Latest news with #LuGRE
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Firefly Aerospace Successfully Completes 14 Days of Surface Operations on the Moon
All 10 NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) instruments successfully operated on the lunar surface and collected their science data during Blue Ghost Mission 1CEDAR PARK, Texas, March 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Firefly Aerospace, the leader in end-to-end responsive space services, today announced it met 100 percent of its mission objectives for Blue Ghost Mission 1 after performing the first fully successful commercial Moon landing on March 2, completing more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight), and operating just over 5 hours into the lunar night with the final data received around 6:15 pm CDT on March 16. This achievement marks the longest commercial operations on the Moon to date. 'After a flawless Moon landing, the Firefly team immediately moved into surface operations to ensure all 10 NASA payloads could capture as much science as possible during the lunar day,' said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. 'We're incredibly proud of the demonstrations Blue Ghost enabled from tracking GPS signals on the Moon for the first time to robotically drilling deeper into the lunar surface than ever before. We want to extend a huge thank you to the NASA CLPS initiative and the White House administration for serving as the bedrock for this Firefly mission. It has been an honor to enable science and technology experiments that support future missions to the Moons, Mars, and beyond.' Throughout the mission, Blue Ghost transmitted more than 119 GB of data back to Earth, including 51 GB of science and technology data, significantly surpassing Firefly's mission requirements. Key payload milestones completed on the surface include the following: LuGRE: Integrated on Blue Ghost's antenna gimbal on the top deck, LuGRE successfully acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, from satellite networks such as GPS and Galileo, on the way to and on the Moon's surface for the first time. This achievement suggests GPS-like signals could be used to navigate future missions to the Moon and beyond. NGLR: Also mounted on Blue Ghost's antenna gimbal, the Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) successfully reflected laser pulses from Earth-based Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories (LLROs), allowing scientists to precisely measure the Moon's shape and distance from Earth, expanding our understanding of the Moon's inner structure. LEXI: Mounted on Blue Ghost's top deck on another Firefly-developed gimbal, the Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) captured a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding Earth affect the planet. LMS: Blue Ghost also deployed four tethered Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) electrodes on the surface, reaching a distance up to 60 feet from the lander, and deployed a six-foot mast above its top deck to enable the payload team to measure electric and magnetic fields and learn more about the Moon's composition up to 700 miles, or two-thirds the distance to the Moon's center. RadPC: Integrated below Blue Ghost's top deck, RadPC demonstrated a computer that can withstand space radiation while in transit to the Moon, including through the Earth's Van Allen Belts, and on the Moon's surface. RAC: Mounted above Blue Ghost's lower deck, the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) instrument examined how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon's environment, allowing the industry to better test, improve, and protect spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive regolith. SCALPSS: Mounted below Blue Ghost's lower deck, the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) instrument captured images during the spacecraft's lunar descent and touchdown on the Moon, providing insights into the effects engine plumes have on the surface for future robotics and crewed Moon landings. LISTER: Also mounted below Blue Ghost's lower deck, the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) payload drilled about three feet into the surface to measure the temperature and flow of heat from the Moon's interior. This pneumatic, gas-powered drill is now the deepest-reaching robotic planetary subsurface probe. Lunar PlanetVac: Deployed on Blue Ghost's surface access arm, the Lunar PlanetVac successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar regolith from the Moon using pressurized nitrogen gas, proving to be a low cost, low mass solution for future robotic sample collection. EDS: Also deployed on Blue Ghost's surface access arm, the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully lifted and removed lunar regolith using electrodynamic forces on the glass and thermal radiator surfaces. These results confirm EDS as a promising solution for dust mitigation on future lunar and interplanetary surface operations. During surface operations, Firefly's Blue Ghost lander captured high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse on March 14. This marks the first time in history a commercial company was actively operating on the Moon and able to observe a solar eclipse where the Earth blocks the sun and casts a shadow on the lunar surface. Blue Ghost operated the LMS, RAC, and SCALPSS payloads during this unique phenomenon to measure changes in the lunar dust and radiation environment. 'This team continues to make near-impossible achievements look easy, but there is no such thing as an easy Moon landing, especially on your first attempt,' said Will Coogan, Blue Ghost Chief Engineer at Firefly Aerospace. 