NASA Selects Intuitive Machines Team to Develop Survive the Lunar Night Technology
HOUSTON, July 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) or the (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, today announced NASA’s Space Technology and Mission Directorate (STMD) has awarded a $15 million Tipping Point initiative award to the Zeno Power-led team, including Intuitive Machines. The award is for the development of a Radioisotope Power System (RPS) that may enable lunar assets to survive and operate during the lunar night and in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon.
Intuitive Machines has been designated approximately $2.4 million of the award to assist Zeno Power in developing an interoperable americium-241 (Am-241) radioisotope Sterling generator that may be integrated into lunar landers to enable it to survive the lunar night cycle.
The lunar night cycle refers to the period of darkness on the Moon that lasts approximately 14 Earth days. During this time, temperatures on the lunar surface drop drastically, reaching as low as -279 degrees Fahrenheit. By surviving the lunar night, missions on the surface of the Moon could extend from two Earth weeks to several years.
“The ability to survive the lunar night is paramount to Intuitive Machines and the space exploration community,” said Trent Martin, Intuitive Machines Vice President of Space Systems. “NASA investing in mission longevity and the endurance of spacecraft paves the way for uninterrupted scientific exploration, enabling future robotic and human missions to unlock the mysteries of the lunar surface and propel humanity’s presence in space to new frontiers.”
Through the Tipping Point solicitation, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate seeks industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions. The public-private partnerships established through Tipping Point selections combine NASA resources with industry contributions, shepherding the development of critical space technologies. NASA plans to leverage these innovations for its Artemis program, which will establish sustainable operations on the Moon by the end of the decade in preparation for an expedition to Mars.
The Zeno Power-led team’s goal is to develop flight-ready technology for a 2027 lunar surface demonstration.
About Intuitive Machines
Intuitive Machines is a diversified space company focused on space exploration. Intuitive Machines supplies space products and services to support sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Intuitive Machines’ products and services are offered through its four business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure. For more information, please visit intuitivemachines.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements in this press release include but are not limited to: statements regarding the award and size of the Tipping Point initiative contract. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s predictions, projections, or expectations based upon currently available information and data. Our actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements in this press release: our reliance upon the efforts of our Board and key personnel to be successful; our limited operating history; our failure to manage our growth effectively; competition from existing or new companies; unsatisfactory safety performance of our spaceflight systems or security incidents at our facilities; counterparty risks on contracts entered into with our customers and failure of our prime contractors to maintain their relationships with their counterparties and fulfill their contractual obligations; failure to successfully defend protest from other bidders for government contracts; failure to comply with various laws and regulations relating to various aspects of our business and any changes in the funding levels of various governmental entities with which we do business; our failure to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets and know how; our failure to comply with the terms of third-party open source software our systems utilize; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, and to address and remediate existing material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting; the U.S. government’s budget deficit and the national debt, as well as any inability of the U.S. government to complete its budget process for any government fiscal year, and our dependence on U.S. government contracts; our failure to comply with U.S. export and import control laws and regulations and U.S. economic sanctions and trade control laws and regulations; uncertain global macro-economic and political conditions (including as a result of a failure to raise the “debt ceiling”) and rising inflation and other factors detailed under the section titled Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the section titled Part I, Item 2, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the section titled Part II. Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and the Investors section of our website at www.investors.intuitivemachines.com.
These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release and current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks, and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
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