The growing commercial component of NASA’s space exploration program requires hardware suppliers who can innovate quickly. The Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission inherits and refines the successful Nova-C lunar lander design used in the IM-1 mission. The updated lander, named Athena, incorporates several enhancements, including a lighter-weight helium pressurant tank. To support that evolution, the L3Harris team at ARDÉ rose to the challenge by rapidly identifying parts to support a new tank design and fabricating and testing the hardware within a compressed timeframe.
The new tank, nearly 10 pounds lighter than its predecessor, is integrated into the IM-2 lander, which is targeted for launch no earlier than February 26, 2025.
"With the aerospace industry reacting to global pressures, lead times across the U.S. industrial base are longer than normal, with some competitors offering design cycles of more than 16 months," said Dan Mueller, Manager of Programs and Business Development at L3Harris ARDÉ. "As an industry leader and Trusted Disruptor, we modified existing hardware to meet their urgent need, delivering results in just three months."
ARDÉ is the nation’s leading supplier of highly reliable, lightweight pressure vessels for space applications. They are also the current supplier to Intuitive Machines for its Nova-C landers, developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The helium in these tanks is used primarily to pressurize the lander’s propulsion system, with each Nova-C lander requiring two identical tanks.
Known as composite pressure overwrapped vessels (COPVs), these products are based on longstanding heritage design that has been used for decades on rockets, commercial satellites, interplanetary probes, and even NASA human spaceflight missions. Each tank is manufactured with a welded metal liner that is overwrapped with a carbon fiber composite for added strength.
Light-weight helium pressurant tank built by L3Harris for Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander. Credit: Intuitive Machines.
The tanks performed as designed in February 2024 when the IM-1 Nova-C lunar lander Odysseus became the first U.S.-based vehicle to soft-land on the Moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. Intuitive Machines’ vehicle design modifications for Athena include a lighter COPV tank supplied by ARDÉ.
"Intuitive Machines approached us in April 2024 about supplying a new tank, and we signed a contract less than a month later," Mueller added. "With the updated design, they didn't need as much helium, which enabled us to make a smaller, lighter version."
The ARDÉ team identified enough parts in inventory for both a qualification unit and a flight unit, which allowed them to fast-track the manufacturing and testing schedule.
The program included performing a destructive test where the team filled the tank with water and pressurized it to rupture at 11,000 pounds per square inch (psi) — well beyond the tank’s design minimum burst pressure of 9,000 psi.
"Once we completed the successful test, we moved on to the flight build, finished in a month and a half, and delivered it to our customer," Mueller said. "This design was built for speed, and execution was exemplary, checking this component off their risk register and allowing them to focus on other areas of their evolution."
The IM-2 Athena lunar lander, featuring the new tank, is aiming for the “Mons Mouton” region of the Moon. This landing site is approximately 100 miles from the Moon’s South Pole, representing the closest location ever attempted. Athena is expected to land in a lunar highland terrain and demonstrate lunar mobility, resource prospecting, and analysis of volatile substances from subsurface materials.
