Perfect Lunar Landing Achieved in Mare Crisium

Perfect Lunar Landing Achieved in Mare Crisium
by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 06, 2025

On 2 March 2025, the Blue Ghost mission successfully executed an automated landing in Mare Crisium, a basin located on the Moon's northeastern near side. This milestone marks Firefly Aerospace as the first private company to complete a robotic lunar landing precisely on schedule and without complications. Blue Ghost Mission 1 delivered ten scientific and technological instruments to the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. These instruments will operate during the lunar day, spanning nearly two weeks, and for a limited period into the following lunar night. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is contributing to the LISTER heat flow experiment, led by Texas Tech University.

Exploring the Moon's Scientific Potential

"As Earth's nearest celestial neighbor, the Moon lies just 400,000 kilometers away, making it an accessible target for exploration," stated Heike Rauer, Director of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. "Yet, among the five rocky planets of our Solar System, the Moon is strikingly different from Earth, which remains geologically active. The 'small' Moon, in contrast, is nearly inert but preserves crucial information about the early Solar System."

Matthias Grott, another researcher from the DLR Institute in Berlin, added, "The CLPS program enables us to address lunar surface questions left unanswered since the Apollo missions. Through LISTER, we aim to gain new insights into the Moon's thermal evolution. This marks the first heat flow experiment on the Moon since 1972 and builds on the experience gained from the HP3 experiment for NASA's InSight mission on Mars."

Following its 15 January launch, Blue Ghost traveled for approximately 45 days before reaching its lunar destination. The extended journey allowed the team to conduct subsystem evaluations and initiate the partial deployment of scientific payloads en route. This mission plays a significant role in supporting future human lunar exploration under NASA's Artemis program, set to unfold in the latter part of this decade.

Probing the Moon's Interior with LISTER

The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) experiment, supported by DLR, is designed to measure heat flow from beneath the lunar surface. It mirrors the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) previously developed by DLR for NASA's InSight Mars lander. The instrument features a probe tipped with a slender two-millimeter needle sensor capable of penetrating up to three meters below the lunar surface. By recording temperature and thermal conductivity at 50-centimeter intervals, LISTER will provide essential data on the Moon's geological history, structure, and origins.

Capturing a Solar Eclipse from the Moon

On 14 March, Blue Ghost is set to capture high-resolution images of a total solar eclipse from the lunar surface, an event during which Earth will block the Sun. Observers on Earth will see this phenomenon as either a total or partial lunar eclipse, depending on their location. Shortly after, on 16 March, Blue Ghost will document the lunar sunset and analyze how lunar dust behaves under backlit conditions. This phenomenon, known as lunar horizon glow, was first described by Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan.

Understanding the properties of lunar dust is crucial, as this fine, electrostatically charged regolith poses significant risks to technical equipment and astronaut gear by infiltrating seals and machinery. Blue Ghost will conduct on-site regolith analysis to further assess its composition and behavior. Once the Sun sets over Mare Crisium-Latin for the "Sea of Crises"-the lander's instruments will continue operations for several hours before ceasing functionality as temperatures plummet to minus 160 degrees Celsius, bringing the mission to an end.

Later this week, on 6 March 2025, Texas-based Intuitive Machines is scheduled to land its IM-2 robotic probe on the Moon. The DLR Institute of Planetary Research, in collaboration with Freie Universitat Berlin's Institute of Geological Sciences, is contributing to this mission through the Lunar Radiometer (LRAD). Developed in Berlin with industrial and research partners, LRAD will conduct remote thermal radiation measurements of the Moon's surface.