Blue Ghost Lander: Firefly’s Exciting Moon Landing Attempt on the Horizon!

A fleet of lunar landers from private companies is on its way to the moon. This effort aims to set the stage for astronauts to return to the lunar surface in the near future.

First in line is Firefly Aerospace from Texas. Their Blue Ghost lunar lander is set to land on the moon’s near side Sunday at 2:34 a.m. CT. It’s about 6.6 feet tall—a compact design for such an ambitious mission.

However, success is not a sure thing. In February 2023, Intuitive Machines made history by being the first private company to land a vehicle on the moon. But overall, around half of all lunar landing missions have faced difficulties.

Firefly’s CEO, Jason Kim, expressed confidence in the Blue Ghost, highlighting the experience of their team in building rockets. They’ve designed their own thrusters, which is expected to minimize risk for this mission.

The engines are critical. Without a thick atmosphere, Blue Ghost needs to slow down significantly as it approaches the moon. The lander is also equipped with advanced navigation and control systems to help it safely navigate the moon’s rugged terrain.

If all goes according to plan, viewers can expect an exciting landing event. The lander is fitted with sensors that will quickly relay whether the landing succeeded.

“We’ll have data broadcast back to our team within minutes,” Kim stated. The first images from the lander are expected to arrive about half an hour after it touches down.

The chosen landing site is near Mons Latreille, an old volcanic formation near the moon’s equator. This location was selected to avoid large magnetic anomalies that could interfere with the lander’s measurements.

Blue Ghost is packed with 10 scientific instruments and tech demonstrations from NASA. Some of these devices began their work even before the lander reached the moon, covering the impressive 239,000-mile distance from Earth.

Among its equipment are a GPS testing device, a soil-sucking vacuum, and a telescope meant to observe the Earth’s magnetosphere and its response to space weather.

During its two weeks on the moon, Blue Ghost will capture stunning images, including a rare eclipse where Earth will block sunlight for about five hours. It will also document the lunar horizon glow, a phenomenon seen by only a few astronauts over 50 years ago.

Firefly will also gather data during the harsh lunar night, when temperatures can plummet to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit. This is usually a tough challenge for lunar landers, but NASA has extended Firefly’s contract to help them prepare Blue Ghost for these extreme conditions.

Blue Ghost is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which encourages private companies to create lunar landers. The ultimate goal is to support astronaut missions to the moon for the first time in half a century under NASA’s Artemis program.

There are currently 14 companies eligible for CLPS contracts. So far, only Intuitive Machines has successfully soft-landed on the moon, while Astrobotic’s first attempt failed due to propulsion issues.

Blue Ghost is moving to the moon just as two other private landers are nearing their destinations. Intuitive Machines is en route to the moon’s south pole, and Ispace, a Japanese company, also aims for a landing this spring after a previous attempt didn’t go as planned.