The $116.9 million agreement will task Intuitive Machines with delivering six science and technology payloads to the moon. Photo courtesy of Intuitive Machines

NASA is again entrusting a Houston space business with lunar deliveries.

Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) has secured its fourth contract with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program. The $116.9 million agreement will task Intuitive Machines with delivering six science and technology payloads, which will include one European Space Agency-led drill suite to the Moon’s South Pole.

“Over the last several years, we’ve witnessed NASA’s successful Artemis I mission and the campaign’s progress toward sustainably returning humans to the surface of the Moon, highlighting the importance of autonomous missions that advance humanity’s understanding of the Moon and the commercial services required to support the industry,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says in a news release. “Intuitive Machines looks forward to working closely with the NASA team to deliver mission success once again.”

The company outlined some of the technology involved in the contract:

  • PROSPECT, or Package for Resource Observation and In-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Characterization, and Testing, which is led by the European Space Agency, is a suite of instruments that will extract samples from beneath the lunar surface to identify possible volatiles (water, ice, or gas) trapped at extremely cold temperatures.
  • Managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision lasers to measure the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander.
  • Surface Exosphere Alterations by Landers (SEAL), which will investigate the chemical response of lunar regolith to the thermal, physical, and chemical disturbances generated during a landing and evaluate contaminants injected into the regolith by the lander, will give insight into how a spacecraft landing might affect the composition of samples collected nearby. The project is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
  • Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG) will characterize certain magnetic fields to improve the understanding of energy and particle pathways at the lunar surface and is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
  • Managed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System (L-CIRiS) will deploy a radiometer – a device that measures infrared wavelengths of light – to explore the Moon’s surface composition, map its surface temperature distribution, and demonstrate the instrument’s feasibility for future lunar resource utilization activities.

Intuitive Machines is currently working on its second lunar mission, which is scheduled to be delivered in late 2024.

Last month, Intuitive Machines signed a deal with Houston-based launch services company SEOPS to offer lunar rideshare services. Under the deal, Intuitive Machines will enable SEOPS to deliver customers' payloads to the surface of the moon, as well as to Lagrange points and geostationary transfer orbits. Essentially, this will let SEOPS hitch a ride on missions already planned by Intuitive Machines.

In April, Intuitive Machines was one of three companies chosen by NASA to perform preliminary work on building a lunar terrain vehicle that would enable astronauts to travel on the moon’s surface so they can conduct scientific research and prepare for human missions to Mars.

Need a ride to the moon? Two Houston companies are working on developing lunar rideshare services. Photo via intuitivemachines.com

2 Houston companies collaborating to develop lunar rideshare services

need a ride?

Houston-based space exploration company Intuitive Machines soon will be the Uber of space.

Intuitive Machines has signed a deal with Houston-based launch services company SEOPS to offer lunar rideshare services. Under the deal, Intuitive Machines will enable SEOPS to deliver customers' payloads to the surface of the moon, as well as to Lagrange points and geostationary transfer orbits. Essentially, this will let SEOPS hitch a ride on missions already planned by Intuitive Machines.

As NASA explains, spacecraft occupy Lagrange points between the earth and moon as “parking lots” so they can stay in a fixed position while conserving fuel. And according to the European Space Agency, transfer orbits “are a special kind of orbit used to get from one orbit to another.”

“Intuitive Machines’ rideshare capacity not only satisfies a growing market need, but it’s completely in our wheelhouse — leveraging our expertise in solving complex launch challenges for our customers,” Chad Brinkley, CEO of SEOPS, says in a news release. “It makes financial sense to take advantage of the excess capacity on Intuitive Machines’ lunar missions, while also supporting our customers' goals for lunar exploration.”

Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says the SEOPS deal underscores the aspirations of the space industry.

“SEOPS entrusting us with the delivery of its customers’ payloads to space highlights our capabilities to provide the essential infrastructure and services that support all groundbreaking commercial ambitions in space,” Altemus says.

Speaking of groundbreaking developments, Intuitive Machines recently pinned down a landing site for its sold-out mission to the South Pole. The mission will prospect for water ice.

NASA calls water ice “a valuable resource” for exploration of the moon, as it could provide drinking water, cool equipment, and generate fuel and oxygen.

The more than 650-foot-in-diameter South Pole landing site, chosen by Intuitive Machines and NASA, sits on the Shackleton connecting ridge. The ridge connects two craters.

NASA says the Shackleton ridge receives enough sunlight to power a lander for a roughly 10-day mission while offering a clear line of sight for satellite communications.

The mission, featuring an Intuitive Machines lander and NASA ice-mining equipment, is set for late 2024. The work must take place between November 2024 and January 2025 to capitalize on ideal conditions.

“A sold-out commercial and civil government mission early in our commercialization roadmap validates our approach to supporting an economy in deep space,” Altemus says in a news release. “Our expertise in landing site selection is world-class, and we believe the ability to identify landing areas with valuable resources will be essential to the future of the lunar economy.”