'We battle tested every system on the lander and simulated every mission scenario we could think of to get to this point. But what really sets this team apart is the passion and commitment to each other. Our team may look younger and less experienced than those of many nations and companies that attempted Moon landings before us, but the support we have for one another is what fuels the hard work and dedication to finding every solution that made this mission a success." Firefly also captured imagery of the lunar sunset on March 16, providing NASA with data on whether lunar dust levitates due to solar influences and creates a lunar horizon glow that was hypothesized and observed by Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17. Following the sunset, Blue Ghost operated for 5 hours into the lunar night and continued to capture imagery that measures how dust behavior changes after sunset. Firefly and NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. CDT on March 18 from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss the mission operations and science collected on the Moon's surface. The lunar sunset imagery and findings will also be shared at this time. Looking ahead, Firefly is ramping up for annual missions to the Moon. The team has begun qualifying and assembling flight hardware for Blue Ghost Mission 2, which will utilize Firefly's Blue Ghost lander stacked on an Elytra Dark orbital vehicle for operations in lunar orbit and on the far side of the Moon. About Firefly AerospaceFirefly Aerospace is an end-to-end responsive space company with launch, lunar, and on-orbit services. Headquartered in central Texas, Firefly is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners ('AEI') focused on delivering rapid, reliable, and affordable space access for government and commercial customers. Firefly's small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide the space industry with a single source for missions from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond. For more information, visit Media Contactpress@ Media GalleryBlue Ghost Mission 1: Ghost Riders in the Sky | FlickrPhotos accompanying this announcement are available at: in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA Detected GPS Signals From 243,000 Miles Away... on the Moon
For the first time, NASA has detected a signal from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) nearly 250,000 miles from Earth. The signal was part of the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) experiment, a co-mission between NASA and the Italian Space Agency. Being able to make use of GPS signals will allow future missions to rely on automation rather than human operators. Perhaps the crown jewel of NASA's near-term roadmap for human space exploration is the Artemis mission: our return-trip to the Moon that's more than half a century in the making. However, this time (if all goes well), our visit to the lunar surface won't be a one-off mission. Instead, it will serve as a major step toward permanent habitation of Earth's only natural satellite. However, that journey toward creating a lunar civilization is littered with immensely difficult hurdles. Radiation is one big one (seeing as the Moon is awash in the stuff), as is the acquisition or creation of necessities like air, water, and food. But the bus doesn't stop at major inconveniences—there are also some minor ones that make habitation on the Moon difficult, and that includes a lack of GPS. On Earth, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) does more than just provide hyper-accurate directions—it's the backbone of the world economy. It's also vital for accurate automation, which will be crucial on the Moon, as some form of robotics will be needed to do a lot of the heavy lifting. To that end, earlier this week, NASA (in partnership with the Italian Space Agency) cleared this technological hurdle by receiving signals from the GNSS system on the lunar surface as part of the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) experiment. This marks the first time humans have ever used GPS on the Moon. 'On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from smartphones to airplanes,' NASA's Kevin Coggins said in a press statement. 'Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.' On March 2, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander touched down on the lunar surface (which is located some 225,000 miles away from Earth) and subsequently delivered LuGRE. At 2 a.m. EST on March 3, NASA successfully tracked signals from two satellites in the GNSS constellation (GPS and Galileo) on the lunar surface. While that alone is an impressive milestone that surpasses the previous GPS distance record—held by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, which launched back in 2015—LuGRE also continued receiving a GNSS signal while in orbit around the Moon, pushing the ultimate distance traveled by the signal out to a staggering 243,000 miles from Earth. Usually, NASA tracks spacecraft using human operators and ground-based racing stations. But the confirmation of acquiring of GNSS signal in lunar orbit will be a huge boon for automating navigation both around the Moon and in cislunar orbit, which is the destination of choice for NASA's Gateway space station. For LuGRE—the first Italian-made space hardware to ever land on the Moon—the mission is only beginning. It will continue to operate continuously for the next two weeks, hopefully providing even more good news about GNSS's capabilities on the lunar surface. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Saba Yemen
07-03-2025
- Science
- Saba Yemen
Historic experiment to determine locations on Moon successfully conducted
