Update: Wednesday, January 15 at 9:10 a.m. ET.: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience Lander blasted off this morning at 1:11 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Firefly said The signal was received and successfully tested in orbit.It looks like the mission is off to a good start.
The original article follows.
The moon is busy. This week a pair of landers are riding a SpaceX rocket with the goal of landing on the lunar surface and unpacking a number of scientific instruments. Both missions are part of a commercial push into lunar exploration. This marks the beginning of a new era in private spaceflight.
Aerospace Firefly blue ghost Lander and Lander Flexibility of iSpace is Scheduled to launch this Wednesday.January 15 at 1:11 a.m. ET The mission will launch from Launch Complex-39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. NASA will broadcast the launch live on website and NASA+It begins airing at 12:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. You can follow the live feed below.
journey to the moon
Even though the two lander launches at the same time, But the two ships will have different trajectories to the moon. Firefly MissionNamed “Ghost Rider in the Sky,” it will take 45 days to reach the moon. For the first 25 days after launch, the Blue Ghost Lander will orbit Earth before firing up its engines to put it on a path to the moon. Blue Ghost will spend four days en route to the moon and another 16 days orbiting Earth's satellite before attempting a touchdown on the dusty surface.
The Resilience Lander, on the other hand, will follow a much slower path to the moon. After operating in an elliptical transfer orbit The lander will fly past the moon. and transition to a low-energy trajectory for a planned soft landing on the Moon.
Japanese startup's first mission to the moon Launching in April 2023, it took about four and a half months to reach lunar orbit. But in the end The lander also failed to land on the surface, the Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) Lunar Lander, as it was named. fell to the moon and crashed into its surface– The Hakuto-R M1 carries both commercial and government cargo. Including a small two-wheeled transforming robot from the Japanese space agency.
Clear for landing
After the trip to the moon Both landers will target lunar females. It is a dark plain created by an ancient collision. which was later flooded with lava and other materials.
Specifically, Blue Ghost is targeting Mare Crisium, the site of an asteroid impact that was once filled with basalt lava. The basalt in Mare Crisium is between 2.5 and 3.3 billion years old. NASA–
As for the flexibility of iSpace, The lander is set to explore Mare Frigoris, located in the northern region of the moon. Place name means Known as the “Sea of Cold,” it stretches nearly 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) north of the lunar disk.
What's inside the Blue Ghost Lander?
Firefly's first mission to the moon in Texas is in collaboration with NASA as part of the space agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Aimed at developing commercial delivery services to the moon, NASA is working with industry partners to build a lander that can carry a payload of science and technology and deliver it to the lunar surface.
Blue Ghost is carrying 10 scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and collect data to support future human missions to the moon. NASA– Instruments include: LEXI (or Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager), which will capture a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field; Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder, designed to measure electric and magnetic fields to characterize the structure; and the composition of the moon's mantle and the Lunar Plume Surface Study Stereo Camera, which will capture how the lander's plume disrupts lunar dynamics as the Blue Ghost touches down on the lunar surface.
The mission is scheduled to operate on a full moon day. This is equivalent to 14 days on Earth. During this time, Blue Ghost will also capture images of the sun setting on the moon. and collect data on how the lunar regolith reacts to the influence of sunlight during the lunar twilight.
What will iSpace carry on the moon mission?
Tokyo-based iSpace is transporting a private customer's payload to the moon on a spacecraft. Including food production experiments Deep space radiation probe and souvenir alloy plates
The Resilience Lander will also carry a small rover named Tenacious to survey the landing site. Gather regolith on the moon. and send information back to the lander as well iSpace– Tenacious has a high resolution camera and a shovel. A model home by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg will be installed on the rover. which we expected to be for decoration
This release is just the tip of the iceberg. with other countries That is set to follow in the coming months and years. An easy-to-use machine that became First private company to land on the moon In February 2024, it is getting ready to launch its second lunar lander to the moon. The second mission is scheduled to launch sometime in February. and will be aimed at the south polar region of the moon.
Astrobotic which Failed first attempt to land on the moon. In January 2024, hope for good luck this year. The Pittsburgh-based company is planning to launch a lunar lander, Griffin Mission One, in 2025 under NASA's CLPS initiative.
As the private space industry continues to grow Landing spacecraft on the moon is also likely to become a common occurrence. Because various companies Trying to develop a delivery service to the moon What we'll see this week is just the beginning.
Additional reporting by George Dvorsky.