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Houston university to launch artificial intelligence major, one of first in nation

BS in AI

Rice University announced this month that it plans to introduce a Bachelor of Science in AI in the fall 2025 semester.

The new degree program will be part of the university's department of computer science in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and is one of only a few like it in the country. It aims to focus on "responsible and interdisciplinary approaches to AI," according to a news release from the university.

“We are in a moment of rapid transformation driven by AI, and Rice is committed to preparing students not just to participate in that future but to shape it responsibly,” Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in the release. “This new major builds on our strengths in computing and education and is a vital part of our broader vision to lead in ethical AI and deliver real-world solutions across health, sustainability and resilient communities.”

John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science in Rice's online Master of Computer Science program, will serve as the new program's director. Vicente Ordóñez-Román, an associate professor of computer science, was also instrumental in developing and approving the new major.

Until now, Rice students could study AI through elective courses and an advanced degree. The new bachelor's degree program opens up deeper learning opportunities to undergrads by blending traditional engineering and math requirements with other courses on ethics and philosophy as they relate to AI.

“With the major, we’re really setting out a curriculum that makes sense as a whole,” Greiner said in the release. “We are not simply taking a collection of courses that have been created already and putting a new wrapper around them. We’re actually creating a brand new curriculum. Most of the required courses are brand new courses designed for this major.”

Students in the program will also benefit from resources through Rice’s growing AI ecosystem, like the Ken Kennedy Institute, which focuses on AI solutions and ethical AI. The university also opened its new AI-focused "innovation factory," Rice Nexus, earlier this year.

“We have been building expertise in artificial intelligence,” Ordóñez-Román added in the release. “There are people working here on natural language processing, information retrieval systems for machine learning, more theoretical machine learning, quantum machine learning. We have a lot of expertise in these areas, and I think we’re trying to leverage that strength we’re building.”

Houston biomanufacturing accelerator adds pilot plant to support scale-ups

new digs

Houston accelerator BioWell announced this month that it has taken over operations of Texas BioTechnology’s pilot plant in Richmond, Texas.

The 33,000-square-foot facility is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. and features molecular biology labs, advanced automation, fermentation equipment and 16 dedicated benches for early-stage industrial biomanufacturing companies, according to a release from the company. It will allow BioWell to offer on-site education, workforce development, and lab training for students and workers.

BioWell and its founding company, First Bight Ventures, report that the facility should help address the industry's "scale-up bottleneck due to limited pilot- and demonstration-scale infrastructure" in the U.S.

"As a Houston-based accelerator dedicated exclusively to early-stage biomanufacturing startups, partnering with this facility was a natural and highly strategic decision for us. The site is fully operational and offers a strong platform to support biomanufacturing companies, industry leaders, and research institutions, providing critical expertise and infrastructure across a broad range of biotechnology production processes,” Veronica Breckenridge, founder of First Bight Ventures and BioWell, said in a news release.

First Bight Ventures shares that the partnership with the facility will also allow it to better support its portfolio companies and make them more attractive to future investors.

BioWell will host an open house and tours of the fermentation and lab spaces and an overview of current bioindustrial projects Wednesday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. RSVPs are required.

BioWell was originally funded by a $700,000 U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale grant and launched as a virtual accelerator for bioindustrial startups. Listen to an interview with Carlos Estrada, head of venture acceleration at BioWell, here.

Ultra-fast EV charging bays coming to Waffle House locations in Texas and beyond

power breakfast

Scattered, smothered and ... charged?

Starting next year, EV drivers can connect to ultra-fast charging stations at select Waffle House locations throughout Texas, courtesy of bp pulse.

The EV arm of British energy giant bp announced a strategic partnership with the all-day breakfast chain this week. The company aims to deploy a network of 400kW DC fast chargers and a mix of CCS and NACS connectors at Waffle House locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and other restaurants in the South.

Each Waffle House site will feature six ultra-fast EV charging bays, allowing drivers to "(enjoy) Waffle House’s 24/7 amenities," the announcement reads.

“Adding an iconic landmark like Waffle House to our growing portfolio of EV charging sites is such an exciting opportunity. As an integrated energy company, bp is committed to providing efficient solutions like ultra-fast charging to support our customers’ mobility needs," Sujay Sharma, CEO of bp pulse U.S., said in a news release. "We’re building a robust network of ultra-fast chargers across the country, and this is another example of third-party collaborations enabling access to charging co-located with convenient amenities for EV drivers.”

The news comes as bp pulse continues to grow its charging network in Texas.

The company debuted its new high-speed electric vehicle charging site, known as the Gigahub, at the bp America headquarters in Houston last year. In partnership with Hertz Electrifies Houston, it also previously announced plans to install a new EV fast-charging hub at Hobby Airport. In a recent partnership with Simon Malls, bp also shared plans to install EV charging Gigahubs at The Galleria and Katy Mills Mall.

bp has previously reported that it plans to invest $1 billion in EV charging infrastructure by 2030, with $500 million invested by the end of 2025.

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A version of this article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.