates one node of a
7:13
greater network and then throughout transit and on the
7:16
surface of the Moon, the payload will broadcast telemetry pockets
7:19
to Earth where the signal will be received by the Deep Space
7:22
Network, processed and an absolution.
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Compared against others like that of the Iron Lander, future
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upgraded versions of Lane One will demo two way ranging
7:31
survive the night capability as well as integration capability
7:35
with the Luna net, COM and NAV infrastructure.
7:38
Thank you. Thank you so much, Tamara.
7:43
Next up we have Daniel Crimmins for the Laser Retro Reflector
7:46
Array. Daniel.
7:49
Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniel Crimmins from NASA's
7:51
Goddard Space Flight Center, and I'm the deputy principal
7:53
investigator for the Laser Retro Reflector Array instrument, or
7:57
LRA, as you may know. LRA is a completely passive.
8:01
Instrument consisting of a hemispherical array of special
8:04
glass prisms called retro reflectors.
8:06
What they do is they return the light back directly towards the
8:09
illumination source. Similar optical phenomenon is
8:14
used in Rd. markers to make them shine brightly under a car's.
8:17
Headlights. On a quips flander, however, LRA
8:20
will act as a precise marker of the Lander position and that
8:23
will be visible under illumination from either a laser
8:25
ranging system on board and orbiting or landing spacecraft.
8:29
Now LRA requires no power, no thermal control or interaction
8:33
with the Lander, which allows it to be used for decades on a
8:36
lunar surface and in the challenging lunar condition
8:39
thermal conditions. LRA will be used to geolocate
8:43
the Lander on the surface with high precision, measure any
8:46
changes in the Lander position over long time periods, and
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determine the precise orbit or landing trajectory of a
8:52
spacecraft illuminating it the LRA.
8:55
The LRA team is very excited to be a part of the intuitive
8:57
machines. Mission.
8:58
Thank you. Thank you so much, Daniel.
9:04
Over to you Nat Gopalswami, for the radio observations of the
9:07
lunar surface Photo electron sheet.
9:10
Nat. Hello everyone.
9:14
This is a radio telescope operating in the frequency range
9:17
from three kilowatts to 30 megahertz to observe cosmic and
9:21
terrestrial radio waves on the moon.
9:23
Low frequency cosmic radio waves cannot be detected on Earth due
9:27
to the intervening ionosphere. We also will detect the powerful
9:31
auroral kilometric radiation originating at several 1000
9:34
miles above that store various transmitted sun.
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Has broadcast wide-ranging radio waves that are also appearing as
9:43
noise on the moon, adding to any noise generated by the
9:46
mechanisms on the land. The Sun emits different types of
9:50
radio bursts that will be detected by roses.
9:53
These bursts are caused by energetic electrons interacting
9:56
with solar magnetic fields. They inform us about the
9:59
physical conditions in the corona and interplanetary
10:02
medium, and also about solar flares and Coronal Mass Effect
10:07
sources. Will detect intense radio
10:09
emissions from Jupiter. Such emissions are also known
10:13
from Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The knowledge on planetary radio
10:18
mission will be helpful in detecting exoplanets using radio
10:21
telescopes in the future. Also can measure the electron
10:25
density and vertical gradient above the lunar surface.
10:29
These are photo electrons knocked off from the solar
10:32
surface by sunlight. The impact of lunar dust on
10:36
those of antennas is expected to produce detectable radio signal.
10:41
These dust impacts are known to peak at the Terminator and are
10:44
responsible for the so-called horizon glove.
10:47
Finally the radio intensity of the Milky Way Galaxy peaks and
10:51
that also frequency detecting and characterizing the galactic
10:56
background emission is important for cosmological studies.
11:00
There also this instrument on IM One is thus poised to contribute
11:04
to answering wide-ranging science questions.
11:06
Thank you. Thanks so much, Nat.
11:10
Next up is Michelle Monk for the Stereo camera for Lunar Plume
11:13
Surface Studies. Michelle, over to you.
11:17
Hi, welcome everybody. I'm Michelle Monk from the NASA
11:20
Langley Research Center and I'm the Principal investigator for
11:24
the stereo cameras for Lunar Plume, Surface Studies and
11:27
Scouts. Scouts is comprised of four
11:30
small cameras mounted near the bottom of the Odysseus Lander
11:34
and oriented so that they can view the surface under the main
11:38
engine. The cameras will take images
11:41
during vertical descent towards the moon, through touchdown and
11:45
then engine shut down. They'll continue to take images
11:49
periodically throughout the lunar day until the mission.
11:53
Using a stereo photogrammetry technique, our team will then
11:57
reconstruct A3 dimensional tape of the lunar surface to see the
12:01
extent of a Rosen that occurred during landing.
12:05
The scalps measurement is going to provide us a critical data
12:08
set, anchor computer models for predicting plume focus
12:12
interaction effects. These effects will be really
12:15
important to understand as we start to send larger Landers to
12:19
the moon and with humans, and to aggregate assets close together
12:24
to support the sustained lunar presence in Artemis.
12:27
Thank you. Thank you.
12:30
Michelle And then finally over to Lauren Amin for the radio
12:34
frequency mass gauge. Lauren.
12:37
Hi, good morning. I'm Lauren Amin.
12:39
I'm the Deputy Manager of the Cryogenic Fluid Management
12:42
Portfolio Office at the NASA Glen Research Center and I'm
12:45
here today on behalf of the Radio Frequency Mass Gauge Team
12:49
or R FM. GR FM G is one of the cryogenic
12:52
fluid management technologies and development within our
12:54
portfolio office, but RFMG and IM One will demonstrate a sensor
12:59
technology that's been in development at NASA Glen for
13:01
over the last 15 years. RFMG allows more accurate in
13:06
space cryogenic fuel gauging and spacecraft fuel tanks like those
13:09
in IM1 Noviceelander. Our engineers do this by
13:13
measuring the electromagnetic spectrum or radio waves within
13:17
the tanks throughout the mission.
13:18
Compare them to a vast fluid simulation database our team's
13:21
been building. Accurately gauge how much
13:24
propellant is inside those tanks.
13:26
RFMG has been has been proven in many ground tests.
13:29
A suborbital parabolic flight also on an experiment on the
13:33
International Space Station. RFMGS demo on IM One will
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provide NASA for the very first time long duration microgravity
13:40
data that will be used to iterate and scale the technology
13:43
to enable improved spacecraft and Lander operations.
13:46
This RFMG technology is critical and enabling for future long
13:50
duration missions that use cryogenic propellants.
13:53
With our FMG could potentially say fuel and take the guesswork
13:56
out of space spacecraft design and operations in the future.
13:59
Thank you. Thank you so much, Lauren, and
14:03
thanks to our briefers for those initial remarks for awareness.
14:07
We also have some additional massive subject matter experts
14:09
on the line in case there are specific questions that come up.
14:13
We'll now open it up for questions.
14:15
Again, for those of you on the line today, please press * one
14:18
to submit a question. And once your name is called,
14:20
please state your name, affiliation and to whom you'd
14:22
like to direct your question. If you find that your question
14:25
has already been answered, press * two with Star 2 to withdraw
14:29
it. Our first question is from
14:31
Jonathan at Fox News. Jonathan, your line is now open.
14:35
Good morning, everyone. Jonathan Sarri with Fox News.
14:38
Thanks so much for doing this briefing.
14:40
My question for any of the NASA experts.
14:43
Who'd like to jump in? As you look ahead to crude
14:46
landings on the moon with the Artemis program, what would you
14:50
say is the most important thing or the biggest unknown that
14:54
you're hoping to learn about the South polar region through the
14:58
IM 1 mission? Thank you.
15:04
Take that off, sorry. First thing this is to the
15:08
project scientist for the IM1, all the the payloads.
15:13
So for the South Pole, it's a really, really harsh environment
15:18
and what we have planned for IM one really kind of concentrates
15:23
on this space landing and making for the and also communicate
15:29
back to the Earth. Sometimes when you're at a very,
15:33
very low point on the horizon, the communications can kind of
15:36
bounce along the terrain coming and going.
15:39
So having a location that's close to the South Pole will
15:42
help us to start investigating those kinds of things that are
15:46
happening. Ellen One will help us with
15:47
those investigations. And also because the environment
15:52
is quite hard, it's going to give us a baseline for
15:55
understanding things like how do solar panels work and how do the
15:59
instruments function in these very cold temperatures or warm
16:05
temperatures when the sun is shining on.
