Does anyone here know the mass of the fuel, liquid methane and oxygen, on IM-1?Gunters has a launch mass of 1908 kg.NASA GSFC also says 1908 kg and lists the thrust as 3100 N but has no more information.Of interest is the mass fraction and Isp to estimate the total delta-V capacity for another application. ...assuming the IM-1 flight goes well and Intuitive Systems lives to fight another day....
Standing down from tonight’s attempt due to off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load. Now targeting Thursday, February 15 at 1:05 a.m. ET for Falcon 9's launch of the @Int_Machines IM-1 mission from Florida → http://spacex.com/launches
Although I am a big supporter of the policy of NASA buying space science data ftom private companies (I wrote the enabling language in the Commercial Space Act of 1998), I am not happy with the implementation.My take on the implementation: NASA throws money at startups with no track record, and hopes that they can pull off lunar landings with zero experience in space. Giving contracts for companies that haven't even launched a Cubesat is a recipe for disaster.Once enough of these errors result in money thrown into the trash, I would hope that NASA will simply buy data from private missions, funded by private capital.
T+269: IM-1 and Beyond (with Tim Crain, Co-Founder and CTO of Intuitive Machines)MARCH 7, 2024Tim Crain, Co-Founder and CTO of Intuitive Machines, joins me to talk about their recent IM-1 mission to land Odysseus on the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS program.
