Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost, or simply Blue Ghost, is a class of lunar landers designed and manufactured by Firefly Aerospace (Firefly). Firefly plans to operate Blue Ghost landers to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. The first Blue Ghost mission is scheduled for launch in January 2025.[2][3][4]
Overview
Firefly is the prime contractor for lunar delivery services using Blue Ghost landers. Firefly provides or sub-contracts Blue Ghost payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the Moon and mission operations. Firefly's Cedar Park facility will serve as the company's mission operations center and the location of payload integration, with Rocket Lab serving as the backup mission operations center.
Blue Ghost has four landing legs, communications, heating and solar power systems, and features multiple layers of insulation. The Blue Ghost solar panels, from subcontractor SolAero By Rocket Lab, provide a maximum of 650 W of power. ASI by Rocket Lab provides flight, ground and GN&C software, trajectory design, orbit determination, and software testbed integration. Firefly asserts that in house end to end manufacturing and testing of the Blue Ghost structure is a differentiator among the CLPS landers.[5][6]
NASA awarded Firefly the first Blue Ghost lunar delivery task order in February, 2021 as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Missions
Blue Ghost M1
On February 4, 2021, NASA awarded Firefly a contract worth US$93.3 million to deliver a suite of ten science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The award is part of the CLPS initiative, in which NASA is securing the service of commercial partners to quickly land science and technology payloads on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
The mission is planned to land at Mare Crisium, a 500 km (310 mi) wide basin visible from Earth. Instruments will gather data to provide insight into the Moon's regolith – loose, fragmented rock and soil – properties, geophysical characteristics, and the interaction of solar wind and Earth's magnetic field,[7] helping to prepare for human missions to the lunar surface. On May 20, 2021, Firefly selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 as the launch vehicle for the first mission, as its own Alpha rocket does not have the performance or payload volume needed to launch Blue Ghost.[8] Firefly's future Beta launch vehicle is expected to support future Blue Ghost missions.[9]
Timeline
On April 26, 2022, Firefly announced the completion of the Integration Readiness Review (IRR) for the first Blue Ghost lander, M1, with the launch now expected to occur in 2024.[10]
In November 2023 Firefly provided a more precise time window for the mission, occurring between the third and the fourth quarters of 2024.
In May 2024, the first engines for Blue Ghost were completed.[11]
In June 2024, the company announced the engines were integrated and the lander would soon be scheduled for launch.[12]
In July 2024, the company reiterated a Q4 2024 launch.[13]
Pre launch environmental testing began in August at JPL.[14]
In November 2024, the company announced that Blue Ghost was ready for launch, and would launch in mid-January 2025.[15]
Payloads
The payloads, collectively expected to total 94 kg (207 lb) in mass, include:[7]
The Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC), which will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon's environment during landing and lander operations. Components will be derived from the MISSE-FF facility currently on the International Space Station (ISS).
The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors (NGLR), which will serve as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the Moon. The retroreflector that will fly on this mission also will provide data that could be used to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and address fundamental physics questions.
The Reconfigurable, Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC), which aims to demonstrate a radiation-tolerant computing technology. Due to the Moon's lack of atmosphere and magnetic field, radiation from the Sun will be a challenge for electronics. This investigation also will characterize the radiation effects on the lunar surface.
The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), which is designed to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon's mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields. The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.
The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), which is designed to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon. The probe will attempt to drill 2.13–3.05 m (7 ft 0 in – 10 ft 0 in) into the lunar regolith to investigate the Moon's thermal properties at different depths.
The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), which is designed to acquire lunar regolith from the surface and transfer it to other instruments that would analyze the material or put it in a container that another spacecraft could return to Earth.
Stereo CAmeras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS 1.1), which will capture video and still images of the area under the lander from when the engine plume first disturbs the lunar surface through engine shutdown. Long-focal-length cameras will determine the pre-landing surface topography. Photogrammetry will be used to reconstruct the changing surface during landing. Understanding the physics of rocket exhaust on the regolith, and the displacement of dust, gravel, and rocks is critical to understanding how to best avoid kicking up surface materials during the terminal phase of flight/landing on the Moon and other celestial bodies.
The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), which will generate a non-uniform electric field using varying high voltage on multiple electrodes. This traveling field, in turn, carries away the particles and has potential applications in thermal radiators, spacesuit fabrics, visors, camera lenses, solar panels, and many other technologies.
The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), which is based on GPS. LuGRE will continue to extend the reach of GPS signals and, if successful, be the first to discern GPS signals at lunar distances.
Blue Ghost M2
The second Blue Ghost lander is scheduled for launch in 2026.[16]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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