Deployable Lunar Hopper (Hopper-TP)

The lunar deployable hopper project (Hopper) started as a Tipping Point proposal, submitted by Intuitive Machines (IM) in July of 2020. The project was kicked off in March of 2021. The project successfully developed, assembled, tested and operated a small robotic hopper. This deployable lunar hopper (µ-Nova "Grace") flew to the lunar surface in early 2025 on a Nova-C lander through a commercial mission (IM-2), leveraging mature landing system technologies developed for the Nova-C platform by Intuitive Machines. Due to the off-nominal landing orientation, the Hopper surface operations were constrained and it did not deploy from the lander. Hopper is intended to be deployed as a secondary payload from a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander, providing access to extreme environments and locations of interest on the lunar surface. At the cost of a secondary payload on a small CLPS lander, Hopper enables lunar surface science and human exploration by providing targeted access for different types of payloads and mission profiles to extreme locations on the lunar surface.  Among its technical capabilities, Hopper can operate in a Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) for a limited duration, autonomously fly into and out of PSRs, carry up to a 10 kg payload (range dependent), and “hop" the payload up to 25 km (ballistic transfer with current tank configuration).  Communications with Hopper utilize the lander or orbital assets as a relay station.  The Hopper records payload data to its on-board computer and transmits the data once line-of-sight to the lander is restored.  The Hopper design is also scalable to larger payloads and travel range.