The Blue Ghost automatic space station has made a soft landing on the surface of the Moon. Thanks to this, the American Firefly Aerospace, which is the developer of this device, became the second private company in history (after Intuitive Machines) to achieve such a success.
Image source: Firefly Aerospace
The Blue Ghost spacecraft, about 2 meters tall, landed on the visible side of the Moon today at 03:34 Eastern Time (11:34 Moscow time). The spacecraft was launched into space on January 15, using the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
Firefly CEO Jason Kim said Blue Ghost was “stable and upright” after landing. “Every component worked like clockwork, even after landing. We had moon dust on our boots,” Kim added.
Image source: CNN/NASA
Each of Blue Ghost’s four legs is equipped with sensors that should have been triggered immediately upon contact with the satellite’s surface. During the broadcast of the landing process, it was clear that confirmation of contact with the lunar soil came from only three legs. The company believes that this could have happened due to a software failure, noting that the device landed vertically, as planned.
The lander landed near Mount Latreille in Mare Crisium, a huge lunar crater 550 km wide. Firefly chose this landing site because “it would avoid magnetic anomalies” that could affect the lander’s operation. Just 40 minutes after landing, Blue Ghost transmitted the first image of the lunar surface to Earth.
Image source: Firefly Aerospace
The device landed at a time when the lunar day in this region is just beginning, which will last approximately 14 Earth days. This is how long Blue Ghost should conduct research activities, since it will be able to collect enough sunlight to provide energy for its internal systems. The device has 10 scientific instruments, some of which began collecting data during the flight to the Moon. One of them is a device with which it is planned to test the possibility of using GPS satellite communications in orbit and on the surface of our planet’s satellite.
Blue Ghost also promises to provide some interesting images from the surface of our natural satellite. On March 14, Firefly Aerospace hopes to capture a total eclipse, when the Earth blocks the light from the Sun. And on March 16, the final day of the mission, the company wants to capture a lunar sunset.