SpaceX has just launched two private lunar landers. Here’s what happens next

Update: Wednesday, January 15, 9:10 a.m. ETSpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and ispace’s Resilience lander, successfully lifted off earlier this morning at 1:11 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Firefly says so Managed to obtain a signal and complete commissioning in orbitSo it looks like the job is off to a good start.

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The moon is about to get busy. A pair of landers are riding aboard a SpaceX rocket this week, aiming to land on the moon and unload a batch of scientific instruments. Both missions are part of a commercial lunar exploration campaign, marking the beginning of a new era for private spaceflight.

Aerospace firefly Blue Ghost ispace’s Resilience lander and lander are Scheduled for release on WednesdayJanuary 15 at 1:11 a.m. ET. The missions will lift off from Launch Complex-39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. NASA will live stream the launch on its website Website and NASA+with the broadcast beginning at 12:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. You can also listen to the live stream below.

Journey to the moon

Although both probes will launch together, each will follow a different path toward the Moon. Firefly a taskThe probe, called “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” will take 45 days to reach the moon. For the first 25 days after launch, the Blue Ghost lander will orbit Earth before performing an engine burn to put it on a path toward the Moon. Blue Ghost will spend four days on its way to the Moon, and another 16 days in Earth’s satellite orbit before attempting a soft landing on its dusty surface.

The Resilience lander, on the other hand, will follow a much slower route to reach the Moon. After operating in an elliptical transfer orbit, the lander will flyby the Moon, switching to a low-energy trajectory for the planned soft landing on the Moon.

The Japanese startup’s first mission to the Moon, launched in April 2023, took about four and a half months to reach lunar orbit, but the lander ultimately failed to continue its descent to the surface; The Hakuto-R 1 (M1) Lunar Lander mission, as it was called, It fell toward the moon and crashed on its surface. The Hakuto-R M1 was carrying commercial and government-owned payloads, including a small two-wheeled convertible robot from the Japan Aerospace Agency.

Clear for landing

After their journey to the Moon, both rovers will target lunar mares, flat, dark plains formed by ancient collisions that were later flooded with lava and other materials.

More specifically, Blue Ghost Mare targets Crisium, an ancient asteroid impact site that was filled with basalt lava. The age of the basalts at Marecrisium ranges between 2.5 and 3.3 billion years, according to… NASA.

As for ispace’s Resilience rover, the lander is scheduled to explore Mare Frigoris, located in the northernmost regions of the Moon. The site’s name translates to “cold sea,” as it extends along the northern part of the lunar disk for about 900 miles (1,400 kilometers).

What’s inside the Blue Ghost lander?

Texas-based Firefly’s first mission to the moon is a collaboration with NASA as part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to develop commercial delivery services to the moon. NASA is working with industry partners to build landers that can package their science and technology payloads and deliver them to the lunar surface.

The Blue Ghost carries 10 scientific instruments to study the lunar surface and collect data to support future human missions to the moon, according to the British Daily Mail. NASA. Instruments include: LEXI (or Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager), which will take a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field; the Lunar Magnetic Sounder, designed to measure electric and magnetic fields to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle; And the Stereo Camera for Lunar Feather Surface Studies, which will capture how the plume disturbs the lunar regolith when the blue ghost lands on the moon’s surface.

The mission is scheduled to operate for a full lunar day, the equivalent of 14 Earth days. During this time, Blue Ghost will also capture images of lunar sunsets, collecting data on how regolith on the Moon interacts with solar influences during lunar dusk.

What did ispace do on its lunar mission?

Tokyo-based ispace is transporting privately owned customer payloads to the moon aboard its lander, including a food production experiment, a deep space radiation probe, and a commemorative metal plate.

The Resilience lander also carries a small rover called Tenacious, to explore the landing site, collect lunar regolith, and transmit data to the lander, according to engadget. com. ispace. Tenacious is equipped with a high-definition camera and a shovel. A model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg will be installed on the rover, which we assume is intended for decorative purposes.

This launch is just the tip of the iceberg, with more spacecraft set to follow in the coming months and years. Intuitive machines, which have become The first private company to land on the moon In February 2024, it is preparing to launch the second lunar lander toward the Moon. Its second mission is scheduled to launch sometime in February and will target the moon’s south polar region.

Astrobotic, which He failed in his first attempt to land on the moon in January 2024, and is hoping for better luck this year. The Pittsburgh-based company plans to launch the Griffin Mission One lunar lander sometime in 2025 under NASA’s CLPS initiative.

As the private space industry continues to grow, moon landings will likely become a regular event as companies develop lunar delivery services. What we are about to witness this week is just the beginning.

Additional reporting by George Dvorsky.