Returning to the Moon is one of the priorities of this second space race and, although the US space agency, NASA, does not seem to have it all, it continues with its preparations. Preparations that do not always come under the umbrella of the Artemis program: in this case they come from Firefly Aerospace and his “blue ghost”.
Some eyes on the moon. NASA has installed the cameras that will capture the arrival of the Blue Ghost mission to the Moon. The SCALPSS 1.1 instrument (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies) is designed to capture in detail and in three dimensions the landing of the probe on the surface of the satellite.
SCALPSS 1.1 is the second iteration of this instrument to travel to the Moon in less than a year. Version 1.0 of this 3D camera left aboard the ill-fated Odysseusthe Intuitive Machines probe that ended up landing on the moon horizontally.
Blue ghost. The cameras will arrive aboard the lander Blue Ghost moduleinstalled around the base of this lunar probe. Blue Ghost aspires to become a class of landers capable of sending objects to the Moon in an adaptable module with up to three heights.
The vehicle, developed by Firefly Aerospace, has a height of two meters and a diameter of 3.5 m. It operates with solar panels capable of providing up to 300 W. The prototype will depart with SCALPSS on board in January 2025 towards the Moon.
In stereo. The instrument SCALPSS 1.1 It is made up of dual cameras that will provide superimposed photographs in order to generate three-dimensional images of the lunar surface before and after the landing of the probe. According to NASA, as lunar missions become more frequent, landings will be carried out closer to loads already arranged on the surface.
That is why those responsible want to know in detail how lunar landings affect their environment, what happens to the lunar soil and regoliths, or to what extent dust and rocks can be thrown during the process. Measuring the interaction between the vehicle’s plume and the surface of the Moon will help to understand these details more precisely.
“If we are putting things (landers, habitats, etc.) in close proximity to each other, we could be splashing sand on what is nearby, so measures will be required to protect those other assets on the surface, which that will add mass, and that mass will affect the architecture,” explained in a press release Michelle Munk, principal investigator of SCALPSS.
From 1.0 to 1.1. In recent months, the NASA engineering team has had the opportunity to make some changes to the plans for SCALPSS 1.1 with respect to version 1.1. According to NASA, SCALPSS 1.1 will have six cameras, two more than the previous one. and will also start operating at a higher altitude before landing.
SCALPSS 1.0 did not achieve its primary goal of photographing interactions between the probe and the lunar surface due to the crashed landing of the module. The team was at least able to operate the instruments with the probe already on the Moon, so the team is confident it will be able to repeat that partial success.
CLPS, the complement to Atrtemis. SCALPSS and Blue Ghost are part of the CLPS project (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) from NASA. NASA does not want the entire weight of lunar exploration to rest on the Artemis project missions. That is why years ago he created this cooperation project with private companies, with the goal to complement efforts in lunar exploration.
The missions in this framework will complement those of Artemis and its broad effort to establish a permanent human presence on our satellite.
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Image | Firefly/NASA