Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Explained

Blue Ghost
Manufacturer:	Firefly Aerospace
Designer:	Firefly Aerospace
Country:	United States
Operator:	Firefly Aerospace
Applications:	Lunar payload delivery and support
Spacecraft Type:	Lunar lander
Payload Capacity:	150 kg^[1]
Power:	650W
Status:	Testing
Built:	1
Orders:	2
Launched:	0
Operational:	0
Programme:	Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost, or simply Blue Ghost, is a class of lunar landers designed by Firefly Aerospace to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. The first Blue Ghost mission is planned to launch in 2024.^[2]

Funding

In 2017, Space Policy Directive 1 signaled the intention of returning NASA astronauts to the Moon. In 2018, NASA solicited bids from nine companies, including Firefly Aerospace, for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS is part of the NASA Artemis program; one of the long-term goals of Artemis is establishing a permanent crewed base on the Moon.^[3]

In 2021, Firefly Aerospace received a NASA contract that was valued at US$93 million to conduct lunar landings for NASA.^[4]

Overview

Power on board the Blue Ghost lander is provided via solar panels that have multiple deployment options. The solar array provides a maximum of 650 W. The lander is communications enabled and features multiple layers of insulation, heating system and four landing legs. The company touts the landers fully in house end to end manufacturing and testing process as a differentiator among the CLPS Lunar Landers.^[5]

Missions

Blue Ghost M1

On February 4, 2021, NASA awarded Firefly a contract worth US$93.3 million to deliver a suite of ten science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The award is part of the CLPS initiative, in which NASA is securing the service of commercial partners to quickly land science and technology payloads on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.

Firefly Aerospace is the prime contractor responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the Moon, and mission operations. Subcontractors include SolAero By Rocket Lab, providing the solar panels, and ASI by Rocket Lab, providing the lander flight software, ground software, GN&C software, trajectory design, orbit determination, and avionics/flight software testbed integration. This was the sixth award for lunar surface delivery under the CLPS initiative, and the first delivery awarded to Firefly Aerospace. Firefly's Cedar Park facility will serve as the company's mission operations center for the 2023 delivery and the location of payload integration, with Rocket Lab serving as the backup mission operations center.

The mission is planned to land at Mare Crisium, a wide basin visible from Earth. Instruments will gather data to provide insight into the Moon's regolith – loose, fragmented rock and soil – properties, geophysical characteristics, and the interaction of solar wind and Earth's magnetic field,^[6] helping to prepare for human missions to the lunar surface. On May 20, 2021, Firefly selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 as the launch vehicle for the first mission, as its own Alpha rocket does not have the performance or payload volume needed to launch Blue Ghost.^[7] Firefly's future Beta launch vehicle is expected to support future Blue Ghost missions.^[8]

On April 26, 2022, Firefly announced the completion of the Integration Readiness Review (IRR) for the first Blue Ghost lander, M1, with the launch now expected to occur in 2024.^[9] In November 2023 Firefly provided a more precise time window for the mission, occurring between the third and the fourth quarters of 2024. In May 2024, the first engines for Blue Ghost were completed.^[10] In June 2024, the company announced the engines were integrated and the lander would soon be scheduled for launch.^[11] In July 2024, the company reiterated a Q4 2024 launch.^[12]

Payloads

The payloads, collectively expected to total in mass, include:

• The Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC), which will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon's environment during landing and lander operations. Components will be derived from the MISSE-FF facility currently on the International Space Station (ISS).
• The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors (NGLR), which will serve as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the Moon. The retroreflector that will fly on this mission also will provide data that could be used to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and address fundamental physics questions.
• The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), which will capture images of the interaction of Earth's magnetosphere with the flow of charged particles from the Sun, called the solar wind.
• The Reconfigurable, Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC), which aims to demonstrate a radiation-tolerant computing technology. Due to the Moon's lack of atmosphere and magnetic field, radiation from the Sun will be a challenge for electronics. This investigation also will characterize the radiation effects on the lunar surface.
• The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), which is designed to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon's mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields. The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.
• The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), which is designed to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon. The probe will attempt to drill into the lunar regolith to investigate the Moon's thermal properties at different depths.
• The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), which is designed to acquire lunar regolith from the surface and transfer it to other instruments that would analyze the material or put it in a container that another spacecraft could return to Earth.
• Stereo CAmeras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS 1.1), which will capture video and still images of the area under the lander from when the engine plume first disturbs the lunar surface through engine shutdown. Long-focal-length cameras will determine the pre-landing surface topography. Photogrammetry will be used to reconstruct the changing surface during landing. Understanding the physics of rocket exhaust on the regolith, and the displacement of dust, gravel, and rocks is critical to understanding how to best avoid kicking up surface materials during the terminal phase of flight/landing on the Moon and other celestial bodies.
• The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), which will generate a non-uniform electric field using varying high voltage on multiple electrodes. This traveling field, in turn, carries away the particles and has potential applications in thermal radiators, spacesuit fabrics, visors, camera lenses, solar panels, and many other technologies.
• The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), which is based on GPS. LuGRE will continue to extend the reach of GPS signals and, if successful, be the first to discern GPS signals at lunar distances.

Blue Ghost M2

The second Blue Ghost lander is scheduled for launch in 2026.^[13]

See also

Other commercial lunar lander programs

• Blue Moon (Blue Origin)
• SERIES-2 (Draper)
• Peregrine (Astrobotic)
• Starship HLS (SpaceX)
• Hakuto-R Mission 1 (ispace)

Lunar lander programs by country

• China: Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
• India: Chandrayaan Programme
• Russia: Luna-Glob
• United States: Commercial Lunar Payload Services (Artemis program)
• Japan: Japanese Lunar Exploration Program

Notes and References

1. Web site: Firefly's Blue Ghost lander represents a big bet on a future lunar economy . 6 November 2023 .
2. Web site: NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details . 2024-05-13 . nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
3. Web site: 2024-01-08 . Overview of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program . 2024-05-13 . New Space Economy . en-US.
4. Web site: NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 - NASA . 2024-05-13 . en-US.
5. Firefly Aerospace Completes Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Structure Ahead of Moon Landing for NASA . 2024-05-13 . www.prnewswire.com . en.
6. NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 . NASA . February 4, 2021 . March 5, 2021 . February 4, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210204211114/https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-firefly-aerospace-for-artemis-commercial-moon-delivery-in-2023 . live.
7. Web site: Foust . Jeff . May 20, 2021 . Firefly selects SpaceX to launch its lunar lander . May 22, 2021 . SpaceNews.
8. 1395382812308561922 . firefly_space . Alpha rocket does not have the performance or payload volume needed to launch Blue Ghost – F9 does. Our future Beta launch vehicle will support Blue Ghost launch. . Firefly Aerospace . May 20, 2021 . May 20, 2021.
9. Web site: October 4, 2023 . Firefly Aerospace Completes Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Structure Ahead of Moon Landing for NASA .
10. Web site: Parsonson . Andrew . 2024-04-29 . Nammo UK Prepares to Deliver Engine for US Lunar Lander . 2024-05-04 . European Spaceflight . en-US.
11. Web site: One step closer to launch and landing as our Firefly team installed Blue Ghost’s main engine .
12. Web site: We're going to the Moon! As Blue Ghost gets ready to ship for final environmental testing, get a behind-the-scenes look of how we got here and the mission ahead. Stay tuned for more on Blue Ghost Mission 1 in the coming months ahead of the Q4 2024 launch. . live.
13. Web site: Blue Ghost Mission 2 . 2024-06-14 . Firefly Aerospace . en-US.