16:07
So I think it's a very good place to start having some
16:12
slightly more straightforward payloads that investigate how to
16:16
sell a pole, acts, what the environment is like to help us
16:21
with future missions. Perfect.
16:28
Thank you. Our next question comes from
16:31
Will Robinson Smith from Spaceflight Now.
16:33
Will, Your line is now open. Yes, hi, Will Robinson Smith
16:38
Space Flight. Now thank you so much for taking
16:40
the time to answer our questions.
16:42
One to Lauren and mean if I could in the data that you'll be
16:48
getting back from the radio frequency map page, is the
16:52
intent to, you know, not just for you know future clips
16:57
mission, but for the human landing system program Lander
17:02
contractor, SpaceX, Blue Origin. Principally the goal to share
17:06
that data with them to help better inform some of their
17:10
cryogenic propellant transfer. Both demonstrations as well as
17:13
the actual performance thereof during the Artemis missions that
17:17
they're a part of. Thanks.
17:22
Hey, yeah, this is Lauren. Yeah.
17:25
So the opportunity to to understand and demonstrate RFMG.
17:31
During the. Most of the transit phase of the
17:34
Odysseus Lander, it's gonna give us an opportunity to understand
17:38
how the data correlates with what I talked about that best
17:41
fluid simulation database which is really how we estimate how
17:46
how much propellant is in the tank.
17:49
Like all the other space technology projects at at NASA,
17:54
we absolutely intend on improving our our data and and
17:59
sharing that with all of our commercial partners not just
18:01
those for HLS. So hopefully that answers your
18:04
question, but absolutely, I think the intent is to infuse
18:07
this RFMG technology and. All future missions.
18:11
Where where that makes sense to really try to improve our
18:16
cryogenic food management. Capability.
18:20
Thanks, Lauren, and thanks for that question.
18:22
We're now going to hear some questions we received from our
18:25
social media platforms using the hashtag ask NASA.
18:28
And our first question comes from Instagram and it was what
18:31
type of fuel is the lunar Lander using?
18:35
Sue, I'm going to hand that question over to you to respond
18:38
to. So we're going to be using both
18:42
liquid oxygen and liquid methane.
18:46
These are both cryogenic fuels. And I'm actually going to pass
18:50
that right back over to Lauren because their team is working
18:53
very closely with Intuitive machines on their Liquid
18:56
profile. Hey, Sue, Yeah, you're correct.
19:00
Liquid oxygen, liquid methane. And I'll just say too that our
19:05
RFMG team has been working with the IM one team over the last
19:10
week during their wet dress rehearsals and those have gone
19:13
really well. And so we've we've proven out
19:17
that our RFMG pillow is is working.
19:24
Perfect. Thank you both.
19:26
Our next question from using the hashtag ask NASA comes from
19:30
Facebook and that is how much space or mass does the Lander or
19:35
the payloads take up. So for this purpose, since we
19:38
are looking at the NASA provided lunar payloads, let's talk about
19:42
how much mass the NASA payloads take up on I NS Nova C Lander
19:50
and I will give that one to sue. Sorry.
19:54
Yeah. So I think we actually have
19:55
Chris Culbert in the room and he might actually know the answer
19:58
to that question off the top of his head.
20:00
I do not. Sure.
20:02
So it's in the range of 40 kilograms.
20:05
For the first two missions that Cliff sponsored, we were a
20:09
little on the lighter side. You'll you'll probably note that
20:11
our later missions are closer to 100 kilograms.
20:13
But for I am first missing here. It's close to 40kg of NASA
20:17
payloads. Thank you both.
20:21
Now we'll go back to a couple of questions from the media.
20:24
And Next up we have Bill Harwood from CBS News.
20:28
Bill, your line is now open. Hey, thank you very much.
20:31
I have two quick questions. One from Michelle is, is, is the
20:36
payload primarily just to demonstrate the technology and
20:39
show how it works or do you expect to actually learn
20:41
something about the the soil in that region?
20:44
In other words, is there what are you expecting from that soil
20:47
at the landing site? And the second question I think
20:50
is for Susan, not no, I'm sorry, not for Susan.
20:53
Let me get my name straight here.
20:55
I'm sorry for Lauren. Can you give us a little more
20:58
info on how the the testing worked?
21:00
I mean, I don't know when they fuel your spacecraft during the
21:03
countdown or how any of that works.
21:06
Is is we don't really have any details about that.
21:09
Thanks. OK.
