Blue Ghost Mission

GS Paper III Science & Tech

Recently, Blue Ghost, a lunar lander successfully landed on the Moon’s Mare Crisium

Firefly’s Blue Ghost mission is just the second time that a private space company has landed on the Moon.

About Blue Ghost Mission

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The Blue Ghost mission does not have a rover to walk over the Moon’s surface.
About Blue Ghost Mission 1
- Blue Ghost will operate on the lunar surface for one lunar day (14 Earth days).
- Scientific Goals of the Blue Ghost Mission 1
  - The mission carried 10 scientific payloads, mainly from NASA, to study the Moon’s environment.
  - Key objectives include:
    - Testing robotic drilling technology for future missions.
    - Studying the Moon’s surface and subsurface composition.
    - Exploring dust mitigation methods to protect lunar equipment.
  - These studies will help in future lunar missions and improve understanding of space weather’s effects on Earth.
  - The spacecraft landed near the Mare Crisium, a region affected by an asteroid impact around 3 billion years ago.
    - It was later filled with basaltic lava from volcanic eruptions.

With NASA’s support under the Artemis program, private companies are playing a bigger role in lunar exploration.
The first was Intuitive Machines, whose Odysseus lander made a successful landing last year.
Before these private missions, only five countries had landed on the Moon:
- Soviet Union
- United States
- China
- India
- Japan

NASA’s Initiative for Private Moon Missions
- CLPS is a NASA program that allows private companies to send scientific instruments to the Moon.
- The goal is to speed up lunar exploration and develop private sector capabilities for complex space missions.
Collaboration with Various Organizations
- While NASA is the main customer, companies can also take payloads from universities, research institutions, private firms, and other countries.
- This expands opportunities for global space research and innovation.
Part of NASA’s Artemis Program
- CLPS supports the larger Artemis program, which aims to:
  - Establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.
  - Utilize lunar resources.
  - Prepare for deeper space exploration, including Mars missions.

First CLPS Mission (January 2023)
- Astrobotic Technologies launched the Peregrine mission.
- However, technical failures prevented it from reaching the Moon.
Odysseus Mission (February 2023)
- Intuitive Machines successfully landed the Odysseus spacecraft.
- However, a landing issue caused damage to one of its legs, making it tilt slightly.
- Despite this, it remained functional and transmitted data.
Blue Ghost Mission (February 2024)
- Firefly Aerospace launched the Blue Ghost mission, achieving an almost perfect landing.
- The company claims it is the first private firm to “successfully” land on the Moon.
- Unlike previous missions, it faced no major landing issues.

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