How Small Teams at Intuitive Machines Are Solving Big Lunar Challenges

Intuitive Machines is fast becoming a key player in the burgeoning era of lunar exploration. Speaking with Gizmodo, CTO Tim Crain discussed how the company is trying to establish a niche in the lunar delivery market.

Intuitive Machines, founded in 2013 and based in Houston, Texas, is emerging as a key player in the private space sector, with its focus on lunar exploration, communication, and delivery solutions. It’s on a mission to be the Moon’s go-to courier, and it’s doing so with NASA backing.

The company’s most recent milestone was the successful soft landing of its uncrewed Nova-C lunar lander, named Odysseus, on the southern polar region of the Moon on February 22. It was the first soft landing by a U.S. spacecraft on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and, despite a malfunctioning landing laser, a busted leg, and Odie falling onto its side, the IM-1 mission team reached several of its major goals. Moreover, Intuitive Machines outperformed its main competitor, Astrobotic, whose Peregrine lander failed to reach the Moon during a mission launched earlier this year.

Looking ahead, Intuitive Machines, with its nearly 400 employees, is working toward its next Nova-C mission and a larger lander, dubbed Nova-D, which would deliver larger payloads to the Moon and enable the construction of sustainable lunar infrastructure. There are also plans to deploy a group of communications satellites orbiting the Moon, along with landing a 1.5-metric-ton lunar rover intended for use by NASA’s Artemis astronauts.

Leading the charge is Chief Technical Officer Tim Crain, who recently spoke to us about what’s happening at the company and in the spaceflight industry at large.

Outside the aerospace mainstream

Crain’s path through the industry is as dynamic as the projects he’s worked on. After earning his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000, his career has been closely linked with the progress of U.S. space exploration. He spent 13 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, contributing to cutting-edge aerospace science.

“While most people will look at the Johnson Space Center and think of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, I was actually working on human Mars missions, automated rendezvous and docking precision, and autonomous landing on the Moon,” Crain told Gizmodo. His collaborations extended across the agency and involved major industry players like Lockheed Martin and Boeing, particularly during his stint on NASA’s Orion program.

Crain’s interest in rapid innovation emerged during his work on the Morpheus project, a smaller-scale experimental initiative at NASA developing a liquid oxygen and methane lunar lander. “Imagine that—that we terrestrially demonstrated this in a program at the Johnson Space Center. And that was a small team environment,” Crain said.

This experience influenced his decision to co-found Intuitive Machines in 2013 with Stephen Altemus and Kam Ghaffarian. Their goal was to translate spaceflight engineering principles to other sectors, such as environmental and biomedical engineering. “The idea was to take the engineering approaches, not necessarily a specific technology or IP, but the engineering methodologies and approaches we had seen within NASA engineering, and specifically within human spaceflight engineering,” he said.

Intuitive Machines’ shift back to space exploration was marked by its inclusion in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in 2018, a turning point that refocused the company exclusively on space. Armed with the $2.6 billion contract, “we were off and running,” he said. “Within a year of getting that program, we really shut down all our other non-space think tank activities and pivoted back.”

This decision culminated in the historic lunar landing this past February, establishing the company as a legitimate player in the market. Intuitive Machines, trading healthily these days as LUNR on Nasdaq, was recently recognized by TIME as one of the 100 most influential companies of 2024.

‘Trust but verify’

Crain is a cheerleader for sharing ideas across disciplines, drawing parallels between the growing space sector and Silicon Valley. “You almost have this genetic algorithm where people come together, work on ideas for a new product or approach, and then, whether the company succeeds or fails, they move on,” enriched by different ideas, he said.

Crain says NASA’s expanding partnerships have created a more inclusive and vibrant space industry ecosystem. “It’s not just NASA and a few big aerospace companies anymore,” he noted, highlighting the migration of talent across the sector. At Intuitive Machines, teams strategically decide whether to innovate in-house or collaborate externally. And when it comes to testing stuff brought in from the outside, Crain employs an old NASA credo: trust but verify.

‘The universe doesn’t care who solved the problem’

“We like to make sure that everyone appreciates that the problem is the problem and it’s not our individual ego,” Crain said. “So, I tell our teams, look, if I come into a meeting and I’ve got a solution to a problem we’re working on, and I put that solution on the table, I expect everyone with integrity and respect to pull that apart and then help me to reassemble it with their own ideas, so that we have a better solution…. The universe doesn’t care who solved the problem.”

