Firefly lunar lander touches down on the moon
POSTED BY: second
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 5, 2026 17:26
VIEWED: 46397
PAGE 15 of 21
Skip ahead to 4 minutes into the broadcast for a description of the spacecraft and mission.
Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 Launch to the Moon (Official NASA Broadcast)
The lander will carry 10 NASA science investigations to the Moon's surface.
Following launch, the lander will spend approximately 45 days in transit to the Moon before landing on the lunar surface in early March 2025. The 10 NASA payloads aboard the lander aim to test and demonstrate lunar subsurface drilling technology, regolith sample collection capabilities, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation methods.
Payloads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_Aerospace_Blue_Ghost#Payloads
The payloads, collectively expected to total 94 kg (207 lb) 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 The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.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 2.13-3.05 m (7 ft 0 in - 10 ft 0 in) 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 t
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Just found this. Will watch it tomorrow.
T 
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Deployed
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Very cool...
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Firefly Aerospace We're in Orbit! Blue Ghost Week 1 Update
Follow along on with every major update on our mission page:
https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Firefly’s Blue Ghost moon lander sees Earth as a 'blue marble' from orbit (photo)
By Brett Tingley | Jan 24, 2025
"Our GhostRiders captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-ghost
-moon-lander-sees-earth-as-a-blue-marble-from-orbit-photo
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Firefly Aerospace We're in Orbit! Blue Ghost Week 1 Update
Follow along on with every major update on our mission page:
https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/
Go Firefly...
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Firefly’s Blue Ghost moon lander sees Earth as a 'blue marble' from orbit (photo)
By Brett Tingley | Jan 24, 2025
"Our GhostRiders captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-ghost
-moon-lander-sees-earth-as-a-blue-marble-from-orbit-photo
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Things are looking up for Firefly.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Firefly Blue Ghost moon lander
We're Still in Earth Orbit! Blue Ghost Week 2 Update
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME