直觉机器获NASA选定为云层观测任务FALCON-RADAR提供航天器平台：最快2029年发射
总部位于得克萨斯州休斯顿的太空基础设施公司直觉机器（Intuitive Machines, Inc.，纳斯达克代码：LUNR）11月3日宣布，已获美国国家航空航天局（NASA）喷气推进实验室（JPL）选定，为地球观测任务 FALCON-RADAR 提供航天器平台与系统级集成。公司当天通过 GlobeNewswire 发布了这一消息，合同金额未予披露。
FALCON-RADAR 是「与 NASA 协同的大气连接商业观测舰队」（FALCON）计划的一部分，将使用该公司的 IM 300 航天器平台，发射时间不早于 2029 年。任务由一颗极地轨道、太阳同步卫星组成，搭载一台 W 波段云廓线多普勒雷达，专门观测浅层弱降水与小尺度云层动力过程。公司称，这类毫米波雷达技术未来还可能支持月球与火星应用。
在 FALCON 舰队中，FALCON-RADAR 将提供二维云层背景信息并探测对流活动；结合其他任务的水汽与气溶胶测量数据，其资料可帮助地球科学界分析造成近地面雨雪的天气过程。
这颗卫星将与 EAGLE-VSWIR 协同研制，后者是直觉机器近期获得的另一项 NASA 任务，两项任务将提供互补的科学数据。连同由 NASA 戈达德航天飞行中心管理、加州大学圣迭戈分校 Scripps 海洋研究所首席研究员 Helen Amanda Fricker 领衔的 EDGE（地球动力学大地测量探测者）任务在内，这是该公司六个月内第三项支持 NASA 地球科学目标的任务。
直觉机器首席执行官 Steve Altemus 表示：「我们可靠、模块化的平台与 NASA 以更快时间表交付更多科学成果的目标相契合。我们把规模化航天器制造与深厚的任务系统和集成专长结合起来，地球科学是天然契合的领域；这项任务用到的能力，与我们已在商业、民用和国家安全业务中交付的能力一脉相承。」
直觉机器是一家太空基础设施公司，业务涵盖航天器制造、通信、网络、任务运营与地面基础设施，服务商业、民用与国家安全客户。其 IM 300 系列平台目前支持多个国家安全与民用太空项目。
（来源：Intuitive Machines）
Intuitive Machines Selected by NASA JPL to Provide Spacecraft Platform for FALCON-RADAR Cloud Mission, Launch No Earlier Than 2029
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR), a space technology and infrastructure company based in Houston, Texas, announced on November 3 that it has been selected by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to provide the spacecraft platform and system-level integration for FALCON-RADAR, an Earth observation mission that will study clouds and convection from space. The company announced the award through GlobeNewswire; financial terms were not disclosed.
FALCON-RADAR, part of the Fleet for the Atmospheric Linking Commercial Observations with NASA (FALCON), will fly on the company's IM 300 spacecraft bus and is targeted for launch no earlier than 2029. The mission consists of a single polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous satellite carrying a W-band cloud profiling Doppler radar instrument designed to observe shallow light precipitation and small-scale cloud dynamics. The company said the millimeter-wavelength radar technology may also support future Moon and Mars applications.
As part of the FALCON fleet, FALCON-RADAR will supply two-dimensional cloud context and detect convection. Combined with water vapor and aerosol measurements from other missions, its data will help the Earth science community profile the processes responsible for rain and snow near Earth's surface.
The spacecraft is being developed in collaboration with EAGLE-VSWIR, another NASA mission recently awarded to Intuitive Machines, and the two missions will provide complementary science data. Together with the EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) mission, managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and led by Principal Investigator Dr. Helen Amanda Fricker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, the award marks the third Intuitive Machines mission supporting NASA's Earth science objectives in the last six months.
"Our reliable and modular platforms align with NASA's goal of delivering more science on faster timelines," said Steve Altemus, chief executive officer of Intuitive Machines. "We combine spacecraft manufacturing at scale with deep mission systems and integration expertise, and Earth science is a natural fit. This mission draws on the same capabilities we already deliver across our commercial, civil, and national security work."
Intuitive Machines delivers integrated capabilities across spacecraft manufacturing, communications, networks, mission operations and ground infrastructure for commercial, civil and national security customers, and its IM 300 series platform currently supports multiple programs spanning national security and civil space applications.
(Source: Intuitive Machines)
来源：Intuitive Machines
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：气象卫星 GOES-17 拍摄的地球全圆盘云图。NOAA/NASA，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Full-disk view of Earth and its cloud systems captured by the GOES-17 weather satellite. NOAA/NASA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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