Firefly Aerospace wraps up profitable Blue Ghost 1 mission

WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace says that its Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander mission has ended as anticipated, finishing all its goals.

Operations of Blue Ghost 1 ended with a ultimate transmission round 7:15 p.m. Japanese March 16, after 346 hours — practically 14 and a half days — of operations in daylight and a further 5 hours after the solar set at its Mare Crisium touchdown website.

The spacecraft returned greater than 119 gigabytes of knowledge, together with 51 gigabytes of science and expertise information from its 10 NASA-sponsored payloads. The corporate mentioned that the lander met 100% of its mission goals.

“We’re extremely pleased with the demonstrations Blue Ghost enabled from monitoring GPS alerts on the moon for the primary time to robotically drilling deeper into the lunar floor than ever earlier than,” Jason Kim, chief government of Firefly, mentioned in a March 17 assertion concerning the finish of the mission.

These payloads additionally embody cameras to observe of plume of fabric kicked up by the spacecraft’s engines because it landed on the moon. Different payloads examined the feasibility of an electrodynamic mud protect to take away regolith from spacecraft surfaces and a system that makes use of nitrogen fuel to gather regolith samples.

The lander was capable of observe a March 14 eclipse a bonus goal, seeing the solar eclipsed by the Earth, making a vivid ring as daylight handed by way of the Earth’s ambiance. The observations after sundown have been supposed to characterize the mud setting, together with on the lookout for any proof of mud levitation.

Firefly reported no main points with Blue Ghost since its March 2 touchdown. Lander operations have been curtailed through the center of the lunar day, one thing the corporate deliberate to compensate for the warmth throughout that point.

Firefly had a $101.5 million process order from NASA’s Business Lunar Payload Companies (CLPS) program to fly the payloads on Blue Ghost 1. Company officers had already praised the success of the mission as proof CLPS is working as supposed after three different landers both did not make it to the moon or suffered arduous landings that restricted their exercise.

“So general, it’s been a wonderful, fantastic proof constructive that the CLPS mannequin does work,” Brad Bailey, assistant deputy affiliate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, mentioned throughout a NASA city corridor assembly on the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Convention March 10.

The success of Blue Ghost 1 stands out because it was the corporate’s first try to land on the moon. “This crew continues to make near-impossible achievements look simple, however there is no such thing as a such factor as a straightforward moon touchdown, particularly in your first try,” Will Coogan, Blue Ghost chief engineer at Firefly, mentioned within the firm assertion. “We battle examined each system on the lander and simulated each mission situation we might consider to get thus far.”

He additionally praised the crew who labored on the mission. “Our crew could look youthful and fewer skilled than these of many countries and firms that tried moon landings earlier than us, however the help we now have for each other is what fuels the arduous work and dedication to discovering each answer that made this mission a hit.”

Firefly has two extra lunar lander missions beneath contract by way of NASA’s CLPS program. Blue Ghost 2, scheduled for launch subsequent 12 months, will try a touchdown on the lunar farside, delivering payloads for lunar seismology and for cosmology. It’s going to additionally deploy ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder communications satellite tv for pc in orbit, whereas the corporate’s personal Elytra Darkish spacecraft serves as a communications relay in orbit.

Blue Ghost 3, scheduled for launch in 2028, will return to the close to facet of the moon, carrying astrophysical and lunar science payloads that embody a small rover.

Associated