NASA is gearing up to fly more science to the surface of the Moon with its next commercial mission on a Firefly Aerospace lunar lander.
Firefly Aerospace is among NASA’s selected U.S. companies for its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Under this program, the space agency sends its payloads to the Moon via private robotic missions to prepare for the next human Moon landing in 2027. Firefly has named its first CLPS mission Ghost Riders in the Sky.
The lander Blue Ghost was shipped from Firefly Aerospace’s headquarters outside of Austin, Texas, to Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week, where it awaits liftoff. Firefly Aerospace and its launch provider, SpaceX, are targeting a six-day launch window that opens in mid-January.
Unlike the previous two CLPS missions from Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, Firefly is only flying NASA payloads instead of also offering space to commercial and marketing companies. All 10 payloads are for the U.S. space agency.
What does NASA hope to achieve with Blue Ghost?
After launch and 45 days of spaceflight, Blue Ghost will attempt to land on the far side of the Moon near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium. The region was the site of three Soviet-era robotic Moon landings in the 1970s.
NASA Program Scientist Ryan Watkins said the landing site was chosen because of the data the agency hopes to collect about the Moon and future landings there. The payloads flying on Blue Ghost 1 include instruments to study the Moon’s dust, its geophysical characteristics and the interaction of space weather.
“This particular landing site was chosen because it avoids large magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface that could disrupt some of our payloads measurements. It’s also believed to have limited rocks in abundance, which will allow for safe operations with our onboard drill,” Watkins said. “In addition, this volcanic feature will serve as a good landmark for our terrain relative navigation capabilities onboard the spacecraft, and also payloads on Firefly.“
Among the concerns for upcoming human missions to the Moon is lunar dust, known as regolith. These tiny and sharp particles can stick to everything and everyone.
Several payloads on Blue Ghost will study how the lunar dust sticks to different materials and investigate how electromagnetism could prevent dust buildup. A set of cameras on the lander will capture the moment the robotic mission touches down to help engineers understand the lunar dust plume created.
“As we design technologies and experiments for the lunar surface, regolith needs to be better understood and accounted for,” Watkins said. “Lunar dust can affect mechanical components, Earth-based material degradation and human health.”
Other payloads will use X-ray imagery to study Earth’s magnetosphere from the Moon.
“We can use this data to inform decisions on Earth about things like weather predictions, protecting GPS and satellite connectivity,” Watkins said.
Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim said the mission will operate for 14 days on the lunar surface. Blue Ghost will be collecting payload science data the entire time.
At the end of operations, Kim said the lander will capture a celestial site last documented by Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan.
“We’ll then wrap up the mission by capturing a solar eclipse and a lunar sunset in high definition video, before operating for several hours into the lunar night,” Kim said, adding they “expect to capture a phenomenon seen and documented by Eugene Cernan during his final steps on Apollo 17, where he observed a horizon glow as the lunar dust levitated on the surface.”
The Ghost Riders in the Sky mission is expected to last 60 days from launch until the end of operations on the Moon.
