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26.02.2025 14:45

Berlin Instrument Flies to the Moon with IM-2 Mission

Christine Xuan Müller Stabsstelle Kommunikation und Marketing
Freie Universität Berlin

Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin and German Aerospace Center (DLR) have built a radiometer for measuring the temperature inside lunar craters

In the night February 27, 2025, C.E.T, the launch window opens for the U.S. company Intuitive Machines’ second mission, IM-2, to the Moon. On board is the Lunar RADiometer (LRAD), a scientific instrument for contactless temperature measurement, which was built by the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin and the German Aerospace Center’s (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) Institute of Planetary Research.

LRAD is designed to jump onboard of a hopper into one of the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters to measure the surface temperature there and to look for water ice, which is of particular importance for future crewed moon missions.

Intuitive Machines was the first U.S. company to successfully land on the Moon’s surface, arriving on February 22, 2024 at 80° Southern latitude at the crater Malapert-A. The lander, named Athena, is targeting the Mons Mouton region of the Moon, to demonstrate the process of searching for water ice using a drill and a mass spectrometer. It carries with it Grace, an approximately 70 cm high “hopping” propulsive drone that is designed to autonomously explore the lunar surface during a series of short hops. Onboard Grace is LRAD – an instrument designed to measure the temperature of the lunar surface to identify further regions of water ice.

Near the Moon’s south pole, the Sun is so low that some craters remain in shadow year-round. In these permanently shadowed regions, temperatures below minus 160°C are possible, so low that even in a vacuum water ice does not sublimate, i.e., it does not change from a solid to a gaseous state.

Water ice is an important resource to establish sustainability on the Moon’s surface, as it can be used both for drinking water and for the production of hydrogen and oxygen. In addition to supplying oxygen for breathing, both gases may be used as fuel for rockets. If they could be extracted directly from the Moon’s surface this would save the trouble of transporting them from Earth to the Moon.

The landing region, Mons Mouton, is located at about 85° South latitude, just 160 km from the Moon’s south pole. It is one of several potential landing sites for the first human lunar landing since 1972, as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign.

However, the mission remains a challenge. “Landing on the surface alone would be a big success, and the autonomous jumps of the hopper would be another milestone,” says Heike Rauer, professor at the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin and director of the Institute of Planetary Research at DLR. “However, the project has already shown how close cooperation between a university, non-university research institutions, a publicly traded space exploration company, and medium-sized companies can advance the exploration and utilization of the Moon.”

LRAD was developed by DLR’s Institute of Planetary Research Berlin and the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin and was built in close cooperation with the Berlin companies Magson and Astro- und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof, also based in the capital. The sensors, optimized to measure low temperatures, were specially developed by the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena. The DLR Institute of Planetary Research has long-standing expertise in building radiometers, having used them in previous missions such as the DLR MASCOT lander on Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid mission and NASA’s InSight Mars lander.

Freie Universität Berlin is responsible for project management and a large part of the scientific data analysis. Using a model of lunar surface material developed there, the temperature is predicted based on assumptions about the material properties. By comparing these predictions with the surface temperatures measured by LRAD, researchers at Freie Universität and DLR will be able to draw conclusions about the physical properties of the lunar material.

Freie Universität researcher, project manager for LRAD, and guest scientist at DLR Maximilian Hamm says, “LRAD began in 2022, and the exciting years of preparation lie behind us. It’s great to be at the forefront of shaping this new chapter in space-mission history. We are now looking forward to the unique results from its measurements.”

The results of the mission are also eagerly awaited at DLR. “Exploring the Moon with lander missions remains a major technical challenge,” says Matthias Grott, LRAD Project lead at DLR’s Institute of Planetary Research. “If we succeeded in taking measurements in a permanently shadowed crater, that would be a unique achievement worldwide.”

Intuitive Machines is one of several companies aiming to provide transport services to the Moon. The Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission is the company’s second as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (“CLPS”) initiative, a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface as part of CLPS intend to lay the foundation for future human missions and a long-term human presence on the lunar surface.

The LRAD project is funded by the German Space Agency on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, following a decision of the German Bundestag (Grant 50OW2103).

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Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Prof. Dr. Heike Rauer, Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Email: heike.rauer@fu-berlin.de
Dr. Maximilian Hamm, Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Email: maximilian.hamm@fu-berlin.de

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Weitere Informationen:

http://Intuitive Machines Press Kit on IM-2: https://6bf7a3ca-a986-4231-a216-b794124e88b8.usrfiles.com/ugd/97e97b_27cd915df17...

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Athena Lander and Grace Hopper

Intuitive Machines

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