A private company in the United States successfully posed its spacecraft in the Luna After a long journey through space, becoming the second private mission to achieve this milestone and the first that manages to alumnar vertically.
The Blue Ghost Mission 1 of Firefly Aerospace alunizó shortly after 03h34 hours on the east coast of the United States (08h34 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation of Mare Crisium, on the northeast face of the moon.
“Perfective perfect, we arrived at the moon,” exclaimed an engineer from the control of the mission in Austin, Texas, while the entire team exploded for joy.
The executive president of the company, Jason Kim, confirmed that the aircraft was “stable and vertical”, compared to the ship of the first private mission made in February, which set aside.
“We are on the moon!” Nicky Fox celebrated, associate administrator of the Directorate of Scientific Missions of the US Space Agency NASA.
Nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky” (“Ghost riders in the sky”), like an old and popular American country song, The mission is part of the collaboration between NASA and its industry partners to reduce costs and support Artemis, the program designed to re -send astronauts to the moon.
This gold descent module, the size of a small car, was launched in January aboard a Falcon 9 rocket of the Spacex company, of the billionaire Elon Musk. During his 45 -day trip, he captured impressive images of the earth and his satellite.
Blue Ghost carries ten scientific instruments, including one to analyze the lunar soil, another to test radiation tolerant and a GPS -based navigation system.
Designed to function during a complete moon day (14 terrestrial days), Blue Ghost is expected to capture high definition images of a total eclipse on March 14, when the earth blocks the sun of the moon horizon.
On March 16, he will record a lunar sunset, offering details on how the Levite dust on the surface under solar influence, creating the mysterious glow of the lunar horizon documented for the first time by the astronaut of Eugene Cernan, of the Apollo mission.
Drone capable of jumping
The arrival of Blue Ghost will be followed on March 6 by the IM-2 mission, of the Tejana company intuitive machines, with its Athena landing module.
Last year, Intuitive Machines made history as the first private company to achieve smoothly, although the moment was tarnished by a accident.
When descending too fast, one of the feet of the landing module was hooked on the lunar surface, pouring it and causing it to be aside, which limited its ability to generate solar energy and shortened the mission.
But this time, the company says that it has made key improvements in the hexagonal shape module, which has a higher and thinner profile than Blue Ghost and the approximate height of an adult giraffe.
Athena departed on Wednesday aboard a Spacex rocket, taking a more direct route to Mons Mouton, the alunseous site to the south to which he has ever pointed out.
It has an ambitious set of useful charges, including a unique drone capable of jumping and designed to explore underground passages of the moon carved by old lava flows, a drill that can dig almost a meter under the surface in search of ice and three explorers.
Grace, the jumping drone baptized in honor of the Pioneer of the Grace Hopper computer science, the show could well be stolen if he manages to demonstrate that he can navigate the steep lunar terrain.
NASA’s private lunar fleet
Posing on the moon presents unique challenges due to the absence of atmosphere, which makes the parachutes ineffective.
Instead, spacecraft must resort to precision controlled propellers to slow down the descent.
Until the success of the first mission of intuitive machines, Only five national space agencies had achieved this feat: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan, in that order.
The United States is working for private lunar missions to become routine through the Public-Private Lunar Load Services (CLPS) of NASA, endowed with 2.6 billion dollars.
These missions arrive at a crucial moment for the space agency, in the midst of speculation that it could reduce or even cancel its Lunar Artemis program in favor of prioritizing the exploration of Mars, a key objective of both President Donald Trump and his close advisor, the founder of Spacex Elon Musk.