As the Blue Ghost lander touches down on the lunar surface, a new era in lunar exploration begins with its historic drilling operation, sparking scientific research and potential contributions to future human missions.
Lander Drills into Lunar Surface, Sparks Flying as it Pursues Scientific Research Goals
A New Era in Lunar Exploration Begins with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Lander
The Blue Ghost lander, developed by Firefly Aerospace and launched on March 2, has successfully touched down near Mons Latreille, a solitary lunar peak in the vast basin Mare Crisium (‘Sea of Crises’) in the northeastern region of the moon’s near side. The lander’s primary objective is to drill into the lunar surface using its Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) experiment.
On July 20, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission successfully landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the surface of the Moon.
The spacecraft, carrying a lunar module named Eagle, touched down in the Sea of Tranquility.
Armstrong radioed back to Mission Control on Earth, 'Houston, Tranquility Base here.'
The Eagle has landed.
This historic event marked the first time humans visited another celestial body.
The mission's success was made possible by years of rigorous training and precise calculations.
Drilling into the Lunar Surface
The LISTER experiment, which uses purified nitrogen, aims to reach a depth of around 6-9 feet (2-3 meters), taking temperature measurements as it goes to study how well heat flows through the moon’s interior and the thermal changes between depths. The drill developed by Texas Tech University and Honeybee Robotics can be seen plowing through the rocky lunar surface in a video shared this week, sending ‘sparks and pieces of rubble flying.’
Lunar drilling involves extracting samples from the Moon's surface and subsurface.
NASA's Apollo missions returned over 842 pounds of lunar rocks and soil, which have been extensively studied.
The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission in 2009 impacted a lunar crater, creating a debris plume that was analyzed for water ice and other compounds.
Future lunar drilling missions aim to explore the Moon's subsurface and search for resources, such as water ice, helium-3, and rare earth elements.
Scientific Objectives
The Blue Ghost lander is equipped with nine other NASA payloads, including an experiment to study how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the moon’s environment throughout the lunar day. The lander also deployed four tethered electrodes and an 8-foot (2.4m) mast that make up NASA’s Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) payload to study the structure and composition of the moon’s mantle.
Potential Contributions to Future Human Missions
The scientific research being conducted by Blue Ghost could contribute significantly to future human missions on the Moon, which are currently planned for the coming years. By studying the thermal conductivity of the lunar surface, scientists hope to gain insights into how the Moon formed and cooled over billions of years.
The Role of Blue Ghost in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative
The Blue Ghost lander was jointly developed by researchers from Texas Tech University and Honeybee Robotics under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. This initiative aims to provide a sustainable presence on the lunar surface by launching multiple payloads to the Moon.
Conclusion
The successful landing of the Blue Ghost lander marks an exciting new era in lunar exploration, with the potential to significantly advance our understanding of the Moon’s geology and composition.
The exploration of the moon began in the late 1950s with the Soviet Union's Luna program.
NASA's Apollo missions successfully landed astronauts on the moon between 1969 and 1972, including Neil Armstrong's historic first steps in 1969: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'.
Since then, several countries have sent robotic missions to the moon, including China's Chang'e 4 mission, which made the first soft landing on the moon's far side in 2019.
