Just thought I'd end March by sharing these images of the Blue Ghost mini-brick model that I bought from Firefly Aerospace earlier this month!
As mentioned in this entry from my Human Spaceflight Blog, I planned on ordering the Blue Ghost model online if the actual lander successfully touched down on the Moon over four weeks ago. And successfully touched down Blue Ghost did!
Unlike my LEGO® Artemis 1 rocket and Perseverance Mars rover, as well as my Atom BrickNew Glenn rocket, Blue Ghost was relatively quick to build—as it 'only' consisted of 196 pieces. Just like my Artemis 1 rocket and the Percy rover, Blue Ghost is now kept dust-free inside an acrylic case that I bought online.
I initially bought a 4.2"x4.2"x4.2" glass case from a local Michaels store...but Blue Ghost barely fits inside this display. So I went to Amazon and purchased a 5"x5"x5" case, and the mini-brick lander fits perfectly in that one! (The 4.2"x4.2"x4.2" case now holds a LEGO Boba Fett figure and Grogu figurine, which you can see in the very last photo of this entry.)
Astrobotic has a mini-brick version of its Griffin lunar lander, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than this December. Just like with Blue Ghost, I intend on waiting to see the outcome of Griffin Mission One before I decide to buy something to commemorate Astrobotic's next Moon flight. Happy Monday!
Spying a Spiral Through a Cosmic Lens (News Release - March 27)
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely-shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring.
Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing’) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through space and time is bent as well. This effect is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, such as when the light from one galaxy is bent around another galaxy or galaxy cluster.
When the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full circle (as seen here) or a partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on the precision of the alignment. Objects like these are the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see.
The lensing galaxy at the center of this Einstein ring is an elliptical galaxy, as can be seen from the galaxy’s bright core and smooth, featureless body. This galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster named SMACSJ0028.2-7537. The lensed galaxy wrapped around the elliptical galaxy is a spiral galaxy. Even though its image has been warped as its light travelled around the galaxy in its path, individual star clusters and gas structures are clearly visible.
The Webb data used in this image were taken as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey (programme 5594), which is led by Guillaume Mahler at the University of Liège in Belgium, and consists of a team of international astronomers. This survey aims to trace 8 billion years of galaxy cluster evolution by targeting 182 galaxy clusters with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera instrument. This image also incorporates data from two of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Rocket Lab’s Neutron Rocket On-Ramped to U.S. Space Force’s $5.6b National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Program (Press Release - March 27)
Long Beach, Calif. – Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, has today been selected by the U.S. Space Force to compete for the Department of Defense’s highest-priority national security missions for its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program. The firm-fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract has a five-year ordering period that will run through to June 2029 with a maximum value of $5.6 billion.
Rocket Lab’s launch vehicle for the program will be Neutron, its 13-ton reusable carbon composite medium-lift launch vehicle being rapidly developed to meet the demand for high-assurance national security missions, and for single and multi-satellite constellation deployment. Designed to deploy payloads up to 13,000 kg, Neutron is being brought to the market at an unprecedented development pace on the foundation of Rocket Lab’s industry leadership as one of the world’s most frequent and reliable launch providers, with 63 Electron launches to date and one of only two U.S. launch providers to have launched multiple payloads to orbit so far in 2025. With Neutron’s first launch scheduled for the second half of the year, Rocket Lab met the program’s eligibility requirements to be selected to compete for the NSSL program, and upon a successful flight on Neutron, will be eligible to further compete for individual task orders awarded within the NSSL program.
Neutron’s debut launch from Launch Complex 3 in Wallops Island, Virginia, will be the first launch vehicle to support the NSSL program from the region.
As one of only five launch providers selected for the Department of Defense’s program, eligibility for NSSL Lane 1 includes stringent requirements that aim to develop a diversified, competitive and reliable domestic launch base to provide launch services for its highest-priority national security missions. The program plans to award a minimum of 30 missions within its contracting period through to 2029, with the potential for an extension through to 2034. As part of the on-ramp to the NSSL program, Rocket Lab receives a $5 million task order to perform a capabilities assessment that demonstrates the Company’s tailored approach to mission assurance for launches awarded through the NSSL program.
Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, says: “Supporting assured access to space for the nation’s most important missions has always been the goal with our Neutron rocket, and we’re incredibly proud to be selected by the U.S. Space Force to demonstrate this commitment for the NSSL. Neutron is a powerful new launch option that will set a new standard for performance, affordability and reliability in medium launch, and its selection to the program demonstrates a high degree of confidence by the Department of Defense in Neutron’s capabilities ahead of its first launch later this year. We can’t wait to showcase Neutron as the important platform it will become for the Department of Defense.”
U.S. Space Force (USSF) Certifies United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Missions (Press Release - March 26)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Assured Access to Space organization has announced the certification of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA)Vulcan launch system for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions. ULA is now eligible to launch NSSL missions as one of two certified providers.
“Assured access to space is a core function of the Space Force and a critical element of national security,” said Brig. Gen. Panzenhagen, Program Executive Officer for Assured Access to Space. “Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems.”
NSSL certification is a rigorous process for launch service providers to demonstrate their ability to design, produce and qualify a new launch system that will successfully deliver national security space satellites to orbit.
Vulcan’s certification is the culmination of several years of effort by the Space Force and ULA, which encompassed 52 certification criteria, including more than 180 discrete tasks, 2 certification flight demonstrations, 60 payload interface requirement verifications, 18 subsystem design and test reviews, and 114 hardware and software audits, all to establish the technical baseline from which the Space Force will make future flight worthiness determinations for launch.
“The SSC and ULA teams have worked together extremely closely, and certification of this launch system is a direct result of their focus, dedication and teamwork,” said Panzenhagen.
“We are proud to have launched 100 national security space missions and honored to continue serving the nation with our new Vulcan rocket,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance. “We thank the Space Force for their collaboration and confidence, and we are honored to support our national security needs for many years to come.”
Assured Access to Space executes the U.S. Space Force’s Core Competency of Space Mobility and Logistics. It secures reliable and responsive launch services to deploy the space-based capabilities needed by our Nation's warfighters, intelligence professionals, decision makers, allies and partners. Additionally, it operates and sustains resilient and ready launch and test infrastructure to project on-orbit warfighting capability through all phases of conflict and to expand US economic, technological and scientific leadership.
Further, Assured Access to Space delivers servicing, mobility and logistics capabilities that operate in, from and to the space domain.
Space Systems Command is the U.S. Space Force’s field command responsible for acquiring and delivering resilient warfighting capabilities to protect our nation’s strategic advantage in, from and to space. SSC manages a $15.6 billion space acquisition budget for the DoD and works in partnership with joint forces, industry, government agencies and academic and allied organizations to accelerate innovation and outpace emerging threats. Our actions today are making the world a better space for tomorrow.
NASA’s Webb Telescope Unmasks True Nature of the Cosmic Tornado (News Release - March 24)
Craving an ice cream sundae with a cherry on top? This random alignment of Herbig-Haro 49/50 — a frothy-looking outflow from a nearby protostar — with a multi-hued spiral galaxy may do the trick. This new composite image combining observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) provides a high-resolution view to explore the exquisite details of this bubbling activity.
Herbig-Haro objects are outflows produced by jets launched from a nearby, forming star. The outflows, which can extend for light-years, plow into a denser region of material. This creates shock waves, heating the material to higher temperatures.
The material then cools by emitting light at visible and infrared wavelengths.
When NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope observed it in 2006, scientists nicknamed Herbig-Haro 49/50 (HH 49/50) the “Cosmic Tornado” for its helical appearance, but they were uncertain about the nature of the fuzzy object at the tip of the “tornado.” With its higher imaging resolution, Webb provides a different visual impression of HH 49/50 by revealing fine features of the shocked regions in the outflow, uncovering the fuzzy object to be a distant spiral galaxy, and displaying a sea of distant background galaxies.
HH 49/50 is located in the Chamaeleon I Cloud complex, one of the nearest active star formation regions in our Milky Way, which is creating numerous low-mass stars similar to our Sun. This cloud complex is likely similar to the environment that our Sun formed in. Past observations of this region show that the HH 49/50 outflow is moving away from us at speeds of 60-190 miles per second (100-300 kilometers per second) and is just one feature of a larger outflow.
Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI observations of HH 49/50 trace the location of glowing hydrogen molecules, carbon monoxide molecules, and energized grains of dust, represented in orange and red, as the protostellar jet slams into the region. Webb’s observations probe details on small spatial scales that will help astronomers to model the properties of the jet and understand how it is affecting the surrounding material.