Washington - Saba: NASA and the Italian Space Agency succeeded in conducting an experiment to determine locations on the moon using the orbital space navigation systems GPS and Galileo. It is worth noting that the devices of the American Blue Ghost probe, which landed last week on the surface of the moon, included the LuGRE device, as a receiver for signals received from the space navigation system, which includes the American GPS, the European Galileo, the Russian Glonass, and the Chinese BeiDou. Kevin Coggins, director of the Space Communications and Navigation Program at NASA, said today, Thursday: "LuGRE showed that we can successfully receive and track GNSS signals on the moon. This is a very important discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to use this capability for future missions." He added: "The receiver reached the moon in operating mode, and immediately after landing, the American Goddard Space Flight Center began decoding its data." It was then officially announced that LuGRE had received and tracked signals for the first time in history on the surface of the Moon, and had identified a navigation point more than 360,000 kilometers from Earth.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA Beams The First GPS Signals to The Moon
While there aren't any confused tourists finding their way from A to B on the Moon right now, accurately navigating the lunar surface is going to be crucial for astronauts on future missions. To lay the foundations for a lunar navigation system, NASA's Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) has successfully received global positioning system (GPS) signals beamed from Earth's orbit. Part of the Blue Ghost mission that landed on the Moon on March 2, LuGRE's instrument received and tracked communications from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS); a network of satellite-based location technologies that includes GPS. "On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from smartphones to airplanes," says Kevin Coggins, from NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. "Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions." It means spacecraft in orbit around the Moon and on its surface will be able to precisely track their positions and velocities against the current time on Earth, enabling navigation technologies to find routes between lunar locations. Lunar GPS should also help spacecraft traveling between Earth and the Moon. Currently, spacecraft positioning is calculated using a complex mix of observations and sensor readings, and it can be quite labor-intensive – so the new approach should save time for astronauts and ground control crew. LuGRE is going to continue to stay in touch with GNSS for 14 days across a distance of some 225,000 miles or around 360,000 kilometers. This should further test the viability of the hardware, and identify any potential bugs. This is also an important point in space history for the Italian Space Agency (ISA): LuGRE is the first piece of kit developed with the help of the agency to make it to the Moon. Once the technology is established, NASA and ISA want to offer it to all space exploration agencies. The LuGRE project is one of many currently underway that are part of the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon by 2027, and eventually establish a long-term base on the lunar surface. "This mission is more than a technological milestone," says flight dynamics engineer Joel Parker, from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "We want to enable more and better missions to the Moon for the benefit of everyone, and we want to do it together with our international partners." Intuitive Machines Is Set For Lunar Landing – With Hopping Drone, Ice Drill, And 4G Radio Telescopes Are Revealing a Trove of Faint Circular Objects in The Sky Water May Have Come Into Existence Far Earlier Than We Ever Realized
The Independent
06-03-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Nasa uses GPS on the Moon for the first time
Nasa has successfully used GPS navigation on the lunar surface for the first time. The demonstration, which also involved the Italian Space Agency, is expected to signal a new era of exploration and discovery on the Moon. Using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the experiment involved successfully acquiring and tracking Earth-based signals from 362,000 kilometres (225,000 miles) away. 'On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from smartphones to airplanes,' said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for Nasa's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. 'Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.' The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) took place using Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander Blue Ghost, which became the first commercial craft to successfully reach the Moon after landing on its surface this week. GPS operations are set to continue for the next two weeks in an effort to collect more data and further develop the Moon's first advanced navigation system. Nasa hopes to use the technology for its upcoming Artemis missions, which will attempt to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Along with introducing GPS, Nasa is also working to create a new standard of time for the Moon to be used by astronauts, spacecraft and satellites. Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) aims to address the disparities between Earth-based timekeeping and the Moon, where a day lasts 29.5 Earth days. Differing gravitational forces also mean that Earth-based clocks appear to lose 58.7 microseconds per Earth day. 'An atomic clock on the moon will tick at a different rate than a clock on Earth,' Kevin Coggins, Nasa's top communications and navigation official, said last year. 'It makes sense that when you go to another body, like the moon or Mars that each one gets its own heartbeat.'
