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Firefly Aerospace’s first Blue Ghost Lunar Lander tries to land on the moon in the rendering of this artist. It will really try on March 2, 2025. | Credit: Firefly Aerospace
The private space airline Firefly Aerospace will land the first moon in the early Sunday times (March 2) and you can see it live, but you have to know when and where you can watch. Fortunately, we covered it.
The Robotblue Ghost Lander from Firefly Aerospace is said to end up on the moon on Sunday Not earlier than 3:34 am EST (0834 GMT) When it ends up on the wide sea of crises (or mare crises). You can watch the landing live on this page with the kind permission of NASA and Firefly Aerospace, which start about an hour before the landing attempt.
The Blue Ghost of 93.3 million US dollars was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets with 10 NASA experiments as part of the commercial Lunar benefit services of the agency or CLPS program. If everything goes well, the probe will spend two weeks to study the surface of the moon, but first it has to land safely. Read on for the exact timing of Blue Ghost’s Moon Landing and what it will do on the surface of the moon. And take a look at this fantastic Blue Ghost video by The Moon during a recent orbit.
When will Blue Ghost land on the moon?
The last phases of the Blue Ghost Moon Landers from Firefly Aerospace are shown here as they record the last hour before the touchdown. | Credit: Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Aerospace is Currently aimed at landing at 3:34 a.m. For the Blue Ghost Lander (it will be 2:34 a.m. CST in the company’s central texas), but the landing sequence itself begins much earlier.
“Our Landing event really takes place for over an hour,” said Ray Allensworth, program director of Firefly Aerospace, in an interview with the Mike Wall from Space.com. “A few hours before the actual event, we send the commands to the Lander.”
These commands set the stage for a deorbit and landing process, the takes about 63 minutesStarting with a so -called descent orbit, in which the landlord is 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface. The country will then drive to a height of 20 km (20 km) and then burn its engines in a “driven relegation initialization” (or PDI).
“PDI to landing is completely autonomous, so that our software packages in board take control of the landing completely,” said Allensworth, adding that the onboard navigation system from Blue Ghost, cameras and distance finders to find a safe place to the country.
“So that 12 to 13 minutes will be a bit naily, but it’s autonomous,” she added.
Can I see the Blue Ghost from Firefly Aerospace live?
Yes, you can definitely see how Blue Ghost tries to land on the moon in real time in live streams from NASA and Firefly Aerospace.
The Livestream of NASA starts about an hour before the start at 2:30 a.m. EST (0730 GMT) and runs through the landing. You can see live on the NASA+ streaming service and the NASA -Youtube channel. It is Livestream from NASA that Space.com carries out this page and on our front page.
Firefly Aerospace offers daily updates for Blue Ghost missions on its website and has set up its own YouTube feed for landing day. This livestream starts at 2:20 a.m. EST (0720 GMT).
Regardless of the YouTube feed you are watching, the Blue Ghost landing attempt could be a nail-bite experience, since it is the first of its kind for Firefly Aerospace. Nevertheless, the spaceship has been carried out smoothly on its 45-day trip to the moon.
“I think with everyone we have done, we started to have started to trust, especially because some of our burns had such extreme precision”, Allensworth. “We say: ‘Oh, okay, we did it well. How, we are prepared. It’s going well.”
Where will Blue Ghost land on the moon?
This NASA card shows the location of the strong impact basin mare crisis or the sea of crises on the ground of the moon near side. Blue Ghost land here. | Credit: NASA
The Blue Ghost Lander from Firefly Aerospace will end up in a huge impact pool on the near side of the moon, the side of the earth, the mare crisium (the sea of crises).
Mare Crisium is a basalt level that, according to NASA, covers the size of the US state of Missouri about as large as 176,000 square kilometers of the moon.
“It is the scar that was left behind when a massive asteroid had the moon surface a few billion years ago and the crater was flooded with dark, magmatic lava,” NASA wrote in an overview. Blue Ghost is aimed at a point on a low volcanic dome called Mons Latreille in the pool. Scientists suspect that the region is unique in the end of the 1960s and early 1970s by the Astronauts of Apollo Landing sites visited by astronauts and could provide new discoveries about the composition of the moon.
