Lander “Blue Ghost” of the American Firefly Aerospace has dropped from Lunar orbit autonomously, by targeting the slopes of ancient Volcanian Dome in a striking pool on the northeast edge of the moon.
Confirmation of landing came from the company’s control center of the Mission in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, after the action was performed at a distance of 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers).
“We are in the Moon,” the mission’s control center reported, adding that Lander “stable”.
Smooth, upright landing makes Firefly a first private enterprise that set a spacecraft on the moon without an accident or overturning. Even the states have experienced failures, and only five claim that they are successful: Russia, USA, China, India and Japan.
Two more landers of other companies follow Blue Ghost, and is expected to arrive next to the month later this week.
Launched in mid-January from Florida, Lander Height 2 meters wore 10 experiments to the month for NASA. The Space Agency paid $ 101 million for delivery, plus 44 million dollars for science and technology on board. This is the third mission within the NASA program of commercial lunar delivery, which aims to encourage the Lunar economy of competing private companies while the upcoming astronaut mission is later in this decade.
Lander was wearing a vacuum for suction soil for analysis and drill that measures the temperature of up to 3 meters below the surface. He also had a device for the elimination of abrasive lunar dust – the problem that the Astronauts Apollo mission had, because the dust was set to scuffander and equipment.
On his way to the moon, Blue Ghost sent beautiful pictures of the domestic planet. Lander continued to surprise and after he entered the orbit about the moon, making detailed pictures of gray, crater covered with the area of the moon. At the same time, he followed the OnBoard receiver and adopted signals from the US GPS and the European Galileo system, which is an encouraging step forward in navigation for future researchers.
Opportunity for a new wave of visitors
The landing set a scene for a new wave of visitors who want to be part of the lunar business.
Another Lander – high and slender, of 4 meters, built and managed by Intuitive Machines based in Houston – should land on the month Thursday. Targets on the bottom of the month, only 160 kilometers from the southern sex. It’s closer to half than the company managed last year with his first lander who broke his leg and rolled over.
Despite that overturning, Lander Intuitive Machines returned the US for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. years.
Third Lander, from the Japanese company Ishace, should land in three months. He shared a rocket with Blue Ghostom with Cape Canaveral 15. January, but he chose a longer and curved path. Like Intuitive Machines, the iSPACE tries to land on a month for another time. His first Lander crashed in 2023. years.
The moon is full of wrecks, not just the iSPACE, but a tenth of other failed attempts through decades.
NASA wants to maintain a pace of two private Lunar Lander a year, aware that some of them will fail, said the Chief Scientific Officer of the Nicky Fox Agency.
Unlike NASA’s successful Apollo missions that had billions and astronauts for management, private companies operate with a limited budget and robotic spacecraft that they must land themselves, said Firefly CEO, Jason Kim.
“Every time we go upstairs, we learn from each other,” Kim said.
(Vijesti.ba)
