On the morning of March 3, on an enormous basin in the northeastern part of the moon’s near side, a spacecraft made its descent. Named after a rare species of fireflies and standing at 6.6 ft tall and 11.5 ft wide, this machine was none other than the Blue Ghost – a commercial spacecraft carrying various NASA experiments.
The recent launch occurred as a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative, a program where private companies are contracted to send robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Blue Ghost marks their most recent and successful launch, delivering the most science data to date for the CLPS Initiative.
On board were a variety of tools for experiments and data collection. Some of which included instruments for measuring heat flow, collecting samples, taking images, capturing lunar dust, executing tests, and more.
Alongside NASA, the mission was co-led by Firefly Aerospace, a texas-based space exploration company. Shea Ferring, Chief Technology Officer at Firefly Aerospace, has stated that “CLPS has played a key role in Firefly’s evolution from a rocket company to a provider of launch, lunar, and on-orbit services from LEO to cislunar and beyond.”
Throughout the whole 45-day journey to the moon, Blue Ghost traveled for nearly 3 million miles. The spacecraft was able to do this thanks to its design specifically made to ensure stability, equipped with shock-absorbing feet, a low center of mass, and a wide footprint. The spacecraft is also equipped with an X-ban antenna, which has the ability to beam data and video down from the moon. In fact, so far, it has downlinked about 57 GB of data.
Additionally, Blue Ghost’s four feet were equipped with sensors designed to release an alert once they had touched down on the surface of the moon. However, upon landing, only three legs delivered confirmation. Ray Allensworth, the program director, told CNN that he was unsure of the reason for this shortcoming. “I’m not 100% sure what happened on the fourth one,” Allensworth said. “There’s also a good chance that the software just ignored — threw the data out — from that sensor because maybe it tripped early. I’m not 100% sure.”
Luckily, this little malfunction was not an accurate foresight for the rest of the mission as Blue Ghost was able to remain upright and continue functioning without any hiccups. Thus far, many of the payloads have begun their functions, and will continue to do so for the remainder of its mission, which will roughly be about two weeks. And what happens after that? Well, the Blue Ghost will remain on the moon’s surface indefinitely after the end of its operations. The Blue Ghost landing is an exciting and promising achievement. As Nicky Fox – the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington – puts it, “The science and technology we send to the Moon now helps prepare the way for future NASA exploration and long-term human presence to inspire the world for generations to come.”
Written by Saanvika Gandhari