The arc-shaped features in HH 49/50, similar to a water wake created by a speeding boat, point back to the source of this outflow. Based on past observations, scientists suspect that a protostar known as Cederblad 110 IRS4 is a plausible driver of the jet activity. Located roughly 1.5 light-years away from HH 49/50 (off the lower right corner of the image above), CED 110 IRS4 is a Class I protostar.
Class I protostars are young objects (tens of thousands to a million years old) in the prime time of gaining mass. They usually have a discernable disk of material surrounding them that is still falling onto the protostar. Scientists recently used Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI observations to study this protostar and obtain an inventory of the icy composition of its environment.
These detailed Webb images of the arcs in HH 49/50 can more precisely pinpoint the direction to the jet source, but not every arc points back in the same direction. For example, there is an unusual outcrop feature (at the top right of the main outflow) which could be another chance superposition of a different outflow, related to the slow precession of the intermittent jet source. Alternatively, this feature could be a result of the main outflow breaking apart.
The galaxy that appears by happenstance at the tip of HH 49/50 is a much more distant, face-on spiral galaxy. It has a prominent central bulge represented in blue that shows the location of older stars. The bulge also shows hints of “side lobes” suggesting that this could be a barred-spiral galaxy.
Reddish clumps within the spiral arms of this distant galaxy show the locations of warm dust and groups of forming stars. The galaxy even displays evacuated bubbles in these dusty regions, similar to nearby galaxies observed by Webb as part of the PHANGS program.
Webb has captured these two unassociated objects in a lucky alignment. Over thousands of years, the edge of HH 49/50 will move outwards and eventually appear to cover up the distant galaxy.
Herbig-Haro 49/50 is located about 625 light-years from Earth in the constellation Chamaeleon.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars (News Release - March 24)
Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date. The finding, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that prebiotic chemistry may have advanced further on Mars than previously observed.
Scientists probed an existing rock sample inside Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) mini-lab and found the molecules decane, undecane and dodecane. These compounds, which are made up of 10, 11 and 12 carbons, respectively, are thought to be the fragments of fatty acids that were preserved in the sample. Fatty acids are among the organic molecules that on Earth are chemical building blocks of life.
Living things produce fatty acids to help form cell membranes and perform various other functions. But fatty acids can also be made without life, through chemical reactions triggered by various geological processes, including the interaction of water with minerals in hydrothermal vents.
While there’s no way to confirm the source of the molecules identified, finding them at all is exciting for Curiosity’s science team for a couple of reasons.
Curiosity scientists had previously discovered small, simple organic molecules on Mars, but finding these larger compounds provides the first evidence that organic chemistry advanced toward the kind of complexity required for an origin of life on Mars.
The new study also increases the chances that large organic molecules that can only be made in the presence of life, known as “biosignatures,” could be preserved on Mars, allaying concerns that such compounds get destroyed after tens of millions of years of exposure to intense radiation and oxidation.
This finding bodes well for plans to bring samples from Mars to Earth to analyze them with the most sophisticated instruments available here, the scientists say.
“Our study proves that, even today, by analyzing Mars samples we could detect chemical signatures of past life, if it ever existed on Mars,” said Caroline Freissinet, the lead study author and research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Laboratory for Atmospheres and Space Observations in Guyancourt, France.
In 2015, Freissinet co-led a team that, in a first, conclusively identified Martian organic molecules in the same sample that was used for the current study. Nicknamed “Cumberland,” the sample has been analyzed many times with SAM using different techniques.
Curiosity drilled the Cumberland sample in May 2013 from an area in Mars’ Gale Crater called “Yellowknife Bay.” Scientists were so intrigued by Yellowknife Bay, which looked like an ancient lakebed, that they sent the rover there before heading in the opposite direction to its primary destination of Mount Sharp, which rises from the floor of the crater.
The detour was worth it: Cumberland turns out to be jam-packed with tantalizing chemical clues to Gale Crater’s 3.7-billion-year past. Scientists have previously found the sample to be rich in clay minerals, which form in water. It has abundant sulfur, which can help preserve organic molecules.
