The arrivals of two lunar landers on the moon this week bodes well for a Big Island company’s plan to set up a permanent observatory on the moon.
The Waimea-based International Lunar Observatory Association was not directly involved in either the successful Sunday arrival of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Lander, or today’s expected touchdown of Intuitive Machines’ lander Athena.
But ILOA president Steve Durst said a future Intuitive Machines launch will carry with it “the future of 21st century Hawaii astronomy.”
The nonprofit ILOA previously collaborated with Intuitive Machines one year ago, when the company’s Odysseus lander touched down on the moon carrying a pair of cameras developed by ILOA. That mission was not wholly successful, however: Odysseus fell over upon landing, preventing the cameras from taking the hoped-for images of the lunar sky before the long lunar night caused the lander to lose power seven days after arrival.
“The astronomy part of the mission was only about 10% successful,” Durst said, explaining that part of the goal of ILOA’s collaboration with Odysseus was to image the center of the Milky Way galaxy from the moon’s surface, which has never been done before.
But where Odysseus failed, a future Intuitive Machines lander could succeed. Durst said ILOA is in negotiations with the Houston-based company to be included on its IM-4 mission anticipated to launch in late 2027.
If those negotiations are successful, Durst said, the yet-unnamed IM-4 — Odysseus was designated IM-1, Athena IM-2, and IM-3 is expected to launch in early 2026 — would carry what he called ILOA’s “flagship”: ILO-1, a long-term craft that would arrive at the summit of a mountain on the moon’s south pole, where it could conduct observations of the lunar sky for years.
ILO-1 could land relatively close to Athena’s projected destination, the summit of Mons Mouton, a roughly 3.7-mile-high mountain whose position near the south pole allows for enough sunlight for an extended mission. Mons Mouton also is adjacent to Malapert Crater, where the overturned Odysseus lander still rests.
Durst said he hopes the “moon rush” of commercial lunar successes will maintain momentum for ILO-1’s launch in the future. Odysseus, Athena and Blue Ghost are the first successes of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which funds commercial companies to send their own experiments to the moon, rather than relying on NASA-built equipment.
Durst noted that Blue Ghost stole Odysseus’ thunder somewhat. While Odysseus was lauded in 2024 for being the first commercial landing on the moon, Firefly’s Blue Ghost — which landed upright — has now carried out “the first fully successful commercial landing.” Consequently, IM-4 will be a good opportunity for Intuitive Machines to prove itself again, he said.
In the meantime, a third lander is currently in transit toward the moon. The Japanese-developed craft Resilience launched in January from the same SpaceX rocket that carried Blue Ghost, but is taking a slower trajectory toward the moon and is expected to arrive June 5.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
