Deep Space Network Support of the Intuitive Machines Lunar Lander

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has been designed for the past six decades with very large antennas and customized technologies to communicate with distant planetary missions, including spacecraft outside the solar system. The current exploration trend has shifted emphasis to supporting missions in cis-lunar space and at Lagrange points. This has led to modified strategies for more dynamic mission events and faster planning cycles than traditional solar system missions. In addition to the committed support of many missions, the DSN is a national asset that has supported missions in unplanned scenarios. The historic Intuitive Machines (IM) lunar mission, Odysseus, landed at Malapert A crater near the south pole on 22 February 2024. Prior to launch, there were no plans to utilize the DSN but the spacecraft conditions in transit, in lunar orbit, and after landing necessitated the use of large antennas capable of receiving low signal-to-noise downlink and transmitting high power uplink signals for the purpose of telemetry, commanding, and navigation. A DSN team responded to the request and collaborated with the ground station at Morehead State University (MSU) to relay commands between the IM Nova Control Center and the DSN’s central facility, made possible because MSU had established interfaces with both partners prior to launch while the DSN did not have a Space Link Extension (SLE) interface in place. The infrastructure of the Lunar Node 1 payload carried by Odysseus, which was planned to be tracked by the DSN, played a key role in facilitating this support. This paper describes the complex multi-partner communications architecture that enabled Odysseus’ successful mission and details the concept of operations using stations across multiple continents to achieve reliable two-way communications. The paper also describes the multipath effects that disrupted communications pervasively during surface operations and show how the point of reflection in the lunar surface was reconstructed after-the-fact using data collected during the mission.