More NASA Science,
Tech will Fly to Moon Aboard Future Firefly Flight
Dec 18, 2024
RELEASE 24-152
A rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander and a rover developed for the company’s third mission to the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS
(Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.
Credit: Firefly Aerospace
NASA continues to advance its campaign to explore more of the Moon than ever before, awarding Firefly Aerospace $179 million to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface. This fourth
task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon in 2028.
As part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign, Firefly will deliver a group of science
experiments and technology demonstrations under NASA’s CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, to these lunar domes, an area of ancient lava flows, to better understand planetary processes and evolution. Through CLPS, NASA is furthering our
understanding of the Moon’s environment and helping prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
“The CLPS initiative carries out U.S. scientific and technical studies on the surface of the Moon by robot explorers. As NASA prepares for future human exploration of the Moon, the
CLPS initiative continues to support a growing lunar economy with American companies,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen
Domes, as well as the ancient lava flows surrounding the landing site, will help the U.S. answer important questions about the lunar surface.”
Firefly’s first lunar delivery is
scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-January 2025 and will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, on the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Firefly’s second
lunar mission includes two task orders: a lunar orbit drop-off of a satellite combined with a delivery to the lunar surface on the far side and a delivery of a lunar orbital calibration source, scheduled in 2026.
This new delivery in 2028 will send payloads to the Gruithuisen Domes and the nearby Sinus Viscositatus. The Gruithuisen Domes have long been suspected to be formed by a magma rich
in silica, similar in composition to granite. Granitic rocks form easily on Earth due to plate tectonics and oceans of water. The Moon lacks these key ingredients, so lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time. For
the first time, as part of this task order, NASA also has contracted to provide “mobility,” or roving, for some of the scientific instruments on the lunar surface after landing. This will enable new types of U.S. scientific investigations from CLPS.
“Firefly will deliver six instruments to understand the landing site and surrounding vicinity,” said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston. “These instruments will study geologic processes and lunar regolith, test solar cells, and characterize the neutron radiation environment, supplying invaluable information as NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon.”
The instruments, collectively expected to be about 215 pounds (97 kilograms) in mass, include:
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Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer,
which consists of two stationary and three mobile instruments, will study rocks and regoliths on the summit of one of the domes to determine their origin and better understand geologic processes of early planetary bodies. The principal investigator is Dr.
Kerri Donaldson Hanna of the University of Central Florida, Orlando.
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Heimdall is a flexible camera system that will be used
to take pictures of the landing site from above the horizon to the ground directly below the lander. The principal investigator is Dr. R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona.
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Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar
Regolith is a robotic arm that will collect samples of lunar regolith and use a robotic scoop to filter and isolate particles of different sizes. The sampling technology will use a flight spare from the Mars Exploration Rover project. The principal
investigator is Sean Dougherty of Maxar Technologies, Westminster, Colorado.
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Low-frequency Radio Observations from the Near Side Lunar Surface is
designed to observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine whether natural and human-generated activity near the surface interferes with science. The project is headed up by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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Photovoltaic
Investigation on the Lunar Surface will carry a set of the latest solar cells for a technology demonstration of light-to-electricity power conversion for future missions. The experiment will also collect data on the electrical charging environment
of the lunar surface using a small array of solar cells. The principal investigator is Jeremiah McNatt from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
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Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface is a neutron spectrometer that will characterize the surface
neutron radiation environment, monitor hydrogen, and provide constraints on elemental composition. The principal investigator is Dr. Heidi Haviland of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology
demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation
of the commercial space industry. Two upcoming CLPS flights scheduled to launch in early 2025 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon’s near side and south polar region, respectively.
Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at:
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