Liftoff! NASA Sends Science, Tech to Moon on Firefly, SpaceX Flight
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A suite of NASA scientific investigations and technology demonstrations is on its way to our nearest celestial neighbor aboard a commercial spacecraft, where they will provide insights into the Moon's environment and test technologies to support future astronauts landing safely on the lunar surface under the agency's Artemis campaign.
Carrying science and tech on Firefly Aerospace's first CLPS or Commercial Lunar Payload Services flight for NASA, Blue Ghost Mission 1 launched at 1:11 a.m. EST aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The company is targeting a lunar landing on Sunday, March 2.
"This mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA's Artemis campaign - a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. "Each flight we're part of is vital step in the larger blueprint to establish a responsible, sustained human presence at the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Each scientific instrument and technology demonstration brings us closer to realizing our vision. Congratulations to the NASA, Firefly, and SpaceX teams on this successful launch."
Once on the Moon, NASA will test and demonstrate lunar drilling technology, regolith (lunar rocks and soil) sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation methods. The data captured could also benefit humans on Earth by providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact our home planet.
"NASA leads the world in space exploration, and American companies are a critical part of bringing humanity back to the Moon," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We learned many lessons during the Apollo Era which informed the technological and science demonstrations aboard Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 - ensuring the safety and health of our future science instruments, spacecraft, and, most importantly, our astronauts on the lunar surface. I am excited to see the incredible science and technological data Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 will deliver in the days to come."
As part of NASA's modern lunar exploration activities, CLPS deliveries to the Moon will help humanity better understand planetary processes and evolution, search for water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration of the Moon in preparation for the first human mission to Mars.
There are 10 NASA payloads flying on this flight:
-- Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity
(LISTER) will characterize heat flow from the interior of the Moon by
measuring the thermal gradient and conductivity of the lunar subsurface.
It will take several measurements to about a 10-foot final depth using
pneumatic drilling technology with a custom heat flow needle instrument
at its tip. Lead organization: Texas Tech University
-- Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) is designed to collect regolith samples from the
lunar surface using a burst of compressed gas to drive the regolith into
a sample chamber for collection and analysis by various instruments.
Additional instrumentation will then transmit the results back to Earth.
Lead organization: Honeybee Robotics
-- Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) serves as a target for
lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the
Moon. The retroreflector that will fly on this mission could also
collect data to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and
address fundamental physics questions. Lead organization: University of
Maryland
-- Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) will determine how lunar
regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon's
environment throughout the lunar day. The RAC instrument will measure
accumulation rates of lunar regolith on the surfaces of several
materials including solar cells, optical systems, coatings, and sensors
through imaging to determine their ability to repel or shed lunar dust.
The data captured will allow the industry to test, improve, and protect
spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive regolith. Lead
organization: Aegis Aerospace
-- Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) will demonstrate a computer that can
recover from faults caused by ionizing radiation. Several RadPC
prototypes have been tested aboard the International Space Station and
Earth-orbiting satellites, but now will demonstrate the computer's
ability to withstand space radiation as it passes through Earth's
radiation belts, while in transit to the Moon, and on the lunar surface.
Lead organization: Montana State University
-- Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) is an active dust mitigation technology
that uses electric fields to move and prevent hazardous lunar dust
accumulation on surfaces. The EDS technology is designed to lift,
transport, and remove particles from surfaces with no moving parts.
Multiple tests will demonstrate the feasibility of the self-cleaning
glasses and thermal radiator surfaces on the Moon. In the event the
surfaces do not receive dust during landing, EDS has the capability to
re-dust itself using the same technology. Lead organization: NASA's
Kennedy Space Center
-- Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) will capture a series
of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and the Earth's
magnetic field that drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms. Deployed
and operated on the lunar surface, this instrument will provide the
first global images showing the edge of Earth's magnetic field for
critical insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces
surrounding our planet impact it. Lead organizations: NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center, Boston University, and Johns Hopkins University
-- Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) will characterize the structure and
composition of the Moon's mantle by measuring electric and magnetic
fields. This investigation will help determine the Moon's temperature
structure and thermal evolution to understand how the Moon has cooled
and chemically differentiated since it formed. Lead organization:
Southwest Research Institute
-- Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) will demonstrate the possibility
of acquiring and tracking signals from Global Navigation Satellite
System constellations, specifically GPS and Galileo, during transit to
the Moon, during lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface. If successful,
LuGRE will be the first pathfinder for future lunar spacecraft to use
existing Earth-based navigation constellations to autonomously and
accurately estimate their position, velocity, and time. Lead
organizations: NASA Goddard, Italian Space Agency
-- Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will use stereo
imaging photogrammetry to capture the impact of rocket plume on lunar
regolith as the lander descends on the Moon's surface. The
high-resolution stereo images will aid in creating models to predict
lunar regolith erosion, which is an important task as bigger, heavier
payloads are delivered to the Moon in close proximity to each other.
This instrument also flew on Intuitive Machine's first CLPS delivery.
Lead organization: NASA's Langley Research Center
"With 10 NASA science and technology instruments launching to the Moon, this is the largest CLPS delivery to date, and we are proud of the teams that have gotten us to this point," said Chris Culbert, program manager for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We will follow this latest CLPS delivery with more in 2025 and later years. American innovation and interest to the Moon continues to grow, and NASA has already awarded 11 CLPS deliveries and plans to continue to select two more flights per year."
Firefly's Blue Ghost lander is targeted to land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon's near side. The NASA science on this flight will gather valuable scientific data studying Earth's nearest neighbor and helping pave the way for the first Artemis astronauts to explore the lunar surface later this decade.
Learn more about NASA's CLPS initiative at:
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SOURCE NASA