21:13
This is Michelle. I'll take the first part of
21:15
that. Thanks for the question.
21:18
This is actually both of technology demonstration and
21:23
hopefully some use for science. I guess I'd call it more of an
21:27
engineering measurement. But we are really excited about
21:32
the opportunity to go towards the South Pole because that is
21:37
an area as Sue mentioned that we haven't landed in before.
21:41
So we have the video from the Apollo landings in the Mari
21:47
region, where you see, you know, lots of dust blown around thrown
21:53
out from the base of the Apollo Landers, and we really want to
21:57
see if the behavior is similar at the South Pole.
22:02
Now granted, this Odysseus Lander is a much different scale
22:07
than Apollo or from the Landers descended, but this starts us on
22:14
the path of those demonstrating that this instrument can make
22:20
measurements and getting some early knowledge about the South
22:25
Pole Regulus and how it will behave.
22:28
So I hope that answers it. Thank you and.
22:32
If I can just step in real quick, this is Sue.
22:34
And one of the things that we at NASA do is when we have
22:39
instruments that are designed to gather data that can be used for
22:42
science, we have something called the Planetary Data
22:44
System, which is online where the images and the data such as
22:50
what scouts is going to be collecting.
22:51
It's actually archived for future use for scientists to
22:56
continue to use that data to understand better what the
22:59
surface of the moon is like in this case.
23:02
And this will be archived with the PDF.
23:04
And I can tell you that, at least from my past as an
23:08
astronomer using images to study different types of astronomical
23:14
bodies, the images themselves can be used to really dig in
23:19
when you see the the very close and features.
23:21
And so I expect that we're going to get some really good science
23:24
out of the imagery that's coming back from scalps without a
23:26
doubt. All right.
23:29
And this is Chris Culvert, I'll I'll I'll hit your second
23:32
question about the the ground OPS for The LOX methane.
23:36
So this is the first time we've flown LOX methane off of one of
23:40
the old settle pads 39 A. So it did require some
23:43
modification to the shuttle pads to allow the SpaceX to fuel the
23:47
Lander while it's on the pad. And because these are cryogenic
23:51
fuels that will boil off if they get too warm you you put that
23:55
fuel in pretty late. So right now, we expect they
23:59
will start fueling both the the tanks on the Lander about 3
24:03
hours before liftoff and it takes a couple of hours to fill
24:06
the tanks up. You want to make sure that they
24:08
maintain the right temperatures all the way through that load
24:10
process and you have to get the right temperature before you can
24:13
launch. But they run a couple of wet
24:15
dress rehearsals over the last week to demonstrate all that
24:18
systems that have all worked very well.
24:20
So we're looking forward to a very successful launch this
24:22
week. Thank you all.
24:27
Our next question comes from Gina Sinceri at ABC News.
24:30
Gina, your line is now open. Thank you.
24:34
This question is for Farzin. I'm interested in the Lidar
24:37
experiment. How important are lasers
24:40
becoming in this kind of exploration?
24:45
OK, yes, this is Farzin from NASA language.
24:50
That's a tough question. So as we are looking into these
24:55
more challenging, more ambitious landing missions, LIDAR and
25:00
LASER is going to be playing much as important role as we're
25:04
going forward. The navigation doctor LIDAR that
25:08
provides the velocity and altitude there is sort of can
25:14
think of it of a replacement of the radar sensors that were used
25:18
before. But the precision of this laser
25:21
sensor is at least an order of magnitude greater.
25:25
So the the quality of data, the precisions would would really
25:29
help these landing vehicle to navigate more precisely toward
25:34
the landing site. So this is just one aspect.
25:40
We are also looking at LIDAR for doing hazard detection on the
25:48
landing. That is once we are reached the
25:53
landing location and we are starting to do a vertical
25:58
descent, we want to be able to map the terrain and figure where
26:03
the hazards are. The make sure that the Lander
26:08
does not land on the piece of rock or or or a crater hole and
26:16
and that's another area that the the laser and LIDAR can play a
26:21
critical role. Yet there is another application
26:26
for the lasers that are being looked at and that is trained
26:31
relative navigation. That is, when we are way off
26:36
maybe 20-30 kilometers above the ground, using the laser to look
26:42
at the features right below and look for known features that can
26:48
give us a good position and formation.
