The Blue Ghost spacecraft, built by Firefly Aerospace, has successfully completed its mission on the moon, making it the first completely successful landing by a commercial company on the lunar surface. The small car-sized spacecraft conducted various experiments, including drilling into the lunar soil, taking X-ray images of Earth’s magnetic field, and seeking a mysterious yellow glow at sunset.
NASA sponsored the mission, paying Firefly $101.5 million to carry 10 science and technology payloads to the lunar surface. One of the experiments, PlanetVac, demonstrated a technology to simplify soil and rock collection, while another experiment, Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder, gathered data about naturally occurring currents inside the moon.
During its time on the moon, Blue Ghost photographed a solar eclipse, witnessed a total lunar eclipse, and captured high-resolution images of the sunset. The spacecraft sent out a final message before the lunar night began, expressing gratitude to the team that designed and operated it.
While the spacecraft was not designed to survive the bitter cold of the lunar night, there is still hope that it may revive after the sun rises again. The success of Blue Ghost marks a significant milestone in commercial lunar exploration, as many other missions from various countries and companies have ended in crashes or failures.
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