Cumberland also has lots of nitrates, which on Earth are essential to the health of plants and animals, and methane made with a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes. Perhaps most important, scientists determined that Yellowknife Bay was indeed the site of an ancient lake, providing an environment that could concentrate organic molecules and preserve them in fine-grained sedimentary rock called mudstone.
“There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars,” said Daniel Glavin, senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a study co-author.
The recent organic compounds discovery was a side effect of an unrelated experiment to probe Cumberland for signs of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. After heating the sample twice in SAM’s oven and then measuring the mass of the molecules released, the team saw no evidence of amino acids. But they noticed that the sample released small amounts of decane, undecane and dodecane.
Because these compounds could have broken off from larger molecules during heating, scientists worked backward to figure out what structures they may have come from. They hypothesized that these molecules were remnants of the fatty acids undecanoic acid, dodecanoic acid and tridecanoic acid, respectively.
The scientists tested their prediction in the lab, mixing undecanoic acid into a Mars-like clay and conducting a SAM-like experiment. After being heated, the undecanoic acid released decane, as predicted. The researchers then referenced experiments already published by other scientists to show that the undecane could have broken off from dodecanoic acid and dodecane from tridecanoic acid.
The authors found an additional intriguing detail in their study related to the number of carbon atoms that make up the presumed fatty acids in the sample. The backbone of each fatty acid is a long, straight chain of 11 to 13 carbons, depending on the molecule. Notably, non-biological processes typically make shorter fatty acids, with less than 12 carbons.
It’s possible that the Cumberland sample has longer-chain fatty acids, the scientists say, but SAM is not optimized to detect longer chains.
Scientists say that, ultimately, there’s a limit to how much they can infer from molecule-hunting instruments that can be sent to Mars. “We are ready to take the next big step and bring Mars samples home to our labs to settle the debate about life on Mars,” said Glavin.
Firefly Aerospace Selects Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics to Provide Rover for Lunar Mission to Gruithuisen Domes (Press Release)
Cedar Park, Texas – Firefly Aerospace and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, today announced that Honeybee was contracted by Firefly to provide the lunar rover for the company’s recently-awarded NASA task order to explore the Gruithuisen Domes on the Moon’s near side in 2028. Once deployed on the Moon by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, Honeybee’s rover will carry NASA instruments to investigate the unique composition of the Gruithuisen Domes – a part of the Moon that has never been explored.
“We’re excited to support Firefly’s mission to the Gruithuisen Domes by providing surface mobility, a key capability for lunar permanence,” said Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of In-Space Systems, Blue Origin. “With this rover, Honeybee Robotics builds on its legacy of advanced robotics and hardware designed for exploration throughout our Solar System.”
During mission operations, Firefly’s Elytra Dark transfer vehicle will first deploy the Blue Ghost lander into lunar orbit and then remain on orbit to provide long-haul communications. Blue Ghost will then land in the Gruithuisen Domes, deploy the Honeybee Robotics rover, and support payload operations for approximately 14 days on the lunar surface.
“Firefly is proud to partner with Honeybee Robotics to help us explore the challenging Gruithuisen Domes terrain on our third mission to the Moon,” said Shea Ferring, Chief Technology Officer at Firefly Aerospace. “The Firefly team has worked closely with Honeybee on two payloads – the Lunar PlanetVac and LISTER subsurface drill – that were successfully operated on our first Blue Ghost mission to the Moon. Their stellar team, robust rover solution, and flight-proven technologies made Honeybee the obvious choice!”
As part of Firefly’s third mission to the Moon, Honeybee’s rover will help investigate the subsurface composition of the Gruithuisen Gamma Dome carrying elements of NASA’s Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) suite. Lunar-VISE has multiple instruments, including two cameras attached to Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander that will characterize the landing site and rover traverse as well as an infrared multi-spectral camera system and a spectrometer attached to Honeybee’s rover that will measure gamma ray and neutron emissions.
The rover will travel along the southern edge of the Gruithuisen Gamma Dome and through a boulder field to reach the rim of a recent impact crater. The rover will then traverse back to the lander just before sunset to enable repeat observations of boulder targets at different solar illumination angles.
In total, there are six NASA-sponsored payloads onboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 3 that aim to uncover the composition and fundamental volcanic processes that formed the domes, in addition to other science investigations and technology demonstrations. This mission will follow Firefly’s first mission to the Moon that successfully landed in Mare Crisium and completed 14 days of surface operations in March 2025. Firefly’s second lunar mission is set to launch in 2026 with operations in lunar orbit and on the far side of the Moon.
