" Dropping a 'Curiosity' type rover on the moon would have been hugely expensive and considering the latitude and rocky terrain, not a particularly good idea."
I’ll just point out that the company is very much going down the SpaceX path of rapid prototyping and test flights to refine and develop. They have several more planned, as well as the lunar orbital constellation, which will carry multiple rovers and “hoppers”.
“
Intuitive Machines’ second awarded flight, IM-2, is scheduled to land at the lunar South Pole in 2024. This will be the first on site, or in-situ, resource utilization demonstration on the Moon utilizing a drill and mass spectrometer to measure the volatile content of subsurface materials. The third Intuitive Machines awarded flight, IM-3, is scheduled to land at the Moon’s Reiner Gamma swirl in 2024 using the Nova-C lunar lander.”…..
CLPS Flight: IM-2
Expected Launch Date: 2024
Landing Site: Shackleton Connecting Ridge
Payloads:
https://science.nasa.gov/lunar-scien...tive-machines/
Lander Name:
Odysseus
Lander Class:
Nova-C
Task Order Information: TO Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1)
CLPS Flight: IM-3
Expected Launch Date: 2024
Landing Site: Reiner Gamma
Payloads:
https://science.nasa.gov/lunar-disco...liveries/cp-11
Lander Name:
Odysseus
Lander Class:
Nova-C
Task Order Information: TO CP-11 (CLPS PRISM 11)