Blue Ghost took a photo of his shadow on the lunar surface, with the earth in the sky above
Firefly Aerospace
A Texan company reached the second commercial landing on the moon – and the first which did not overthrow on the touch. Success comes in the middle of a vague private and state lunar exploration.
Firefly Aerospace blue ghost Launched on January 15 at the top of a SpaceX rocket and spent 45 days to move for the moon. He landed on March 2 at 8:34 GMT, settling in a place in CrimiumA smooth basin formed by volcanic eruptions three billion years ago.
Blue Ghost used propellants to slow down from an orbital speed of 1.7 kilometers per second to only 1 meter per second, then landed on the legs absorbing the shocks less than 100 meters from its target. Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly, said to cnn That the short stature of craftsmanship was the key to a safe landing: “It is a successful design, and you look at the past conceptions and the past conceptions that have succeeded, they seem very similar – short and squatty.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSGZZTVPAO
Blue Ghost measures approximately 2 meters high, 3.5 meters wide and transports 10 scientific instruments as part of the NASA lunar payload sales program which uses the private sector to carry out a range of experiences before the planned crew missions.
These include the Lunar Planetvac, which uses compressed gas explosions to stir and take samples of moon dust, tests on IT flea hardened by radiation And the experience of the Lunar GNSS receiver, which collects the signals of GPS and constellations of GPS and Galileo navigation satellites orbiting around the earth in order to provide location and synchronization data on the Moon.
The Lander will operate for a lunar day – about 14 days from the earth – before falling into darkness and closing around March 16. THE Icy lunar night The end of the mission will probably be, although other moor has already survived the difficult conditions.
In February of last year, intuitive machines based in Texas A landed its Ulysse spaceship on the moonThis makes it the first private enterprise to achieve a feat previously only accomplished by national space agencies. Ulysses switched to the side During landing, but still managed to perform well.
A host of lunar missions is underway or in planning. The Blue Ghost launch rocket was also another commercial moon mission, Ispace resilience, which aims to approach in April. Around a dozen moor should reach the moon in 2025 only.
