Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lands on the Moon

by Benjamin Kirschbaum

In a groundbreaking accomplishment for private space travel, FireFly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed on the Moon, making it the first lander ever created by a private company to touch down on the lunar surface. The unmanned module finally landed in the Mare Crisium region on March 2nd, at 12:34 a.m. PST, after traveling through space aboard a SpaceX rocket for 3 days and orbiting the Moon for another 42. The mission was designed to gather new information about the surface of the moon which will help NASA’s long-term goal to establish a permanent human settlement on the Moon.

To accomplish its goal, the lander was equipped with an assortment of scientific instruments never before used on the Moon. One of these tools is a Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), which records interactions between Earth’s magnetic field and solar winds produced from the Sun, which would help scientists better understand and predict the weather on the Moon and planets besides our own. Additionally, the lander had a Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration (LISTER), which was used to drill deep into the Moon’s surface and measure how heat flows within the mantle. The lander also conducted a Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) experiment, which measures how much lunar dust clings to different materials. Finding a material that repels lunar dust would be a great accomplishment, as currently lunar dust quickly gets into and jams any equipment sent to the Moon. These experiments, along with various others, provided an extensive quantity of data that scientists believe will help future lunar exploration efforts, especially NASA’s Artemis Mission, which is aimed at establishing a permanent lunar base.

An image captured of the surface of the Moon during the lander’s descent. The picture shows the thermal insulation and landing gear moments before a successful touchdown near the lunar South Pole.

After successfully completing its objectives and collecting mountains of data, the lander powered down on the lunar surface, marking the end of its journey. On March 16th, the temperature dropped to -250° F during the lunar night, preventing the lander from using its solar panels to charge and draining its battery. Five hours later, the lander stopped sending communications back to Earth, confirming that it had officially shut down.

A view of the dark and light sides of the Moon from the camera onboard the lander

Even though its mission was short, it provided a massive step forward in proving that private companies can compete alongside NASA. After SpaceX’s reusable rockets reduced the cost of space travel significantly, FireFly Aerospace showed that private space exploration companies aren’t just limited to Earth’s atmosphere. As FireFly Aerospace CEO Bill Weber stated in a press interview, “Our second lunar mission is something we’re celebrating as a FireFly team, as a NASA commercial provider, and most importantly, as an all-American company committed to making space exploration an achievable dream for everyone.” As technology advances and the costs decrease, FireFly’s triumph proves that the planets are no longer out of reach for anyone with the vision to pursue them.

Learn more here: https://fireflyspace.com/