A private mission to the moon will launch next month to pave the way for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.
Ghost Riders in the Sky – the mission name chosen by US start-up Firefly Aerospace – will target a landing in the Sea of Crisis, a dark patch the size of Britain on the near-side of the moon.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander will carry 10 scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the surface as part of NASA’s partnership with commercial operators.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander. Pic: Firefly Aerospace
Jason Kim, chief executive officer of Firefly Aerospace, said the space agency had paid a fixed price of $101m (£80m) for the mission, a low cost only achievable with technology innovation.
“We believe in a future of a very robust lunar economy,” he said.
“It is the gateway to other planets, like Mars. And so enabling the frequency of very affordable and high science-value missions is what private industry is doing with this first Blue Ghost mission.”
The spacecraft, which is the size of a large shed, will launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in mid-January, or soon after, and take 45 days to reach the moon.
It’ll land autonomously on shock-absorbing feet and short legs to reduce the risk of it toppling over, a fate suffered by Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C spacecraft in the south pole region of the moon last February.
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The Nova-C spacecraft toppled over. Pic: Intuitive Machines
Mission will study lunar dust
Several of its technology demonstrations are for dealing with regolith, or lunar dust.
A ‘PlanetVac’ will vacuum up and analyse lunar samples and an electromagnetic dust shield will be tested to see if it can protect delicate instruments.
Ryan Watkins, a NASA programme scientist, said: “The moon is quite a dusty area. As we design technologies for the lunar surface, regolith needs to be better understood.
“Lunar dust can affect mechanical components and human health, so we need to know how to account for its effects.”
Recording a lunar sunset in high-definition
Blue Ghost will remain operational on the surface for 14 days.
One of its final tasks will be to record high-definition video of a lunar sunset.
It should provide the first quality imagery of the lunar glow, a phenomenon caused by dust particles floating several centimetres above the surface.
Mr Kim said the video would be a fitting tribute to the last man to walk on the moon, who sketched what he saw in the fading light.
“We expect to capture a phenomenon seen and documented by Eugene Cernan during his final steps of Apollo 17, where he observed a glow as the lunar dust levitated on the lunar surface,” he said.
