Blue Ghost Lunar Lander of the firefly aerospace used the most of the last few hours of his life on the moon.
On Sunday evening (March 16), the solar-operated blue ghost closed, soon after the sun set on its lunar locker. The lander saw the lineage of our star and disappeared on the pit horizon, hitting the darkness in a poignant video, which Jugnu shared with the world today (18 March).
“These are the first high-language images of the sun that are going down and then going into darkness in the horizon (on the moon),” said Deputy Associate Administrator Joel Kirns today during a news conference for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
While the photos are beautiful, they are also of scientific interest, Kirns said, citing their ability to disintegrate the lunar surface and inform the model of lights.
“There will be a group of physics analysis and optics analysis that will be done on it,” he said.
Connected: Farewell, blue ghost! Private Moon Lander Record-breaking gets dark to end the commercial lunar mission
Blue Ghost launched a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the first-time Moon Mission of Firefly on 15 January, a flight sponsored by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Palor Services (CLPS) program. On 2 March, the lander set gently in the mare Crisium (“C of Cris”) area near the moon, which became just the second private vehicle for the lunar touchdown.
Blue Ghost and its 10 NASA Science Instruments operated as a plan for the next two weeks, collecting a variety of data about the lunar environment.
For example, lunar instrumentation of the agency for thermal exploration with rapidity (lister) payload drilled in near subsurf to measure temperature and heat flow. Another device, called the Lunar Planetwak, was collected and the resolith (dirt and gravel) was demonstrated, the techniques that could be used on sample-ritual missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.
And Blue Ghost snatched a series of breathtaking imagery, from the up-closes scenes of its own landing to a “diamond ring” new released sunset shots for solar eclipse.
“In NASA Science, we are incredibly pleased with the Blue Ghost Mission 1 in the result of the mission and also that the firefly and NASA payload teams have worked together to achieve something new,” Kirns said.
Blue Ghost was always expected to fulfill its end on Sunday; The lander was not designed to avoid the extreme cold of the lunar night, which lasts about two Earth weeks.
Representatives of the company said that the silence of the blue ghost is permanent permanent, although Jugnu would try the lander again after the sun rises over the mare chrysium.
“This lander has surprised me several times in the last two months, and things have gone very well,” said during today’s news conference during today’s news conference, director of Jugnu’s spacecraft program, and things have gone very well. “So, I will be optimistic. Probably we will find a sign in the beginning of April, and we will definitely tell you all what we do.”