26:52
I'm sorry for you know touching all these technologies, but let
26:57
me let me summarize them. So when we are coming down,
27:02
let's say we're going to the moon and we are starting at 3020
27:06
kilometers above the ground and we are kind of horizontally or
27:10
it's not at the path going down. The laser can look at the train
27:15
below to find known features, so we know where we are.
27:21
Then we have the navigation Doppler larger that's going to
27:24
be demonstrated on this mission to provide very precise velocity
27:30
and altitude data for the vehicle to navigate precisely to
27:35
the landing site. And once we get there, a laser
27:39
can scan the ground below and the so we can avoid the hazards
27:47
and landed vehicle between you know, rocks and craters
27:51
precisely. I I hope that answers your
27:55
question. That was great.
27:58
Farzin. Thank you both.
27:59
Thank you so much. We're going to switch gears for
28:01
a moment and go back to questions on social media using
28:04
the hashtag ask NASA from Instagram.
28:07
How will the Lander or the payloads recharge?
28:10
And can the Lander rotate to face the sun?
28:14
I'm actually going to ask Chris Culbert, program manager for
28:16
Cliff, to answer that question. Chris.
28:18
Sure. So yeah, recharging is done
28:23
through solar arrays. So the Lander will have solar
28:25
arrays on it that will capture energy from the sun, turn in
28:28
electricity, and pass it on to the payloads during transit to
28:32
the moon. Yes, the Lander will rotate or
28:34
or adjust its attitude so that the solar arrays get the right
28:37
amount of sun, sun on them so it can generate power once it lands
28:41
on the moon, No, it's landed. It doesn't move anymore.
28:44
The solar rays are not on gimbals or mechanisms that let
28:47
them change their direction. So intuitive machines have spent
28:51
a fair amount of energy analyzing where they're landing,
28:53
where the sun's going to be, and how the sun will cross the
28:56
horizon during the portion of lunar day that they're there.
29:00
And then they they they they design the Lander arrays canted
29:04
such that they capture the right amount of sunlight to generate
29:07
electricity. Thank you, Chris.
29:12
Our next question from from social media is about lunar
29:18
dust. So is moon dust analysis plan
29:21
and I think I'm going to turn that over to the SCALP team
29:23
that's on the line. This is Michelle.
29:29
I'm not quite sure about Moon dust investigation.
29:36
Back to the answer that you provided.
29:40
I think, you know, close up imagery of the regular particles
29:44
will be, you know, very instructive going forward are
29:50
our cameras will have fields of view that have Lander purposes
29:55
in them so that we can see over time if the dust moves around
30:00
and how it clings to different purposes.
30:04
And we hope to make measurements like this on future Landers so
30:07
that we can build up more knowledge of of the dust
30:12
behavior. Thanks.
30:15
Yeah, this is Albert. I'll, I'll add a little bit to
30:17
that one for Michelle. So this mission in particular is
30:20
mostly Pakistan imagery, which will tell us what how dust
30:23
behaves when it's blasted during the descent and how we'll move
30:27
around, as Michelle just described, on some future mix.
30:30
And we'll have some more advanced experiments which
30:32
actually take a look at how the dust interacts with materials
30:36
and surfaces. But that won't be on this first
30:39
mix and those are going to be in some future mix.
30:43
And if I can just add in that there's one other sensor that we
30:46
have on board and that is Roses has four radio antennas and one
30:50
of the modes that they have for collecting their science is to
30:53
actually detect dust as it impacts the antenna.
30:58
So Nat, I don't know if you want to speak a little bit about that
31:01
capability, but that can also help us understand the dust, how
31:05
it purges up and help us to design future space suits as
31:09
well to figure out how to minimize the dust cleaning to
31:13
the suits. Nat, do you have anything to
31:15
add? I would like to add that the the
31:18
dust impact actually increases that the Terminator when.
31:22
So we may have have to do some operations in the night to
31:27
understand more about this dust. So the basic detection mechanism
31:31
is dust hitting the antenna will produce a small voltage signal.
31:35
Thank you. Thank you all for responding to
31:40
that question from social media. We'll now switch it back to
31:43
questions from the media. First up, we have Kenneth Chang
31:46
with the New York Times. Kenneth, your line is now open.
31:56
Kenneth, can you hear us right? We'll go back.
32:05
Let's go over to Jeff S with Space News.
32:07
Jeff, your line is open. Good morning.
