Posted on by Mark Thompson

Two Lunar Landers are Off to the Moon

Creating a golden streak in the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 15, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The Blue Ghost lander will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the lunar surface to further understand the Moon and help prepare for future human missions. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

Back in the 60’s and 70’s it was all about the Moon. The Apollo program took human beings to the Moon for the first time and now over 50 years later things are really hotting up again. The latest mission to head toward our celestial neighbour is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching Blue Ghost Mission 1 and the HAKUTO-R lander. The Blue Ghost is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and it carries a total of 10 NASA payloads, the other is a private Japanese enterprise to explore the Moon. The launch went well and both landers will arrive shortly. 

Continue reading “Two Lunar Landers are Off to the Moon”
Posted on by Matt Williams

NASA is Sending a Vacuum Cleaner to the Moon

The Lunar Planet Vac, or LPV, is one of 10 payloads set to be carried to the Moon by the Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander in 2025. Credit: Firefly Aerospace

By the end of this decade, NASA, the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA), Roscosmos, and other space agencies plan to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. A crucial aspect of these plans is using local resources (particularly water) to lessen dependence on Earth, a process known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Hence why NASA plans to establish a base of operations around the lunar south pole, a heavily cratered region where water ice exists in abundance in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs).

To harvest water ice and other resources successfully, NASA is investing in technologies that will enable cost-effective sample collection, in-situ testing (with or without astronaut oversight), and real-time data transmission to Earth. One such technology is the Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), a sample acquisition and delivery system designed to collect and transfer lunar regolith to sample containers without reliance on gravity. The LPV is one of 10 payloads that will be flown to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Continue reading “NASA is Sending a Vacuum Cleaner to the Moon”