With the arrival of the Blue Ghost lander on the moon this weekend, get ready for an influx of stunning new images from our planet’s natural satellite. The mission, from Firefly Aerospace, touched down in the moon’s Mare Crisium region yesterday, Sunday March 2, and the company has already shared the first images captured by the lander from its new home.
As well as a striking image showing the shadow of the lander on the moon’s surface, seen above, another image shows the lander on the moon with the Earth visible in the night sky:
This also shows two of the lander’s instruments, the X-band antenna for sending data back to Earth and the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager or LEXI telescope. This instrument will use X-rays to study how solar winds interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, and is one of several NASA instruments on board the lander.
Regarding the landing, NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro said in a statement: “This incredible achievement demonstrates how NASA and American companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all. We have already learned many lessons – and the technological and science demonstrations onboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 will improve our ability to not only discover more science, but to ensure the safety of our spacecraft instruments for future human exploration – both in the short term and long term.”
A further image was also released, showing a top-down view of the surface with the lander’s thrusters visible as well:
Deployment of the lander’s instrument has already begun, and today Firefly announced that the X-band antenna has been fully deployed. Compared to the lander’s S-band antennae, which are used to send lower quality images, the X-band antenna will allow higher quality images, science data, and even video to be sent back from the surface.
“The science and technology we send to the Moon now helps prepare the way for future NASA exploration and long-term human presence to inspire the world for generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science. “We’re sending these payloads by working with American companies – which supports a growing lunar economy.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.