Micro Nova hopper (Grace)¶
IM-2 · landed · commercial payload
A small rocket-powered hopper that reuses landing technology from Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander. It was meant to deploy from Athena and hop into a permanently shadowed crater and back out. It carried science cameras with an Arizona State University lighting system, DLR's Lunar Radiometer and Puli Space's Lunar Water Snooper, and was to send their data to the lander over Nokia's 4G/LTE network.
PI: Trent Martin (Intuitive Machines); co-investigator Mark Robinson (Arizona State University)
Built by: Intuitive Machines (Houston), with Arizona State University as co-investigator; NASA Johnson managed the Tipping Point project and Langley awarded the contract (company)
| Technology | propulsive hopper (surface mobility into shadowed craters) |
| Moon Base need | #0804, DN-007 L, DN-003 L (NASA's Moon Base Users Guide sets a Phase 1 mobility target for small rovers and hoppers, and the Phase 1 fact sheet names 'hopper drones called MoonFall'. Grace was an earlier commercial hopper of that kind. Tying it to the gaps on robots in extreme cold and shadowed regions (#0804), shallow water ice (DN-007 L) and thermal maps (DN-003 L) is the study's reading.) |
| Route onto CLPS | STMD; Intuitive Machines proposed the hopper to NASA's fifth Tipping Point solicitation (STMD) in July 2020. NASA selected it on 14 October 2020 at about $41.6 million, a milestone-based firm fixed-price contract whose end goal was a lunar demonstration on IM-2. It flew on Intuitive Machines' own lander, not as a NASA CLPS payload; NASA lists it apart from its payloads.; 2020-10-14 |
| Timeline | first funding 2021-03 (Tipping Point contract start; proposal July 2020); first flight test not in public sources; selected 2020-10-14; launch 2025-02-26; landing 2025-03-06 |
| On the Moon | partly operated |
| FO | none |
Flights before the Moon¶
None found in the public sources.
Heritage hardware¶
- design heritage (Nova-C lander): The hopper reuses landing technologies Intuitive Machines developed for its Nova-C lander, which first landed on IM-1 in February 2024. Its own development was ground testing: deployment mechanism tests, attitude-control stability tests, propulsion cold-flow tests, thruster hot-fire acceptance, pressurant tank qualification, and thermal vacuum at NASA Johnson. No flight test of the hopper is named in public sources.
"leveraging mature landing system technologies developed for the Nova-C platform by Intuitive Machines"
— TechPort project 116372, description"Successful completion of main thruster hot-fire acceptance testing and delivery of"
— NTRS 20220013035, accomplishments"Successful completion of attitude control stability testing"
— NTRS 20220013035, accomplishments
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- STMD Tipping Point contract to Intuitive Machines, 'Deployable Hopper for Extreme Lunar Surface Access' (80LARC21C0007), managed in GCD as TechPort 116372. The record names the hopper, so this is the payload's money. The company's own share is not in public sources. (STMD Tipping Point (GCD); 2021-2025): $40,595,337
"DEPLOYABLE HOPPER FOR EXTREME LUNAR SURFACE ACCESS."
— USAspending.gov, award 80LARC21C0007, description; obligated 40595337.0, 2021-03-01 to 2025-10-01, NASA Langley"Intuitive Machines of Houston, $41.6 million"
— 2020 NASA Tipping Point Selections - NASA, selection value
How it got onto CLPS¶
"Intuitive Machines of Houston, $41.6 million"
— 2020 NASA Tipping Point Selections - NASA"Develop a small, deployable hopper lander capable of carrying a 2.2-pound (1-kilogram) payload more than 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers)."
— 2020 NASA Tipping Point Selections - NASA"The lunar deployable hopper project (Hopper) started as a Tipping Point proposal, submitted by Intuitive Machines (IM) in July of 2020."
— TechPort project 116372, description"NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate will negotiate with the companies to issue milestone-based firm fixed-price contracts lasting for up to five years."
— NASA Announces Partners to Advance ‘Tipping Point’ Technologies for the Moon, Mars - NASA"These Tipping Point technology demonstrations were funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate"
— Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) - NASA, section 'What’s Flying with PRIME-1?'"Intuitive Machines of Houston, $41.6 million"
— NASA Announces Partners to Advance ‘Tipping Point’ Technologies for the Moon, Mars - NASA, release of 14 October 2020"Intuitive Machines (IM) will develop and demonstrate on the lunar surface a deployable robotic hopper"
— NTRS 20210020197, Project Overview: 'As part of Tipping Point Topic 2'
On the Moon¶
Because Athena landed on its side, Grace never left the lander and did not hop. NASA says the hopper completed only some objectives, including checkouts in flight and on the surface. The planned hop into a shadowed crater did not happen.
"Due to the off-nominal landing orientation, the Hopper surface operations were constrained and it did not deploy from the lander."
— TechPort project 116372, description"were only able to complete some objectives, they provided insight into maturing technologies ready for infusion into a commercial space application including some checkouts in flight and on the surface"
— NASA Receives Some Data Before Intuitive Machines Ends Lunar Mission - NASA
FO's role¶
Grade: none. No FO project or flight of the hopper or of an Intuitive Machines-led technology. FO's reports name Intuitive Machines only as the lander company that took on FO-tested lander technologies (Glenn's RFMG on IM-1, Carthage College's MPG on Nova-C test articles). That is a lander link, not a hopper link, so it does not count for Grace. A propulsive hopper is the kind of vehicle FO's lander testbeds once flew, but the study found no such test for Grace.
"contractor Intuitive Machines has installed the MPG technology on its Nova-C lunar lander test articles"
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)
Who built it¶
"One of the Tipping Point technologies on IM-2 is a small hopping robot developed by Intuitive Machines."
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission"Trent Martin Principal Investigator"
— NTRS 20220013035, GCD FY22 annual review, Sept 2022"Lead Organization"
— TechPort project 116372, Johnson Space Center (Deployable Lunar Hopper, GCD)
Moon Base need¶
"Mobility target: "Deployment of small utility rovers and hoppers to conduct science, reconnaissance, and resource discovery" (p. 9)"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: What the architecture says the Moon Base needs"hopper drones called MoonFall"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: What the architecture says the Moon Base needs"Access to extreme cold surface environments including permanently shadowed regions"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: ESDMD #0804: Robotic and Mobility Systems in Extreme Cold Environments on the Lunar Surface"providing a first look into undiscovered regions that may provide critical information to sustain a human presence on the Moon"
— Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) - NASA
Open questions¶
- Intuitive Machines' cost share in the hopper Tipping Point: not in public sources.
- Was the hopper ever flown on Earth (tethered or free flight) before IM-2? Not in public sources.
- What data the hopper returned from its checkouts in transit and on the surface: not in public sources.