SPACE
On Wednesday morning, two spacecraft were launched from Earth with a view to the moon. Along for the trip there is a small red cabin with white knots, a scoop from Epiroc and research instruments from Nasa.
At 07:11, Swedish time, the engines were ignited and the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the two unmanned lunar landers Blue Ghost and Resilience left Earth. The lunar landers are developed by two companies, American Firefly and Japanese Ispace.
But Sweden also plays a big role in both projects.
For Blue Ghost, communication is handled by the state-owned Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). With their large communication antennas around the world, they must keep in touch with Blue Ghost during the journey, and also after landing.
The American lunar lander was also the first to be launched into space from the Space X rocket. And around one hour and 13 minutes after the launch, it was heard in the broadcast that the SSC had made contact with the craft.
The journey for Blue Ghost will take 45 days, if all goes well, and the landing will take place at the end of February. After that, the ten scientific instruments from Nasa that the craft carries with it will collect data during an entire lunar day, corresponding to approximately 14 days.
Swedish red cabin and bucket
After Blue Ghost disengaged from the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, it took around 27 minutes before it was Resilience’s turn. The Japanese craft also disengaged according to plan and is now on its way to the moon.
On board Resilience is a small rover, an approximately 5 kg lunar vehicle called Tenacious, which will roll out after the intended landing. And on that rover, the Swedish contribution is on both sides of the card.
On one side sits a bucket developed by the mining technology company Epiroc. Ispace has been commissioned by Nasa to collect at least 50 grams of lunar soil, and hopes to do this with Epiroc’s scoop.
On the other side sits Månhuset, a work of art by Mikael Genberg, a small red cabin with white knots. The house will be dropped from the rover and the idea is that it will remain on the moon for a long time to come.
The journey of the Japanese lunar lander will take longer than the American one. Only in up to five months, Ispace hopes to be able to carry out its first successful lunar landing.
So far, only one private company has managed to land on the moon with a proprietary lander, the Odysseus manufactured by Intuitive Machines. However, that landing was not completely error-free as the lunar lander fell over on landing.
Source: www.nyteknik.se