32:11
Two quick questions, one for. Farzin.
32:14
What sort of? Landing accuracy Can the
32:17
navigation Doppler Lidar provide?
32:19
How does it compare, for example, to what Japan's slim
32:22
Lander achieved last month? And then for Susan or?
32:26
Chris there any special coordination issues among the
32:31
payloads to ensure? That they all get the.
32:34
Power and communications that they need at the various phases
32:37
of the mission. Thanks.
32:41
OK, this is Farazan. I answered the first part of
32:44
your question. So navigation, Dover Lidar like
32:50
I mentioned earlier can provide very high precision velocity and
32:56
altitude data order of magnitude better than radars.
33:04
Now in terms of the precision landing, that really depends on
33:10
the vehicle itself, how it's going to use this data to
33:15
improve its precision and that's really depends on the under the
33:23
landing vehicle. And I cannot really comment
33:26
about for example this I am within me.
33:28
Now I do like to add that that I am one that an overseas vehicle
33:37
does and this mission does use the NDL data to help it with
33:43
improving its precision landing. So we are not a primary or
33:48
critical sensor on the on the vehicle, but the data is used to
33:53
help with that precision And in terms of how precise is that
33:58
then it's really and I am a question.
34:02
So far as I'm just this cover, I'll add a little bit to that.
34:05
We, NASA's requirement for this mission, weren't very
34:10
challenging for the very first landing on the moon.
34:12
I am has told us they believe they'll have accuracy in the
34:15
100m range, which is comfortable to the swim mix and from Japan,
34:20
but we're not really pushing that as a as a high priority
34:22
this mix and we'll have some future mix and which will
34:25
require at least 100m accuracy. Thank you all.
34:33
Let's go back to Kenneth. Sorry, Sue, do you have anything
34:37
to add? Oh that was me firstly.
34:41
And actually since we are talking about future missions
34:47
I'd like to add that with the laser lighter technology it is
34:53
possible to get these precisions to meters regime mentioned.
35:00
With the train related navigation that is looking at
35:04
the terrain features with the laser beam getting a very good
35:08
position knowledge and the navigation Doppler larger to
35:11
navigate to that location and and the scanning the train for
35:18
for known feature. Again upon landing we can get
35:21
down to meters type regime. When we did demonstrations here
35:25
in the past using larger technologies about a decade ago,
35:31
we would we got down to about 10 centimeters.
35:36
So. So this type of precision is
35:39
quite achievable. Thank you.
35:43
And just going back to the question about coordination with
35:45
the payload, this is an excellent question and it's
35:47
something that we've been working on for quite some years
35:50
with both our individual payload teams coordinated with Intuitive
35:55
machines. We have 6 payloads on board.
35:58
They have six additional commercial payloads on board as
36:01
well. So in the years leading up to
36:04
the operations, we ensure that we have what our requests are
36:09
for what our payloads need for operating to include and
36:12
machines and then we coordinate together with timeline tools.
36:16
NASA Ames has created a great playbook plan where we and they
36:19
have a timeline tool as well, where we put all of our plans
36:23
for when each of the payloads are operating so that we can see
36:27
a full coordination to infer that the payloads don't
36:31
interfere. And then as well, when payloads
36:33
can run in parallel that we maximize the amount of science
36:37
return by allowing payloads that can autonomously take data,
36:41
continue taking data while other payloads need to have kind of a
36:46
step by step interacting with their payload to collect data
36:49
coming back. But this is all very well
36:51
coordinated and the plan has been in place for some time.
36:55
And so I expect that we're going to really maximize the science
36:57
return. Thank you so much all for
37:02
responding to that question. Let's go back to see Ken Chang
37:06
from the New York Times. Your line is now open.
37:09
Ken, can you hear us now? Yes.
37:12
Great. Thank you.
37:13
Sorry about. Passing up earlier.
37:15
I was wanting to ask about the landing site.
37:17
It was moved through the South polar.
37:19
Region and we've heard about wanting to learn about the
37:22
regulars in this area, but I was wondering what other.
37:24
Signs you might be able to get. From being here versus the
37:27
original. Landing site.
37:29
Thank you. That's an excellent question.
