A Firefly Aerospace lander will launch to the moon in 2023 as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
NASA chose Texas-based Firefly Aerospace to deliver ten scientific experiments and technology demonstrations on the lunar surface in 2023. The company’s robotic Blue Ghost lander will measure in a lunar mare called Mare Crisium, a low-lying basin on the near side of the moon, more than 480 kilometers wide.
The lander will carry tools to study various aspects of the lunar surface in preparation for future human missions to the moon, according to a statement from NASA.
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The $ 93.3 million contract awarded to Firefly Aerospace is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which seeks commercial partners for lunar and technological payloads on the lunar surface. The Firefly Aerospace contract is the sixth award for lunar surface under CLPS, which is an important part of the agency. Artemis program of crew moon exploration.
“We are excited that another CLPS provider has won its first task order award. With this initiative, we want to develop ways for new science and technology development using a service model,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, co-administrator of science at NASA, said in the statement. “It enables American vendors to not only demonstrate their ability to deliver cargo safely to our heavenly neighbor, but also extend this ability to others who want to take advantage of this leading approach to explore the moon.”
Under the new contract, Firefly Aerospace is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the moon and mission operations.
Firefly is honored to receive a $ 93.3 million contract from NASA to deliver ten NASA-sponsored scientific and technological payloads to the lunar surface with our Blue Ghost lunar lander! Https://t.co/epvsZswOrjFebruary 4, 2021
Blue Ghost will carry ten instruments that will explore different properties of the moon, including fragmented rock and soil – also known as regolith – on the lunar surface the structure and composition of the lunar mantle and the heat flow at different depths below the lunar surface. Other scientific experiments will measure the exact distance between the earth and the moon, study the interaction between solar wind and the earth’s magnetic field and investigate the impact of solar radiation on the lunar surface, NASA officials said.
The lander will also carry an instrument called the Lunar PlanetVac, which is designed to capture regolith from the lunar surface that back to earth as part of a separate mission and the Lunar GNSS receiver experiment, which tests the ability to use GPS signals at lunar distances. Collectively, the ten research loads are expected to weigh 207 pounds. (94 kilograms), according to a statement from NASA.
“The payloads we send as part of this delivery service cover various areas, from the investigation of the lunar soil and the testing of a sample-capture technology, to the information about the thermal properties of the moon and magnetic field, “Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in the statement.
Blue Ghost, named after a rare type of flying aircraft, will also be equipped with stereo cameras designed to record videos and photos of the area under the spacecraft, to better understand how the lander’s exhaust disrupts the lunar surface.
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