One of the most curious space launches of 2025 is set to take place at the end of February. The Falcon 9 rocket will send a fleet of private spacecraft into interplanetary space. Some of them will land on the Moon, others will stay in orbit around it, and another probe will go on a reconnaissance mission to an asteroid. We will tell you about all these missions and their main tasks.
Jumping on the Moon’s south pole and space 4G
The main cargo on board Falcon 9 is the Athena probe built by Intuitive Machines. Its flight is financed under the CLPS program, under which NASA pays private companies to deliver various cargoes to the Moon.
Intuitive Machines already has experience in such flights. Last year, it became the first private company in history to succeed, albeit not without problems, in landing on the Moon. Athena should build on that success. If everything goes as planned, the vehicle will land in the southern polar region of the Moon near the Shackleton crater, which is believed to have ice deposits at the bottom.
Athena’s primary mission is to demonstrate technologies that will lay the foundation for a long-term lunar infrastructure. One of these demonstrations will be the PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1). Within its framework, Athena will take a sample of matter from the lunar interior and then search for volatile substances in it. Installed on board, the device drill can take samples from a depth of one meter.
In addition to drilling the lunar surface, Athena will collect data on the radiation environment. They will help designers understand how to better protect people and equipment from the negative effects of cosmic rays.
Athena will also land a whole “troop” of micro-rovers on the Moon. One of these vehicles, called Micro Nova Hopper, is also built by Intuitive Machines. It is equipped with engines that will allow it to travel across the lunar surface by hopping. After separation, the vehicle will travel to the so-called Crater H, a 20-meter-deep crater located about half a kilometer from Athena’s estimated landing site. Its bottom is never illuminated by the Sun. Micro Nova Hopper will search there for traces of water and volatiles.
The second microrover on board Athena is the MAPP spacecraft built by Lunar Outpost. It will study the lunar surface, measuring its temperature and collecting samples of regolith. On its roof will be installed a miniature apparatus the size of a matchbox, aptly named AstroAnt, which will measure the temperature of the MAPP body. This data will be useful for space technology developers.
Finally, Athena will also land the Yaoki micro-rover, built by the Japanese company Dymon, on the Moon. The wheeled vehicle, which weighs only 498 grams, will test the technology for traveling on the lunar surface.
Ensuring stable communication between the micro rovers and Athena is one of the key objectives of the mission. As part of the Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS) experiment, Nokia has provided equipment that will enable the first ever 4G network to be deployed on the Moon. It should provide more bandwidth than more traditional ultra-high-frequency systems used for space communications. Nokia hopes that future missions will use the technology to provide communications between bases on the lunar surface.
Advertising in near-lunar orbit
Athena and the microrovers on board will not be the only vehicles that will go to the Moon. They will be accompanied by several companion satellites that will enter orbit around our planet’s satellite.
One of them is called Khon1. It will be used to relay data collected by Athena and rovers to Earth. The second companion vehicle will be the Lunar Trailblazer, built by Lockheed Martin on behalf of NASA. Initially, it was to go to the Moon as part of another mission, but then NASA changed plans.
The Lunar Trailblazer has a mass of 200 kg. It is designed to search for and map water ice deposits on the Moon, as well as to determine the mineralogical composition of its surface. To accomplish these tasks, the Lunar Trailblazer is equipped with two infrared spectrometers. After separation from Falcon 9, the satellite will continue its flight on an independent trajectory. The satellite will make several passes at the Moon, after which it will enter a permanent orbit around it in July 2025.
And finally, the Doge-1 advertising satellite built by Geometric Energy Corporation will go to the Moon. Its creation and launch were paid for with Dogecoin cryptocurrency. The 40-kilogram vehicle is equipped with an external screen that will display advertisements and logos. Their images will then be broadcast to Earth using a camera mounted on the Doge-1 body.
Asteroid hunter
All of the above vehicles will go to the Moon. However, Falcon 9 will also carry a probe called Odin. It will head to a very different celestial body – the 100-meter near-Earth asteroid 2022 OB5, which is assumed to have a metallic composition.
Odin was built by AstroForge, a space mining technology company. Its mission is of a demonstration nature and is intended to demonstrate the capabilities of low-cost spacecraft. Odin costs 6.5 million dollars, which is not much at all for an interplanetary mission. And this is even though its creation was not without problems. The original version of Odin failed vibration tests, so AstroForge had to abandon the services of the contractor and rebuild the spacecraft itself.
In December 2025, Odin will perform a close flyby of 2022 OB5 and transmit images of its surface, which will help determine the main characteristics of the asteroid. The data obtained will then be used to prepare the next AstroForge mission called Vestri. It will land on the asteroid and then conduct the first-ever demonstration of mining technology in space.