37:33
So this particular landing site is a very old terrain and so the
37:40
terrain is, if you for the geologists on board, it's more
37:44
of a standard philosophic kind of Highlands, and it's similar
37:47
to the Apollo 16 site. So it tells us a little bit more
37:52
about the original crustal materia from when the lunar
37:55
magma ocean cold and of course being beat up by impacts for
38:00
billions of years, covered up by the impact ejecta can allow some
38:05
of the material underneath to the surface.
38:08
So all of this information can help our scientists better
38:11
understand a little bit more about the the Highlands of the
38:14
moon and then be able to compare it to the Apollo 6 moon site
38:18
from the science side. Thank you.
38:23
Next up we have Leonard David, but the Scientific American
38:26
magazine. Leonard, your line is now open.
38:30
OK. Thank you for Michelle.
38:34
You know. Going to the South.
38:35
Pole we haven't been there. What kind of modeling?
38:40
Has been done about the dust that you may or may not run into
38:44
there and the other question. Would be for Dan on the LRA.
38:49
You know you've got slim. Has an LRA on it.
38:53
And the Indian spacecraft, so? Are those active?
38:58
Are you doing some? Experiments with lasers from
39:02
from LRO or. Or what's the status there?
39:05
Thank you. Hi, Leonard, this is Michelle.
39:10
Thanks for the question. Yeah, we hope to learn quite a
39:15
bit about this new area. In terms of modeling, we have,
39:20
you know, the Lunar source book as our source of regular data
39:27
from Apollo. And of course there are some,
39:31
you know, unknowns in there about, you know, different
39:37
phenomenon, different characteristics of the regular
39:42
in regions that we haven't actually directly measured yet.
39:44
So you know, compaction and everything comes from the
39:50
scientific observations and so there's quite a bit of
39:53
uncertainty on different parameters that we would use in
39:59
a model to predict the amount of cratering or the amount of.
40:04
Regular. That's, you know, ejected from
40:07
under a Lander and how big the particles are and how far they
40:11
would go. So those are all the types of,
40:17
you know, effects that we're trying to capture.
40:20
We will not capture them all with scalps.
40:23
It's near. It's merely of, you know,
40:25
optical measurements of what the surface looks like.
40:28
After we land on future Landers, we hope to add more types of
40:35
instruments that can build upon scalps and measure the ejecta
40:40
itself, as well as effects on the Lander surfaces like the
40:45
Lander base. So those are future plans.
40:51
Our models are pretty immature, I'd say at this point.
40:58
Or unvalidated because we haven't measured these phenomena
41:02
directly before. What we really want to do to
41:06
understand this completely, you know it's going to vary with
41:10
each location somewhat and with each Lander size, mass engine
41:16
configuration. And so having that predictive
41:20
model that can span all of those different like cases is going to
41:24
be, you know, the key for really predicting what's going to
41:29
happen on future flights. So in order to get that we want
41:33
to make these in situ measurements at the moon like
41:36
with scouts and future payloads. We also want to conduct ground
41:41
testing where we can carefully control the parameters and
41:45
investigate you know a wide parameter how to get a dated
41:50
model. Thanks.
41:54
And this is Daniel Crimmins for LRA.
41:57
Thanks for the question. We are indeed continuing to
42:00
reign to the two LR as currently on the surface from the
42:04
Chandrayan 3 mission and the SLIM mission.
42:07
As you know, the SLIM Lander is is at a non optimal attitude for
42:12
how we plan to use LRA. But we do still think that we'll
42:15
be able to range to LRA in its current kind of off nominal
42:20
configuration. And the L, the orbit of LRO at
42:23
the moment allows us to attempt to range to each LRA about once
42:28
every two weeks or so. And so we will continue to do
42:31
this, you know, as long as LRO and the laser altimeter on board
42:35
is operational. And I'd encourage you to next
42:41
month at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the LRAPI
42:45
Shout, Doctor Sally's son will be giving a presentation on the
42:48
ranging results to sound around 3:00 and we'll also update on
42:52
any results that happened essentially from January until
42:55
March. Thanks.
43:01
Thank you. Next up we have Alexandra.
43:03
What's from Nature Magazine. Alexandra, your line is now
43:06
open. Great.
43:08
Thanks very much My. Question is about.
43:10
Roses, so it's for Nat. Could you talk a little bit
43:13
about the sources of interference expected?
43:17
I mean that the Chinese had that Lander on the far side where
43:19
they were trying to do radio astronomy and got a lot of
43:22
interference from their Lander. What are you anticipating in
43:25
terms of interference, both from the Lander itself and then also
43:29
of course being on the near side instead of the far side?
