Blue Ghost to launch to the moon in January

Firefly Aerospace plans to launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander in mid-January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will take 10 NASA science payloads to the moon. Image via Firefly Aerospace.

Blue Ghost to launch to the moon

Firefly Aerospace is a private company near Austin, Texas, that NASA contracted to take science payloads to the moon. Its Blue Ghost mission is scheduled to launch sometime in January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This will be the first mission to the moon for the Blue Ghost lunar lander, and the company has dubbed mission number one Ghost Riders in the Sky. The lander is aiming for Mare Crisium, a dark plain you can see with the unaided eye on the right edge of a full moon.

Firefly Aerospace named the mission Blue Ghost after a type of rare firefly in the southeastern U.S. that has a unique blue glow.

2025 EarthSky lunar calendar is available. A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar with phases of the moon for every night of the year. Get yours today!

How will Blue Ghost get to the moon?

Firefly expects Blue Ghost will launch from Kennedy Space Center in mid-January during a 6-day window. The mission will spend about 45 days getting to the moon. For the first 25 days, Blue Ghost will orbit Earth. Then it will head toward the moon, which should take approximately four days. It will then orbit the moon for 16 days. During transit, it will perform health checks and begin some of its science experiments. The lander will then reach the surface, where it will operate for 14 days.

Remember that on the moon, it takes 14 Earth days to go from sunrise to sunset. And then another 14 Earth days from sunset to sunrise. So when night descends on the lander, Firefly expects it to operate for the first five-plus hours of darkness before its solar-powered batteries run out.

View larger. | Here’s the route Blue Ghost will take as it heads toward its lunar landing. Image via Firefly Aerospace.

Science payloads

NASA will have 10 science payloads onboard Blue Ghost. Some of the tasks Blue Ghost has on the lunar surface will be to take soil samples, drill below the surface and capture images of the lunar sunset. NASA will also be testing a computer designed to withstand high doses of radiation, measuring the solar wind’s interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere and analyzing the pesky lunar dust that adheres to everything, among other activities.

NASA wants to learn more about the lunar environment before the Artemis astronauts make their first landing on the moon. That mission, Artemis 3, is currently scheduled for 2027.

Bottom line: Firefly Aerospace plans to launch Blue Ghost to the moon in mid-January. The mission will land on the moon and conduct science experiments for NASA before powering down when the long lunar night arrives.

Read about the first private company to land on the moon – Intuitive Machines – with its Odysseus spacecraft on February 22, 2024

The post Blue Ghost to launch to the moon in January first appeared on EarthSky.

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Firefly Aerospace plans to launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander in mid-January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will take 10 NASA science payloads to the moon. Image via Firefly Aerospace.

Blue Ghost to launch to the moon

Firefly Aerospace is a private company near Austin, Texas, that NASA contracted to take science payloads to the moon. Its Blue Ghost mission is scheduled to launch sometime in January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This will be the first mission to the moon for the Blue Ghost lunar lander, and the company has dubbed mission number one Ghost Riders in the Sky. The lander is aiming for Mare Crisium, a dark plain you can see with the unaided eye on the right edge of a full moon.

Firefly Aerospace named the mission Blue Ghost after a type of rare firefly in the southeastern U.S. that has a unique blue glow.

2025 EarthSky lunar calendar is available. A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar with phases of the moon for every night of the year. Get yours today!

How will Blue Ghost get to the moon?

Firefly expects Blue Ghost will launch from Kennedy Space Center in mid-January during a 6-day window. The mission will spend about 45 days getting to the moon. For the first 25 days, Blue Ghost will orbit Earth. Then it will head toward the moon, which should take approximately four days. It will then orbit the moon for 16 days. During transit, it will perform health checks and begin some of its science experiments. The lander will then reach the surface, where it will operate for 14 days.

Remember that on the moon, it takes 14 Earth days to go from sunrise to sunset. And then another 14 Earth days from sunset to sunrise. So when night descends on the lander, Firefly expects it to operate for the first five-plus hours of darkness before its solar-powered batteries run out.

View larger. | Here’s the route Blue Ghost will take as it heads toward its lunar landing. Image via Firefly Aerospace.

Science payloads

NASA will have 10 science payloads onboard Blue Ghost. Some of the tasks Blue Ghost has on the lunar surface will be to take soil samples, drill below the surface and capture images of the lunar sunset. NASA will also be testing a computer designed to withstand high doses of radiation, measuring the solar wind’s interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere and analyzing the pesky lunar dust that adheres to everything, among other activities.

NASA wants to learn more about the lunar environment before the Artemis astronauts make their first landing on the moon. That mission, Artemis 3, is currently scheduled for 2027.

Bottom line: Firefly Aerospace plans to launch Blue Ghost to the moon in mid-January. The mission will land on the moon and conduct science experiments for NASA before powering down when the long lunar night arrives.

Read about the first private company to land on the moon – Intuitive Machines – with its Odysseus spacecraft on February 22, 2024

The post Blue Ghost to launch to the moon in January first appeared on EarthSky.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/pIEUixF