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.

Role of Private Companies in Lunar Exploration

• 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