Blue Ghost completes successful lunar mission, ends operations
The Blue Ghost spacecraft has successfully completed its mission on the moon. This mission lasted a full lunar day, which is about two weeks in Earth time. Blue Ghost, built by the Texas startup Firefly Aerospace, performed various experiments, including drilling into the lunar soil. Blue Ghost was launched in January and reached the moon in February. It landed on March 2 in a region called Mare Crisium. This marked a significant achievement as it became the first commercial spacecraft to land on the moon successfully on its first attempt. Several companies and countries had attempted moon landings recently, but many faced failures. However, Blue Ghost's successful landing stands out in a field where others, like some missions from Japan and Israel, did not succeed. NASA sponsored Blue Ghost's mission, paying Firefly $101.5 million to carry several science and technology experiments. One significant experiment involved collecting soil samples with a new technology called PlanetVac. This method could help future missions collect samples from planetary bodies more easily. During its mission, Blue Ghost also observed a total solar eclipse. This event caused a dramatic temperature drop, forcing the spacecraft to rely on its batteries for power during darkness. As the mission came to an end on March 16, Blue Ghost took final images and delivered a farewell message. It expressed hopes that it would continue to inspire humanity's journey into space, even though it was not designed to survive the cold lunar night. Firefly Aerospace plans to listen for any signals from Blue Ghost after the sun rises on the moon again next month.