WASHINGTON — NASA chosen Firefly Aerospace for a 3rd lunar lander mission, this one together with a rover, to launch in 2028.
NASA introduced Dec. 18 it awarded Firefly a job order although its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program for a mission to the Gruithuisen Domes area on the close to facet of the moon. The job order is valued at $179.6 million.
The mission, utilizing Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, will ship to the moon six payloads to carry out imaging, spectroscopy and different observations, in addition to pattern lunar regolith. Some of the devices will likely be mounted on a rover that Firefly is providing from an unnamed “business supplier.”
A key aim of the mission is to assist scientists perceive the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, a area with rocks that look like constructed from magma wealthy in silica, just like granite. On Earth, granite kinds from plate tectonics and within the presence of water, each of that are missing on the moon, making scientists uncertain how the Gruithuisen Domes fashioned.
“Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, in addition to the traditional lava flows surrounding the touchdown web site, will assist the U.S. reply vital questions in regards to the lunar floor,” stated Joel Kearns, deputy affiliate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in an announcement.
The award is among the many largest CLPS job orders thus far, behind solely the award to Astrobotic for its Griffin lander initially slated to hold NASA’s VIPER lunar rover. That award, initially valued at $199.5 million, has since grown to greater than $300 million.
This was the second of two main CLPS job orders NASA officers beforehand indicated they deliberate to award this yr after a protracted hole to include classes realized from the primary CLPS missions to fly, Astrobotic’s Peregrine and Intuitive Machines’ IM-1. NASA awarded a job order to Intuitive Machines in August for the IM-4 mission that can go to the lunar south pole area in 2027.
NASA additionally awarded a job order to Blue Origin in August to fly a digicam payload on that firm’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander that’s flying a business demonstration mission in 2025.
The CLPS job order is the fourth for Firefly. That consists of three lunar landers in addition to one to offer radio frequency calibration companies from orbit to help a radio science payload on the second lander mission.
The first mission, Blue Ghost 1 or “Ghost Riders within the Sky,” is scheduled for launch in mid-January, with a touchdown within the Mare Crisium area of the close to facet of the moon about 45 days after launch. Blue Ghost 2 will observe in 2026, touchdown on the lunar farside. That mission will even deploy ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder communications satellite tv for pc into orbit.
Both the second and third Blue Ghost missions will use Firefly’s Elytra Dark as an orbital switch automobile, delivering the landers to lunar orbit. Those automobiles will stay in lunar orbit to offer communications companies.
“We have a manufacturing line of those landers,” stated Jason Kim, chief government of Firefly, throughout a NASA media teleconference Dec. 17 to debate the upcoming Blue Ghost 1 mission. “What’s nice about having a manufacturing line of those landers is that you simply be taught from the primary lander to the second lander, after which some.”
“Anything we be taught on Blue Ghost 1,” he stated, “I guarantee you we’re going to make it possible for we use these classes realized to enhance Blue Ghost 2 and on.”
