The Blue Ghost mission, the first commercial wing of Firefly Aerospace, operated on the moon for over 14 days: a lesson for the future.
On March 2, the first Blue Ghost 1 commercial mission of Firefly Aerospace successfully landed on the moon in the expected area of Mare Crisium. Placing itself permanently on its four legs, the Lander filed ten scientific and technological tools as part of the Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program of the NASA. Blue Ghost operated on the lunar surface for over 14 days – 346 hours of light – and resisted for further five hours in the freezing lunar night.
«I should have worn a heart rate monitor on the day of the landing. My heart beat the impazzate, but I had full confidence in the team, “said Jason Kim, Firefly CEO, during the 40th space symposium held recently at the Broadmor Space Foundation.
All engine. The journey to the Moon requested seven ignitions of the main engines, developed internally by the company, which worked with absolute precision. A decisive factor for landing was the management of the “variable center of gravity“Of the vehicle, thanks to an intelligent design: four propellant tanks arranged side by side.« This balance made the difference“, Explained Kim.
By “variable center of gravity” we mean the continuous change of the internal balance of the spacecraft due to the consumption of fuel and the design of Blue Ghost has aimed everything to keep it as predictable and stable as possible, For a safe landing. In support of the success of the company, they were carried out 500 hours of testing In different simulations also to create a completely autonomous landing, without interruptions of communication or critical delays. “Everything has been managed independently in the last hour: it is what made the mission a success,” explained Kim. Convinced supporter of autonomy, Kim has announced that all future Firefly space vehicles will be equipped with this advanced capacity.
The first discoveries. After landing, Blue Ghost started working immediately. Two useful loads in particular have distinguished themselves for their discoveries. The first was The Lister drilldeveloped by Texas Tech University in collaboration with Honeybee Robotics (a Blue Origin company), designed for probe the lunar subsoil.
The second Lunar planetvacwho collected, Transferred and separated lunar regolite using pressurized nitrogen gasesoffering an economic and light solution for the collection of samples. The Lister drill, although not reaching the 3 meters expected, dug up to 90 centimeters and this is because it met extremely hard strokes of rocks.
Lunar temperature. Another unexpected revelation was the lunar temperature.
Nobody had ever operated on the lunar surface at noon, discovering that The heat was higher than the forecasts: It started before, lasted longer and showed extreme oscillations. To complicate things, the Lander had settled near a huge crater, where sunlight was reflected, causing a further increase in temperature.
“All the components, however, worked beyond their thermal limits, but this experience teaches us how fundamental it is to model the moon geographical characteristics with greater precision,” Kim observed. A brilliant idea of the team was to use the rectangular antenna of the Lander, mounted on a cardan, to create a shadow above the radio and keep it operational.
The lunar night. The short five -hour stay in the lunar night also provided precious data. “Nasa wanted him to turn on the payloads, and we did it: we collected data, in particular from the Lister drill, which remained active until the end,” said Kim. The surprising performance of the Lander batteries suggest that in the future it will be possible to adopt a modular approach, adding additional batteries and even radiators to survive long lunar nights.
The next mission. Firefly has already started the construction of the flight hardware for the Blue Ghost-2 mission, which will bring A Lander on the hidden side of the moon. The new mission, based on an improved version of Blue Ghost-1, also includes a tandem orbiter to keep communications with the earth.
“We will use two space vehicles simultaneously,” said Kim, explaining that the orbiter will be equipped with tools such as high resolution cameras and will have an operational duration of several years.
A record team. Kim praised the courage and commitment of 750 employees of the company, in particular the team of 60 people from the Lander. Despite A budget of only 101 million dollarsFirefly managed to respect times and costs.