U.S. Air Force Selects Boeing for Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter Platform (Press Release)
The NGAD fighter selection builds on Boeing's legacy, establishing a new global standard for 6th generation fighter capability
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The U.S. Air Force announced that Boeing [NYSE: BA] has been awarded a contract to design, build and deliver its next-generation fighter aircraft.
The Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform will usher in a new generation of United States fighter jets that brings leap-ahead capability in range, survivability, lethality and adaptability. The NGAD Platform is the central node in the NGAD Family of Systems.
"We recognize the importance of designing, building and delivering a 6th-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force. In preparation for this mission, we made the most significant investment in the history of our defense business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission," said Steve Parker, interim president and chief executive officer, Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
For nearly a century, Boeing has produced many of the most advanced combat aircraft for military customers around the globe including the P-51 Mustang, F-4 Phantom, F-15 Eagle, F/A-18 Hornet and EA-18G Growler, among others. The NGAD selection builds on Boeing's fighter legacy and establishes a new global standard for 6th generation capability.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of multiple gas giant planets within an iconic planetary system. HR 8799, a young system 130 light-years away, has long been a key target for planet formation studies.
The observations indicate that the well-studied planets of HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide gas. This provides strong evidence that the system’s four giant planets formed much like Jupiter and Saturn, by slowly building solid cores that attract gas from within a protoplanetary disk, a process known as core accretion.
The results also confirm that Webb can infer the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres through imaging. This technique complements Webb’s powerful spectroscopic instruments, which can resolve the atmospheric composition.
“By spotting these strong carbon dioxide features, we have shown there is a sizable fraction of heavier elements, like carbon, oxygen and iron, in these planets’ atmospheres,” said William Balmer, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Given what we know about the star they orbit, that likely indicates they formed via core accretion, which is an exciting conclusion for planets that we can directly see.”
Balmer is the lead author of the study announcing the results published today in The Astrophysical Journal. Balmer and their team’s analysis also includes Webb’s observation of a system 97 light-years away called 51 Eridani.
HR 8799 is a young system about 30 million years old, a fraction of our Solar System’s 4.6 billion years. Still hot from their tumultuous formation, the planets within HR 8799 emit large amounts of infrared light that give scientists valuable data on how they formed.
Giant planets can take shape in two ways: by slowly building solid cores with heavier elements that attract gas, just like the giants in our Solar System, or when particles of gas rapidly coalesce into massive objects from a young star’s cooling disk, which is made mostly of the same kind of material as the star. The first process is called core accretion, and the second is called disk instability. Knowing which formation model is more common can give scientists clues to distinguish between the types of planets they find in other systems.
“Our hope with this kind of research is to understand our own Solar System, life, and ourselves in the comparison to other exoplanetary systems, so we can contextualize our existence,” Balmer said. “We want to take pictures of other solar systems and see how they’re similar or different when compared to ours. From there, we can try to get a sense of how weird our Solar System really is—or how normal.”
Of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets discovered, few have been directly imaged, as even giant planets are many thousands of times fainter than their stars. The images of HR 8799 and 51 Eridani were made possible by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) coronagraph, which blocks light from bright stars to reveal otherwise hidden worlds.
This technology allowed the team to look for infrared light emitted by the planets in wavelengths that are absorbed by specific gases. The team found that the four HR 8799 planets contain more heavy elements than previously thought.
The team is paving the way for more detailed observations to determine whether objects that they see orbiting other stars are truly giant planets or objects such as brown dwarfs, which form like stars but don’t accumulate enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion.
“We have other lines of evidence that hint at these four HR 8799 planets forming using this bottom-up approach” said Laurent Pueyo, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who co-led the work. “How common is this for planets we can directly image? We don't know yet, but we're proposing more Webb observations to answer that question.”
“We knew Webb could measure colors of the outer planets in directly-imaged systems,” added Rémi Soummer, director of STScI’s Russell B. Makidon Optics Lab and former lead for Webb coronagraph operations. “We have been waiting for 10 years to confirm that our finely-tuned operations of the telescope would also allow us to access the inner planets. Now the results are in and we can do interesting science with it.”
