This week: Firefly and Ispace are on double duty kraken marketplace
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slated to launch landers for both Firefly and Ispace is set to liftoff as soon as 1:11 a.m. ET Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
If all goes according to plan, Firefly’s lander, called Blue Ghost, will spend about 45 days making a careful approach to its lunar destination around Mons Latreille, an ancient volcanic feature in a more than 300-mile-wide (483-kilometer) basin called Mare Crisium, or the “Sea of Crises,” on the moon’s near side.
“Mare Crisium was created by early volcanic eruptions and flooded with basaltic lava more than 3 billion years ago,” according to Firefly. “This unique landing site will allow our payload partners to gather critical data about the Moon’s regolith (rock and dust rubble), geophysical characteristics, and the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field.”
On board Blue Ghost will be a group of science experiments and technology demonstrations, including ones that will test a “Lunar PlanetVac” to collect and sort soil samples on the moon, satellite navigation, radiation-adapated computers, and self-cleaning glass that can wipe away lunar dust, according to Firefly.