This page was generated automatically; to view the article at its original source, please follow the link below:
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-will-launch-2-private-lunar-landers-this-week-kicking-off-busy-year-for-moon-missions
if you wish to have this article removed from our website, kindly contact us.
Two private lunar landers are scheduled for launch this week on the same rocket, marking the beginning of a bustling year of lunar missions.
A six-day period for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will execute the missions commences early Wednesday morning (Jan. 15), with liftoff anticipated at 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT) from Launch Complex-39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
The Falcon 9 will transport both landers to Earth orbit, where they will then embark on individual paths toward the moon. Ghost Riders in the Sky is the mission for Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative aimed at delivering scientific instruments to the lunar surface. The second lander, Resilience, originates from the Japan-based company ispace, and represents the company’s second attempt to land on the moon. ispace’s Mission 2 will deploy following Blue Ghost and is expected to take approximately four times longer to achieve its objectives.
Blue Ghost is set to spend 25 days orbiting Earth before executing an engine burn to adjust its course toward the moon. After an additional 20 days — consisting of four in transit and another 16 in lunar orbit — assuming everything operates correctly, the lander will autonomously land in Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) to initiate two weeks of lunar scientific research.
Blue Ghost’s 60-day journey from Earth to the moon will conclude roughly five hours after sunset at its landing site. The spacecraft will conserve the remainder of its battery to capture an image of the lunar twilight before shutting down.
Related: Double moon mission! SpaceX to launch 2 private lunar landers in January
The Resilience lander will follow a significantly slower trajectory toward the moon, aiming for a landing approximately four to five months post-launch. As the second mission of ispace’s Hakuto-R program, Resilience features enhancements in hardware and software derived from experiences during Hakuto-R Mission 1. That mission successfully achieved lunar orbit but failed its landing attempt in April 2023 when an altitude sensor on the lander did not function as intended, causing a crash on the lunar surface.
ispace is adopting a gradual approach with Hakuto-R Mission 2, outlining a 10-step list of milestones that Resilience will achieve en route to the moon, along with a separate checklist for objectives attained following a successful landing. The lander aims for Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), situated in the northern hemisphere of the moon, where it will commence surface activities, including deploying a microrover named Tenacious, which will gather a sample of regolith (moon dust) under a contract with NASA.
Additional moon missions in the upcoming months
The Falcon 9 launch scheduled for this week will soon be followed by another lunar lander mission, this time from the only private company that has successfully made a landing on the lunar surface so far.
Intuitive Machines launched its first Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, in February 2024, which carried six NASA CLPS payloads along with several commercial payloads. During this mission, known as IM-1, Odysseus achieved a predominantly successful landing adjacent to the crater Malapert A, approximately 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the lunar south pole.
IM-2 is anticipated to launch in February and is also destined for the moon’s south polar area — specifically to a ridge near Shackleton Crater. IM-2 will carry numerous CLPS payloads for NASA, featuring an instrument referred to as PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) designed to help establish the presence of water ice in that region.
A third Nova-C lander is set to transport another series of CLPS experiments and technology trials to the lunar surface for NASA, and it is projected to launch sometime later in 2025 as part of the IM-3 mission.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is also aiming for this year with its Griffin Mission One, a probe carrying NASA CLPS payloads. The company’s Peregrine lunar lander was launched last year but did not reach the moon due to a fuel leak. Instead, its handlers returned the probe to Earth, where it disintegrated during atmospheric reentry above the Pacific Ocean.
NASA’s numerous CLPS contracts are intended to advance the agency’s Artemis program, which aspires to land astronauts on the moon by 2027 and eventually establish a base in the lunar southern pole region, where water ice seems to be abundant. Similar to the CLPS initiative, NASA has awarded Human Landing Services (HLS) contracts to various companies for delivering astronauts to the lunar surface. SpaceX’s Starship rocket secured NASA’s initial HLS contract and is anticipated to conduct numerous test launches in 2025, possibly including one around the moon.
Blue Origin acquired NASA’s second HLS contract, utilizing the company’s Blue Moon lander to transport astronauts to the lunar surface for missions extending beyond Artemis 3. TKThe successful inaugural launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Jan. 12 charts the course for the company’s MK1 Lunar Lander pathfinder mission, aiming for a potential 2025 launch as well.
This page was generated automatically; to view the article at its original source, please follow the link below:
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-will-launch-2-private-lunar-landers-this-week-kicking-off-busy-year-for-moon-missions
if you wish to have this article removed from our website, kindly contact us.