43:33
Thank you for the question. For the near side, the main
43:40
inference is actually, as I mentioned, it's from the
43:43
terrestrial transmitters. And these are expected and have
43:50
been detected, you know, once or twice when the wind spacecraft
43:55
was closer to the moon. And these appear as the
43:58
horizontal lines in the, you know, daily Spectra we take and
44:03
therefore it's easy to identify these interferences and then
44:07
still subtract them out to get the real signal from for
44:12
example, the sun. So that is definitely, you know,
44:18
a a very horizontal state line. So it's easy to extract.
44:23
Now for the land that this is one of the things that we do not
44:26
know, we are going to characterize them.
44:28
So that is that is actually completely unknown at this
44:31
stage. Thanks for the question.
44:37
The next one is next line we have is Jim Siegel with NASA
44:40
Tech. Jim, your line is now open.
44:43
Oh, thank you for taking my question and good luck on this.
44:48
Particular mission I'm curious I.
44:51
Understand that there are about. 6 or.
44:54
Seven other clips missions that. Have been.
44:59
Planned. Or are on the books and I'm
45:02
wondering are they all going to go to?
45:04
The same location and are. They going to build.
45:07
On each other in terms of knowledge that is 1 build time
45:11
in the other and pose one or two of them, don't make it.
45:15
Is that going to danger? The timing on the on the art of
45:21
the street. Thank you.
45:25
OK. That's Chris Colbert.
45:26
I'll, I'll, I'll take that one. So yes, we have a number of
45:29
missions, I think we're up through nine scheduled to the
45:32
moon at this point. They are all going to a variety
45:36
of locations mostly driven by the science that we're trying to
45:39
achieve. You can't do the same science at
45:42
every spot in the moon. So the objectives of the
45:44
payloads tend to drive where we take them.
45:47
We are having a number of missions that go to the South
45:49
Pole because of course that's of high interest to future human
45:52
exploration and there is complementary science across the
45:55
missions. As we learn things from 1
45:58
mission, we'll be able to help calibrate and prepare for future
46:01
missions more effectively. So we are certainly doing some
46:03
of that, but none of our missions are directly linked to
46:08
Artemis 3 or the planning part of three.
46:10
The data we gather will help agency plan better for all
46:14
people Artemis making. But if we lose one or two, which
46:18
is what this was was intended, or we knew could happen, it
46:22
won't endanger the Artemis mission with the Artemis.
46:24
Planning. Thank you, Chris.
46:30
Our next question comes from Will Robinson Smith from
46:33
Spaceflight Now Will. Your line is now open.
46:37
Yes, hi. Thanks for taking another
46:39
question from us. Follow up, if I may, to Bill
46:43
Harwood's question from a little bit earlier to Chris Colbert,
46:47
Can you provide a little bit more detail regarding the WDRS
46:51
and how they performed, if there were any leaks that came up or
46:55
any other issues? And another quick follow up,
46:59
what are the T0 liftoff options for the backup windows on the
47:04
15th and 16th? Thanks.
47:07
So on the wet dress rehearsals, you probably have to ask basics
47:10
about that. SpaceX and two machine actually
47:12
ran those we those aren't NASA function.
47:15
Sorry we missed the second part. What was your second question?
47:17
Well. Just if you have the T0 for the
47:22
backup dates on the 50s and 60s. Actually, I don't have those
47:27
handy. We think that'll be coming out
47:29
and something later on this week, but I don't have them
47:32
handy with me right now. So with regards to launch
47:41
windows and and timings, we we recommend that you reach out to
47:44
the launch provider, so in this case SpaceX for responses on T
47:48
minus. Zero for the other launch
47:49
opportunities. So thanks to all who submitted
47:53
questions today and thanks to our briefers for taking the time
47:55
to discuss NASA's CLIPS initiative and their payloads
47:59
aboard Intuitive Machines is IM 1 mission.
48:02
As a reminder, SpaceX is targeting no earlier than 12:57
48:06
AM Eastern on Wednesday, February 14th for a Falcon 9
48:09
launch of Intuitive Machines first lunar Lander to the moon
48:13
surface. We appreciate you joining us.
48:16
A recording of this briefing will be available on
48:18
nasa.gov/clips.