Commercial moon lander Blue Ghost sets sights on Sunday touchdown
The Blue Ghost Lander from Firefly Aerospace was closed on the moon on Saturday, in its path to accomplish automatic nails to land early on Sunday, the first three lines of the automated moon for the private sectors that reach its goal after its launch earlier this year.
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander spent a month revolving around the Earth Above the Falcon 9 in JanuaryGranting flying units in Austin, Texas, a lot of time to stimulate and test their systems and the load of science before heading to the moon.
The artist’s impression of the ghost of Lander on the surface of the moon. / Credit: spacecraft
Once you get there, the spacecraft spent 16 days in the orbit of the moon in revising its course and preparing picturesque views of the Earth from 240,000 miles.
Now, after the multiple shooting to reach the planned orientation orbit, the 6.6 -foot spacecraft is preparing to drop the wicked on the roof. The landing in Mare Crisium – the sea of crisis – is expected to be around 3:34 am EST, near an old volcanic feature called Mons Latreille.
Solar -powered Lander is expected to work for the “full moon” or 14 days of Earth. If things go well, you may continue to work on the battery power for a few hours on the dark moon night before silence.
Firefly CEO, Jason Kim, said that Blue Ghost is the latest example of commercial technology provided by the private sector “really reduces the cost of systems (space).”
He said in an interview with CBS News: “Once in a long blue period, this type of Lunar Landers took billions of dollars and the countries behind them (to them) to land on the moon,” he said in an interview with CBS News.
“This is Firefly Aerospace, which will fall on the moon’s surface in fractures of the fixed price contract, and do so with the latest commercial technology,” he said. “Just just as Simon Bells grabbed the Olympic Games, we will do the same for the state of Texas, America and the world.”
Firefly Aerospace paid $ 101 million to carry 10 scientific tools sponsored by agencies, which was built at a cost of $ 44 million, to the moon as part of the CLPS commercial load services initiative.
The CLPS program aims to encourage the private industry to launch the agency’s loads to the moon to collect the necessary scientific and engineering data before the ARTEMIS astronauts start the surface near the southern pole later in this decade.
The cameras on the plane captured stunning views of the moon from the orbit while waiting for the landing to landing. / Credit: spacecraft
“On one of these days, we will get there in terms of commercial aspects of the moon,” Kim said. “There will be a lot of action plans that will be sustainable and self -perfect. It is a great position to go frequently and test new tasks to maintain life in space, which is a starting point for Mars as well.”
The sharing of the space to the Blue Ghost on the other moon missile, a spacecraft called “Flexibility” that was built by ISPace based in Tokyo. The company sent another land to the moon last year, but it was shattered on the surface after the fuel was run out due to a program defect.
For ISPace’s second attempt, flexibility called properly has taken a long, low -energy path to the moon, and is expected to try to land in May.
The cradle of the moon is another, this space built by Houston -based intuitive machines known as Athens, It was launched last Wednesday By Falcon 9, another is expected to fall on the surface of the moon March 6.
Athena was also largely funded by NAPS, which agreed to pay $ 62.5 million to a company to carry an advanced and collective spectrum on the moon.
NASA gave a “turning point” contract of $ 15 million to Nokia to test cellular communications on the moon and another $ 41 million for the intuitive machines of “Qadoub” missile machines that will jump to a hole permanently in search of ice sediments.
Firefly’s Lander holds 10 tools, including cameras, which are exercises to withstand the surface bearing the satellite vehicle, a computer that bears radiation, and equipment you will try to withdraw GPS signals from Earth, which is an experience to learn more about lunar dust management and the other to monitor dust distributions kicked by rock rock engines.
“One of the basic purposes of the CLPS program with NASA is to be an introduction to Artemis, which is clearly returning humans to the moon,” said Ray Alinsworth, director of the Firefly Space Vehicle Program.
“So our loads collect data so that we can know what it feels on the moon, to work on the moon’s surface? So all this data will be learned when we actually return humans to the moon.”
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