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The Blue Ghost landing module of Firefly began its trip to the moon a little over a week ago, and the mission has already transmitted star snapshots from space. In addition to marking a list of critical milestones, Blue Ghost also captured a classic photograph of the Earth and captured a brief moment of darkness when the earth eclipsed the sun.
Blue Ghost launched on Wednesday, January 15 aboard a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket, which was headed from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Moon. The mission, called “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, will spend 45 days traveling through space before trying a soft landing on the lunar surface.
Shortly after takeoff, Blue Ghost captured her first image from space. The image shows the upper cover of the landing module, with the Banda X antenna and the NASA Lexi paid load visible under a brilliant flash of sunlight.
Six of the useful Blue Ghost charges are already sending initial data to the Earth, while a payload, Lusg, began its scientific operations, according to a Aerospace fireflies statement. “Developed by the Italian Space Agency, Lugre is tracking signs of GPS and Galileo satellites during our land transit to the moon to prove the acquisition and use of signals along the way,” the company wrote.
On January 18, the Firefly team carried out the first ignition of the Blue Ghost engine, lighting the propulsors and main engines of the landing module in space for the first time. The operation of the engine brought the spacecraft to the earth in preparation for its next maneuvers.
While orbit the earth, Blue Ghost captured an impressive eclipse from space. But instead of seeing the moon interposing between us and the sun, the landing module saw the earth briefly blocking the sunlight.
Blue Ghost will orbit the earth for 25 days before turning on the engine to place it in a trajectory to the moon. Blue Ghost will spend four days on the way to the moon and another 16 orbiting the earth’s satellite before trying to land on its dusty surface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laj3efdrclg
The spacecraft captured surprisingly impressive views of our planet while making a second engine ignition. The landing module has about two weeks in the orbit of the earth and is taking full advantage of that time.
Once he arrives at the moon, Blue Ghost points to Mare Crisium, the site of an ancient asteroid impact site that was once full of basaltic lava. Mare Crisium’s basalts have between 2,500 and 3,300 million years, according to POT. The landing module is equipped with 10 scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and collect data to support future human missions to the moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative of NASA.
The Moon is about to be a busy place, with more commercial trips planned for this year, including the Ispace Resilience landing module, which was launched to the moon along with Blue Ghost but that will reach the lunar surface within a few months .
