Blue Ghost Continues its Lunar Science
Lander has Reached the Halfway Point of its One-Lunar-Day Mission
The Blue Ghost lander Firefly Aerospace placed on the surface of the Moon has reached the halfway point of its one-lunar-day ... or 14 Earth day ... mission.
“Our targeted landing site near the lunar South Pole is one of the most scientifically interesting, and geographically challenging locations, on the Moon.”
Nicky Fox, NASA
Over the weekend, the lander experienced the highest temperatures, up to 250°F (121°C), in the two-week cycle, or lunar noon. In preparation, Blue Ghost has begun planned power cycling to keep the lander as cool as possible. With eight payloads’ objectives already complete, the plan is to continue operating the two remaining payloads throughout these power cycles and gradually get back to full power once the surface temperatures start to cool down again.
Shortly after landing, Blue Ghost deployed four tethered Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) electrodes to the surface and an 8-foot mast above our top deck. Look closely in the video below! These instruments will allow NASA and the Southwest Research Institute to study the deep interior of the Moon – up to two-thirds the distance to the Moon’s center – to learn more about the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle.
Overall, eight out of 10 NASA payloads, including LPV, EDS, NGLR, RAC, RadPC, LuGRE, LISTER, and SCALPSS, have already met their mission objectives with more to come. Lunar PlanetVac for example successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar soil from the Moon using pressurized nitrogen gas.
Meanwhile, following the less-successful touchdown of the Intuitive Machines IM-2 Athena lander, NASA reported that Intuitive Machines collected some data for the agency before calling an early end of mission at 12:15 a.m. CST Friday.
As part of the company’s second Moon delivery for NASA under the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, the IM-2 mission included a drill to bring lunar soil to the surface and a mass spectrometer to look for the presence of volatiles, or gases, that could one day help provide fuel or breathable oxygen to future Artemis explorers.
Planned to land at Mons Mouton, IM-2 touched down at approximately 11:30 a.m. March 6, more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended landing site. Intuitive Machines said images collected later confirmed the lander was on its side, preventing it from fully operating the drill and other instruments before its batteries were depleted.
The IM-2 mission landed closer to the lunar South Pole than any previous lander.
“Our targeted landing site near the lunar South Pole is one of the most scientifically interesting, and geographically challenging locations, on the Moon,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow, and we will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development as we get ready for human exploration of Mars.”
The Nova-C lander captured and transmitted images of the landing site before activating the technology and science instruments. Among the data collected, NASA’s PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1) suite, which includes the lunar drill known as TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain), successfully demonstrated the hardware’s full range of motion in the harsh environment of space. The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) as part of the PRIME-1 suite of instruments, detected elements likely due to the gases emitted from the lander’s propulsion system.
“While this mission didn’t achieve all of its objectives for NASA, the work that went into the payload development is already informing other agency and commercial efforts,” said Clayton Turner, associate administrator for space technology, NASA Headquarters. “As we continue developing new technologies to support exploration of the Moon and Mars, testing technologies in-situ is crucial to informing future missions. The CLPS initiative remains an instrumental method for achieving this.”