Blue Ghost lunar lander to make historic touchdown on March 2, kicking off series of major Moon missions

Blue Ghost lunar lander to make historic touchdown on March 2 (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander is set to make its historic landing on the Moon on Sunday, March 2, marking the beginning of three major missions targeting different regions of the Moon.

The Moon’s cold, quiet surface is about to come alive as several missions race toward their lunar landings.

Blue Ghost was launched on January 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and entered lunar orbit on February 13. The lander is set to touch down in the Mare Crisium region, a large plain on the Moon's near side.

This carefully chosen landing site provides an optimal setting for conducting a range of scientific experiments. Once on the Moon, the lander will operate for about 14 Earth days, equivalent to one full lunar day.

As part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Blue Ghost will carry 10 NASA payloads designed to study the lunar radiation environment, regolith, solar wind, and more.

Key experiments include:

- Heat Flow from the Lunar Interior: Investigating the Moon’s internal heat flow to understand its thermal evolution.

- Plume-Surface Interactions: Studying the interaction between lunar regolith and the lander's engines during descent to refine future landing techniques.

- Crustal Electric and Magnetic Fields: Collecting data on the Moon’s crustal fields to learn about its geological history.

- X-ray Imaging of Earth's Magnetosphere: Capturing X-ray images of Earth’s magnetosphere to provide new insights into its magnetic field.

- Regolith Sampling and Adherence: Testing how lunar soil sticks to surfaces, crucial for designing future lunar missions.

- Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Abilities: Attempting to receive GNSS signals on the lunar surface, a first for any lunar lander.

- Radiation-Tolerant Computing: Testing computing systems that can withstand the harsh radiation environment of space.

- Dust Mitigation Using Electrodynamic Fields: Exploring ways to mitigate lunar dust, a significant challenge for both robotic and human missions.

Blue Ghost’s successful landing will mark another milestone in NASA’s collaboration with private companies like Firefly Aerospace, demonstrating the increasing role of commercial entities in deep-space exploration.

Intuitive Machines' Athena lander, which was launched on February 26, is scheduled to land on March 6.

Meanwhile, the Resilience lander, developed by the Tokyo-based company ispace, launched alongside Blue Ghost but is following a longer trajectory to the Moon, with its landing expected in late May or early June.