The Moon is to be the target of various missions this year. Exploration of the Silver Globe is gaining momentum and two private landers flew into space today. They are machines Blue Ghost by Firefly Aerospace and Resilience by the Japanese from Ispace.
Blue Ghost Firefly Aerospace Resilience Ispace landers launch
Blue Ghost and Resilience are two different landers, but they were launched into space on one rocket. The mission was carried out by SpaceX, which placed both machines in the cargo bay of the Falcon 9 stage. The launch took place in the morning hours in Poland and it took place as announced.
The Falcon 9 rocket carried the payload into space and then separated. Of course, the flight to the Moon will take some time. Firefly Aerospace and Ispace landers won’t land there anytime soon.
Blue Ghost will deliver cargo to the Moon for NASA
The Firefly Aerospace lander was created as part of the CLPS program, which is intended to deliver cargo to the Moon provided by NASA. It is no different in the case of Blue Ghost, which contains systems and instruments developed by an American agency.
On board the Blue Ghost lander there is, among others: a new lunar communications system developed with Nokia. If its tests are successful, it will change the way communications between the Earth and the Moon take place.
Blue Ghost won’t be hitting the moon anytime soon. It will remain in Earth orbit for the next 25 days. Only in February will the engines be launched, which will direct it to the Silver Globe, where a landing attempt will then be made. This is to happen in late February in an area called Mare Crisium.
Ispace’s Resilience lander with a small rover
Resilience is the second lander based on the Hakuto-R project. The latter’s mission ended in failure and communication with him was lost. There is a small one on board rover called Tenaciouswhich was equipped with scientific instruments. It will be able to examine regolith samples and has a high-resolution camera.
The mission has scientific goals. The lander includes, among others: experiments on food production or a probe to study radiation in space. The Resilience landing is scheduled to take place in an area called Mare Frigoris, which is located in the northern regions of the Silver Globe.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
