NASA has launched Blue Ghost Mission 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 15. It is expected to land on the Moon on March 2.
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Blue Ghost Mission 1 Objectives
The agency said Wednesday the mission, Firefly Aerospace’s first Commercial Lunar Payload Services flight for NASA, is bringing scientific and technology demonstrations to the Moon to gain insights into its environment. The mission also aims to test and assess technologies that will enable Artemis astronauts to land safely on the Moon to conduct lunar exploration. Furthermore, the Blue Ghost mission is meant to determine the possible effects of space weather on Earth.
10 NASA Science and Technology Instruments
NASA intends to evaluate and demonstrate several technologies on the lunar surface. Some of the tests will involve drilling on the Moon’s surface, collecting regolith or lunar rocks and soil samples, using navigation satellite systems, implementing radiation-tolerant computing and mitigating lunar dust.
The 10 NASA payloads included in the mission are:
- Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity of Texas Tech University
- Lunar PlanetVac of Honeybee Robotics
- Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector of the University of Maryland
- Regolith Adherence Characterization of Aegis Aerospace
- Radiation Tolerant Computer of Montana State University
- Electrodynamic Dust Shield of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
- Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Boston University and Johns Hopkins University
- Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder of Southwest Research Institute
- Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment of NASA Goddard, Italian Space Agency
- Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies of NASA’s Langley Research Center
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, a 2023 Wash100 Award winner, said “This mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA’s Artemis campaign – a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery. Each flight we’re part of is a vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the Moon, Mars and beyond.”