Crain shared an early experience from the company’s lunar program, when a young computer scientist challenged his aerospace-based approach to image processing. “He very gently pulled me aside one day and gave me a complete education on how I should really look at image processing, and that there were more advanced and more proven ways to accomplish what I wanted, but by using a different approach,” Crain said. “And I said, ‘You’ve convinced me; this is great. Go make it so.’ And because of what he implemented, it was a big part of why we successfully landed on the Moon in February.”

Small teams are key, he said. “Once teams get too big, you really move into a zone where you can be effective at process, but you can’t be effective at innovation.” To counter this, Intuitive Machines employs “tiger teams”—small and agile groups designed to tackle specific challenges. “We create a tiger team to solve a problem and then disband it,” Crain explained. This strategy, he said, allows for flexibility, and without bogging down the larger team structure.

‘Nothing ever stays still’

Crain sees Intuitive Machines as playing a big role in the burgeoning space economy, particularly in lunar exploration. “We view ourselves as a space infrastructure company,” he explained. “That includes transportation to the Moon and to the lunar environment, which encompasses surface operations.” Intuitive Machines is seeking to streamline complex spacecraft operations, allowing its clients to focus on specialized tasks like construction and scientific experiments. “Let them be excellent at that,” he said.

Crain said the company’s offerings are continuing to evolve. The Nova C lander, capable of carrying payloads up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) to the Moon, addressed the early market demands in 2018. Back then, he said, there wasn’t a community of people clamoring for commercial delivery of payloads to the Moon. But now, the company is having to scale up in anticipation of future demand, leading Intuitive Machines to plan the Nova D design, capable of transporting 3,300 to 5,510 pounds (1,500 to 2,500 kg).

Related article: The Definitive Guide to SpaceX’s Starship Megarocket

On the topic of the potential impact of SpaceX’s Starship (still under development), Crain offered a pragmatic perspective. “A lot of folks these days are saying, ‘Well, once Starship comes along, you’re going to be able to wave a magic wand and put 100 metric tons anywhere on the surface of the Moon you want.’” Crain says that’s an oversimplification. He argues that the logistics involve more than just increased capacity, likening it to a distribution network that requires careful planning and execution. “I think rather than feeling like our days are numbered with things like Starship going on, I think it’s going to enhance our business model. It will cause us to rethink, ‘Are we packaging things the right shape not just for lunar landing but for lunar orbits?’ We’ll have to rethink that, but you do that in the market anyway. Nothing ever stays still.”

Crain also discussed how his team is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into its aerospace work. The company sees AI as a natural extension that improves efficiency, helping teams sift through the massive amounts of data from missions to spot important anomalies that might otherwise go unnoticed. Crain also mentioned the potential for edge computing and advanced data systems, like orbiting servers around the Moon, to manage and process data on-site. This use of Earthbound tech in space missions is steadily bridging the gap between operations on Earth and those in space, leading to smarter, more tailored approaches to lunar exploration, he said.

Tractors on the Moon

Crain talked about the company’s upcoming Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), comparing it to a versatile farm tractor that can handle various tasks. “Our particular implementation for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle is a lot like a tractor,” he said. The LTV is designed to be adaptable, handling everything from hauling to operating as a mobile platform for a small nuclear power station.

Crain also discussed the need for durable infrastructure on the Moon, with elements capable of enduring the harsh lunar nights. He addressed the critical role of robotics in space, highlighting how robotic systems could assemble and manufacture infrastructure on the Moon before humans arrive. “This is just a logical extension of the current model… Now, it’s about deployment to a certain degree and even [on site] manufacturing,” Crain said, signaling a shift toward more autonomous, preparatory missions in space exploration.

Reflecting on the big picture, Crain took stock of his role at Intuitive Machines and what could happen in the foreseeable future.

“For those who say humans will never live on the Moon because it’s too hard, yes, it is hard right now. But we are chipping away at that challenge,” he said. But the pace at which companies are addressing this challenge is really picking up. “And it’s going to happen within my career, which is fantastic. It’s pretty wild.”

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