TWO lunar landers are scheduled for launch next week, as scientists gather the data necessary to set up human habitation on the Moon.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander from private US firm Firefly Aerospace and the Resilience spacecraft from Japanese company iSpace are set to take off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
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The launch is currently scheduled for 1:11 am EST (6:11am GMT) on 15 January from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Falcon 9 rocket will eject the Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander into Earth’s orbit, where it will reside for 25 days.
It will perform an engine burn that will put it on a straight path to the Moon.
The spacecraft will then orbit the Moon for another 16 days, before preparing for landing on Mare Crisium, or the Sea of Crises – the site of an ancient asteroid impact.
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If it survives the journey, Blue Ghost will begin sending high-definition images of the lunar surface back to Earth within 30 minutes of touching down.
Onboard will be 10 Nasa science experiments, one of which requires the collecting of Moon dust to measure radiation on the lunar surface.
Another will observe Earth’s magnetic field, also known as the magnetosphere, and how it interacts with solar wind – the molecules that cause Northern Lights.
“We expect to see the magnetosphere breathing out and breathing in, for the first time,” Nasa’s Hyunju Connor said in a statement.
“When the solar wind is very strong, the magnetosphere will shrink and push backward toward Earth, and then expand when the solar wind weakens.”
A third experiment also aims to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon with sub-millimeter accuracy.
If it sticks the landing, Blue Ghost will be the second successful mission to the lunar surface since Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus lander in February last year.
Odysseus was not only the first private spacecraft to land on the lunar surface, but the first US Moon landing since 1972.
The Resilience lander will deliver a micro-rover named Tenacious to gather lunar soil, which iSpace plans to sell back to Nasa.
The lander will also carry a self-contained module designed for experiments in lunar food production.
As a company that has experienced the frustration of failure, iSpace understands the importance of learning from it and trying again.
iSpace CEO Takeshi Hakamada
The spacecraft comes from the same startup that successfully sent the Hakuto-R lander to the lunar surface in April 2023.
However, the ambitious mission ended in failure when it crashed into the lunar surface.
Bosses at the company appeared hopeful at the prospects of success at a press conference on Thursday.
“This will be a new challenge for us,” iSpace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said at the time.
“As a company that has experienced the frustration of failure, iSpace understands the importance of learning from it and trying again.
“We aim to achieve a successful moon landing and deliver excitement to the world.”
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Both landers are heading to the Moon as part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
They have just 14 days to conduct their tasks before lunar night falls – and very few Moon landers are built to survive the nighttime temperatures on the Moon.
The Moon – our closest neighbour explained
Here’s what you need to know…
- The Moon is a natural satellite – a space-faring body that orbits a planet
- It’s Earth’s only natural satellite, and is the fifth biggest in the Solar System
- The Moon measures 2,158 miles across, roughly 0.27 times the diameter of Earth
- Temperatures on the Moon vary wildly. Nasa explains: “Temperatures near the Moon’s equator can spike to 250°F (121°C) in daylight, then plummet after nightfall to -208°F (-133°C). In deep craters near the Moon’s poles, permanent shadows keep the surface even colder — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has measured temperatures lower than -410°F (-246°C).”
- Experts assumed the Moon was another planet, until Nicolaus Copernicus outlined his theory about our Solar System in 1543
- It was eventually assigned to a “class” after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
- The Moon is believed to have formed around 4.51billion years ago
- The strength of its gravitational field is about a sixth of Earth’s gravity
- Earth and the Moon have “synchronous rotation”, which means we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the phrase “dark side of the Moon”
- The Moon’s surface is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky due to its reflective ground
- During a solar eclipse, the Moon covers the Sun almost completely. Both objects appear a similar size in the sky because the Sun is both 400 times larger and farther
- The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was in 1959, as part of the Soviet Union’s Lunar program
- The first manned orbital mission was Nasa’s Apollo 8 in 1968
- And the first manned lunar landing was in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission
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