Odin is a shared travel payload that will be launched as part of the IM-2 mission of intuitive machines, not before February 26, in a Falcon 9 rocket in Florida. After the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is essentially put in a trans-lunar injection, Odin will separate approximately 45 minutes after the launch. If everything goes well, and this is a great yes, Gialich easily recognizes, it will not fly for its asteroid target 301 days later. The goal is to imagine the asteroid and characterize how much metal there is.
Take some calculated risks
It is now important to remember that no private company has operated a mission of spacecraft in the deep space before, the area beyond the moon. In addition, Astroforge has no team expert teams such as NASA’s Jet propulsion laboratory for its deep space missions.
“We build this spacecraft in 10 months,” said Gialich. “This is a high -risk mission, for the seat mission of their pants.”
The main objective, he said, is to make sure Odin turns on and communicates back to earth. The success of the mission, Gialich told his team, is reaching a deep space beyond the moon to determine how well the Odin components work in this thermal and radiation environment. In terms of reaching the asteroid, failure is more likely to success.
During an interview this week, Gialich also said that the company selected a launch supplier for some of its future missions to land and extract asteroids: Stoke Space. Astroforge will be Stoke Space’s initial client, and the two space startups signed an agreement for “multiple dedicated releases” in the NOVA rocket. This reinforcement, still in development, is intended to be totally reusable and has a payload capacity for the orbit of 5 metric tons. A debut launch in 2026 may occur.
“We really like his team,” Gialich said. “Stoke offered us one of the best launch prices, and a dedicated launch makes us much easier for us. They can lead us to deep space.”