The NIRCam observations of HR 8799 and 51 Eridani were conducted as part of Guaranteed Time Observations programs 1194 and 1412 respectively.
NASA Science Continues After Firefly’s First Moon Mission Concludes (News Release)
After landing on the Moon with NASA science and technology demonstrations on March 2, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 concluded its mission on March 16. Analysis of data returned to Earth from the NASA instruments continues, benefiting future lunar missions.
As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander delivered 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Mare Crisium basin on the near side of the Moon. During the mission, Blue Ghost captured several images and videos, including imaging a total solar eclipse and a sunset from the surface of the Moon. The mission lasted for about 14 days, or the equivalent of one lunar day, and multiple hours into the lunar night before coming to an end.
“Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 marks the longest surface duration commercial mission on the Moon to date, collecting extraordinary science data that will benefit humanity for decades to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With NASA’s CLPS initiative, American companies are now at the forefront of an emerging lunar economy that lights the way for the agency’s exploration goals on the Moon and beyond.”
All 10 NASA payloads successfully activated, collected data and performed operations on the Moon. Throughout the mission, Blue Ghost transmitted 119 gigabytes of data back to Earth, including 51 gigabytes of science and technology data. In addition, all payloads were afforded additional opportunities to conduct science and gather more data for analysis, including during the eclipse and lunar sunset.
“Operating on the Moon is complex; carrying 10 payloads, more than has ever flown on a CLPS delivery before, makes the mission that much more impressive,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. “Teams are eagerly analyzing their data, and we are extremely excited for the expected scientific findings that will be gained from this mission.”
Among other achievements, many of the NASA instruments performed first-of-their-kind science and technology demonstrations, including:
-- The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity is now the deepest robotic planetary subsurface thermal probe, drilling up to 3 feet and providing a first-of-its kind demonstration of robotic thermal measurements at varying depths.
-- The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite Systems(GNSS) signals, from satellite networks such as GPS and Galileo, for the first time en route to and on the Moon’s surface. The LuGRE payload’s record-breaking success indicates that GNSS signals could complement other navigation methods and be used to support future Artemis missions. It also acts as a steppingstone to future navigation systems on Mars.
-- The Radiation Tolerant Computer successfully operated in transit through Earth’s Van Allen belts, as well as on the lunar surface into the lunar night, verifying solutions to mitigate radiation effects on computers that could make future missions safer for equipment and more cost effective.
-- The Electrodynamic Dust Shield successfully lifted and removed lunar soil, or regolith, from surfaces using electrodynamic forces, demonstrating a promising solution for dust mitigation on future lunar and interplanetary surface operations.
-- The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder successfully deployed five sensors to study the Moon’s interior by measuring electric and magnetic fields. The instrument allows scientists to characterize the interior of the Moon to depths of up to 700 miles, or more than half the distance to the Moon’s center.
-- The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager captured a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding Earth affect the planet.
-- The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector successfully reflected and returned laser light from two Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories, returning measurements that allowed scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, expanding our understanding of the Moon’s inner structure.
-- The Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument captured about 9,000 images during the spacecraft’s lunar descent and touchdown on the Moon, providing insights into the effects that engine plumes have on the surface. The payload also operated during the lunar sunset and into the lunar night.
-- The Lunar PlanetVac was deployed on the lander’s surface access arm and successfully collected, transferred and sorted lunar soil using pressurized nitrogen gas, demonstrating a low-cost, low-mass solution for future robotic sample collection.
-- The Regolith Adherence Characterization instrument examined how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon’s environment, which can help test, improve and protect spacecraft, spacesuits and habitats from abrasive lunar dust or regolith.
The data captured will benefit humanity in many ways, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces may impact Earth. Establishing an improved awareness of the lunar environment ahead of future crewed missions will help plan for long-duration surface operations under Artemis.
To date, five vendors have been awarded 11 lunar deliveries under CLPS and are sending more than 50 instruments to various locations on the Moon, including the lunar South Pole and far side.
Witness the sunset from the Moon - our final gift from #BlueGhost Mission 1! We’re honored to share these breathtaking views of the lunar horizon glow with the world as our mission concludes. The @NASA team is excited to analyze these images further and share more of the… pic.twitter.com/sltowc2ePO
