Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander is approaching lunar noon – with the lunar day shooting up to 250°F (121°C).
Firefly Aerospace reports that Blue Ghost has begun planned power cycling to keep the lander as cool as possible.
“With eight payloads’ objectives already complete, we aim to continue operating our two remaining payloads throughout these power cycles,” the Blue Ghost team reports. “We’ll gradually get back to full power once the surface temperatures start to cool down again. Stay tuned for more!”
Blue Ghost landed near a volcanic featured called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, and is set to operate for 14 Earth days, or roughly one lunar day.
Photo of the LISTER prototype – about the size of a shoebox. When integrated into the Blue Ghost lander, the right side points down.
Image credit: Honeybee Robotics
Thermal probe
One experiment underway is the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, or LISTER. It is the deepest-reaching robotic planetary subsurface thermal probe.
LISTER is one of 10 NASA payloads aboard the Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
LISTER’s pneumatic drill is designed to go as deep as three meters (9 feet). Every half meter, the drilling system will pause so that a thermal probe can gauge the temperature of the Moon.
Image captures LISTER in operation on the Moon.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace/NASA Marshall Space Flight Center/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Drill tip details
Texas Tech University in Lubbock and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company of Altadena, California, jointly developed LISTER. The payload is managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Lister is using ultra pure nitrogen (N2) gas to excavate and coiled tubing to push the drill tip down, reports Kris Zacny, Vice President, Exploration Systems at Honeybee Robotics. “We are at one meter [roughly 3 feet] depth now and could resume next week,” he explains.
In viewing video of LISTER, sparks can be seen, identified by Zacny as either reflection from the Sun or arching as the instrument disturbs highly charged regolith and provides atmosphere for arching to occur.
To watch the drill in action, go to this NASA Marshall Space Flight Center issued video at:
https://youtu.be/sgQLmh6FpoU?si=KvAwQK-5xoY9nnrc