Allensworth said Blue Ghost aims at a zone that is about 328 feet long.
What rides the moon on Blue Ghost?
The rendering of this artist shows the usual nights on the Blue Ghost SpaceCraft, which is supposed to deliver the experiment to the moon. | Credit: Firefly Aerospace
There are 10 NASA protection loads that drive on the Blue Spirit, all attached to the spaceship, which is 6.6 feet high and is 11.5 feet wide. The payloads weigh a total of around 150 kilograms. Here is a quick look at what you are, but for a deeper dive you see our story about what is on board, Blue Ghost.
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Next generation moon A device that serves as a reflective goal for impulses that are shot from the earth-based moon laser observation observations in order to measure the distance between the earth and the moon within the sub-millimeter range.
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Regolith adherence characterization: An experiment with 30 different types of material surfaces that are exposed to the surrounding area of the moon after landing the surrounding area to determine how they are affected by the moon environment and the dust.
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Lunar environment of heliosphean X -ray images: An experiment that monitors the interaction of sun wind with the magnetosphere of the earth and how energy generates geomagnetic storms in this environment.
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Moon instrumentation for thermal research under the surface with speed: A small drill that is expected to cut up to 3 meters below the surface of the moon in order to measure the heat flow of the moon at different depths.
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Electrodynamic dust sign: A tech demonstration protection load to test how electric fields can manipulate moon dust on the moon surface.
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Radiation -tolerant computer system: Another technical demonstration to test a potential method to protect computers from the rough radiation environment in the room and on the moon.
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Moon magnetotelluric Sounder: This instrument is strange. Scientists will help calculate the electrical conductivity of the moon by monitoring the interactions between the sun wind and the magnetic field of the earth.
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Mondplanetvac: It is what it sounds-a vacuum-like device to collect moon dust samples with a pneumatic system that is driven with compressed gas.
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Stereo cameras for moon studies with a lunar surface: This is a camera on the Blue Ghost, which records pictures of the moon during the descent of the landing and examines how the drives of the probe absorbs dust during the touchdown.
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Lunar Gnss Receiver Experiment: This is a navigation system experiment in which attempts are made to use your own leadership and the navigation satellite system (GNSS) for space vehicles to use the moon.
How long holds Blue Ghost on the moon?
Blue Ghost is not designed so that it holds on the moon forever.
It will take 45 days for the land to reach the surface of the moon, but the probe is only designed for a duration of a moon day that corresponds to about 14 earth days. This enables the NASA protection burdens of the solar-powered Blue Ghost to make their scientific observations during the moon day before the long night covers the region in darkness and cold.
However, it should be event -rich for two weeks, which shortly after a total lunar eclipse on March 14 on observers on earth becomes the moon blood red. It will look very different from Blue Ghost.
“On March 14th, Firefly expects to grasp high -resolution images of a total solar eclipse when the earth blocks the sun above the horizon of the moon,” Firefly Aerospace wrote in an overview. “Blue Ghost will then capture the moon sunset on March 16 and provide data on how moon dust hovers due to sun influences and created a lunar horizon gloss, which was first documented by Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17.”
The moonlander should only take a few hours on the moon night before it is shut down, said Firefly Aerospace.
What if Blue Ghost can’t land on the moon?
Firefly Aerospace hopes for the best with the planned moon landing of Blue Ghost, but if the company is not able to land on time at Mare Crisium, it may have another chance.
While the target time for the Blue Ghost Moon Landing is 3:34 am EST (0834 GMT) It is possible that something appears before the landlord leaves the orbit that can lead to a delay. In this case, flight controllers could delay the landing and fly around the moon a few times.
If one of the last two descent and landing Burns “is not carried out perfectly the first time we try, we have the chance to go back to the moon on both burns, to make another orbit and try again,” said Allensworth. “That could delay our landing time by one to two hours.”
This decision is probably made in real time, since Blue Ghost circles the moon at a height of about 62 miles (100 km). It should take about 63 minutes to reach the surface of the moon as soon as it starts its descent.
Note from the publisher: Visit Space.com for the latest news about the Blue Ghost Mission from Firefly Aerospace and switch on on March 2 for our landing living stream and coverage. Space.com Spaceflight editor Mike Wall contributed to this report.
