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Blue Ghost M1

Names	Blue Ghost 1 TO 19D
Mission type	Lunar landing
Operator	Firefly Aerospace
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Blue Ghost
Manufacturer	Firefly Aerospace
Start of mission
Launch date	January 15, 2025 (2025-01-15Z) UTC
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site	Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Lunar lander
Landing site	Mare Crisium
Blue Ghost M1 mission insignia Commercial Lunar Payload Services← IM-1IM-2 →

Blue Ghost M1 is an upcoming robotic Moon landing mission by Firefly Aerospace scheduled for launch on January 15, 2025. It is a part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

Background and selection

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.

Mission hardware

Blue Ghost has four landing legs, communications, heating and solar power systems, and features multiple layers of insulation. The Blue Ghost solar panels, from subcontractor SolAero By Rocket Lab, provide a maximum of 650 W of power. ASI by Rocket Lab provides flight, ground and GN&C software, trajectory design, orbit determination, and software testbed integration. Firefly asserts that in house end to end manufacturing and testing of the Blue Ghost structure is a differentiator among the CLPS landers.

Mission events

Prior to launch

The mission is planned to land at Mare Crisium, a 500 km (310 mi) 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, 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. Firefly's future MLV launch vehicle is expected to support future Blue Ghost missions.

Timeline

• 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.
• 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.
• In June 2024, the company announced the engines were integrated and the lander would soon be scheduled for launch.
• In July 2024, the company reiterated a Q4 2024 launch.
• Pre launch environmental testing began in August at JPL.
• In November 2024, the company announced that Blue Ghost was ready for launch, and would launch in mid-January 2025.
• On January 7, 2025, Firefly aerospace announced that the mission was set to launch at 1:11 a.m. EST (06:11 UTC) on January 15, 2025.

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 to extend the reach of GPS signals and, if successful, be the first to discern GPS signals at lunar distances.

See also

• Chandrayaan-3
• Commercial Lunar Payload Services
• List of missions to the Moon
• Luna 25
• Peregrine Mission One
• Smart Lander for Investigating Moon

Notes

References

1. Brett Tingley (January 7, 2025). "SpaceX launch of private Blue Ghost moon lander set for Jan. 15". Space.com. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
2. "Firefly Aerospace Completes Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Structure Ahead of Moon Landing for NASA". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved May 13, 2024.
3. "Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lunar Lander is Assembled". October 16, 2023.
4. ^ "NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023" (Press release). NASA. February 4, 2021. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Foust, Jeff (May 20, 2021). "Firefly selects SpaceX to launch its lunar lander". SpaceNews. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
6. Firefly Aerospace (May 20, 2021). "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" (Tweet). Retrieved May 20, 2021 – via Twitter.
7. "Firefly Aerospace Completes Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Structure Ahead of Moon Landing for NASA". October 4, 2023.
8. Parsonson, Andrew (April 29, 2024). "Nammo UK Prepares to Deliver Engine for US Lunar Lander". European Spaceflight. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
9. "One step closer to launch and landing as our Firefly team installed Blue Ghost's main engine".
10. @Firefly_Space (July 30, 2024). "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" (Tweet). Retrieved October 2, 2024 – via Twitter.
11. Foust, Jeff (August 26, 2024). "Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander begins pre-launch environmental tests". SpaceNews. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
12. "Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission 1 to the Moon Readies for Launch". Firefly Aerospace. November 25, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
13. @Firefly_Space (January 7, 2025). "Buckle up! Our road trip to the Moon is set to launch at 1:11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 15" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links

v t e Artemis program
List of missions astronauts Commercial Lunar Payload Services Exploration Ground Systems Gateway Logistics Services
Missions	Uncrewed Artemis I (2022) Peregrine Mission One (2024) IM-1 (2024) Blue Ghost M1 (2024) IM-2 (2025) Crewed Artemis II (2025) Artemis III (2026) Artemis IV (2028) Artemis V (2030)
Agencies	NASA Australian Space Agency Canadian Space Agency European Space Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency State Space Agency of Ukraine Korea Aerospace Research Institute New Zealand Space Agency Brazilian Space Agency Saudi Space Commission
Facilities	Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-37B SLC-40 SLC-41 SLC-46 Kennedy Space Center LC-39A LC-39B Mission Control Center SpaceX Starbase Vandenberg Space Force Base SLC-3E SLC-4E White Sands Missile Range
Rockets	Electron Falcon 9 Falcon Heavy Space Launch System Starship Vulcan Centaur Ariane 6 New Glenn
Crewed spacecraft	Human Landing System Starship Blue Moon Lunar Gateway Lunar Terrain Vehicle Orion European Service Module
Robotic spacecraft	CAPSTONE HERACLES Argonaut Nova-C Peregrine VIPER rover
Category

• 2025 in Florida
• Exploration of the Moon
• Kennedy Space Center
• Missions to the Moon
• Soft landings on the Moon