Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost moon lander has given us an amazing, up-close view of its epic lunar touchdown.
Blue Ghost landed softly on the moon on March 2, becoming just the second private spacecraft ever to do so. It’s carrying 10 NASA science instruments, including one called SCALPSS that was designed to document how a spacecraft’s thruster plumes interact with lunar dirt and rock during touchdown.
We learned today (March 13) that SCALPSS was up to the job, capturing unprecedented footage of Blue Ghost’s descent and touchdown in the Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”), a volcanic basin on the moon’s near side.
“Although the data is still preliminary, the 3,000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for in order to better understand plume-surface interaction and learn how to accurately model the phenomenon based on the number, size, thrust and configuration of the engines,” Rob Maddock, SCALPSS project manager, said in a NASA statement today that accompanied the newly released video.
“The data is vital to reducing risk in the design and operation of future lunar landers as well as surface infrastructure that may be in the vicinity,” Maddock added. “We have an absolutely amazing team of scientists and engineers, and I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them.”
Related: Watch sparks fly as Blue Ghost lander drills into the moon (video)
SCALPSS — short for Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies — consists of six different cameras. Four of them have a short focal length, which translates to a relatively wide field of view, while the other two have a longer focal length.
The newly released video stitches together imagery captured by the four wider-view cameras, which took photos at a rate of eight frames per second during Blue Ghost’s descent and landing.
“The sequence, using approximate altitude data, begins roughly 91 feet (28 meters) above the surface. The descent images show evidence that the onset of the interaction between Blue Ghost’s reaction control thruster plumes and the surface begins at roughly 49 feet (15 meters),” NASA officials wrote in the same statement.
“As the descent continues, the interaction becomes increasingly complex, with the plumes vigorously kicking up the lunar dust, soil and rocks — collectively known as regolith,” they added. “After touchdown, the thrusters shut off and the dust settles. The lander levels a bit, and the lunar terrain beneath and immediately around it becomes visible.”
SCALPSS remains operational on the lunar surface. Its imagery will continue to reveal insights about the lunar dust environment as the sun’s position shifts over Mare Crisium, casting various shadows on the landscape.
Such data is of great interest to NASA. That’s because the agency is working to get astronauts back to the moon and set up one or more bases near the lunar south pole via its Artemis program.
“The successful SCALPSS operation is a key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the moon, and this technology is already providing data that could inform future missions,” Michelle Munk, SCALPSS principal investigator, said in the statement.
Blue Ghost’s other NASA payloads are also working as planned. For example, the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity experiment, or LISTER, has drilled into the moon to gauge heat flow.
Meanwhile, the Lunar PlanetVac instrument has collected and sorted lunar regolith using pressurized nitrogen gas, demonstrating a sample-gathering technique that could be put to use on Mars and other worlds in the future.
But Blue Ghost’s days are numbered; the solar-powered lander is expected to conk out shortly after the sun sets over Mare Crisium on March 16. Still, the lander could go out with a bang: The mission team plans to capture imagery of tonight’s total lunar eclipse, providing a unique look at this highly anticipated skywatching event.
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