Blue Ghost 1, deployed by private space company Firefly Aerospace, is on a mission to the Moon and is due to touch down on 3 March.
Part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, the mission will test technology that can place equipment on the Moon’s surface and establish an Earth-Moon delivery system.
While NASA’s Artemis programme aims to return astronauts to the Moon, it is private companies that will supply them and bring back samples.
Among the scientific instruments on board Blue Ghost is a computer that assesses the resistance of circuits to space radiation and a camera that can study floating regolith, or dust particles above the Moon’s surface.
Eventually, the Moon’s resources, such as helium-3 for nuclear fusion or quantum computing, could be harnessed to build infrastructure and propel future space exploration missions.
