posted 02-04-2021 06:38 PM               

NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023

NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The delivery, planned for Mare Crisium, a low-lying basin on the Moon's near side, will investigate a variety of lunar surface conditions and resources. Such investigations will help prepare for human missions to the lunar surface.

Above: Illustration of of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander on the lunar surface. The lander will carry a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023 as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. (Firefly Aerospace)

The award is part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA is securing the service of commercial partners to quickly land science and technology payloads on the lunar surface. The initiative is a key part of NASA's Artemis program. Firefly Aerospace will be responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the Moon, and mission operations. This is the sixth award for lunar surface delivery under the CLPS initiative.

"We're excited another CLPS provider has won its first task order award. With this initiative, we seek to develop ways for new science and technology development utilizing a service-based model," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This allows U.S. vendors to not only demonstrate their ability to safely deliver payloads to our celestial neighbor, but also expand this capability for others who want to take advantage of this cutting edge approach to explore the Moon."

This is the first delivery awarded to Firefly Aerospace, which will provide the lunar delivery service using its Blue Ghost lander, which the company designed and developed at its Cedar Park facility. This facility also will house the integration of NASA and any non-NASA payloads, and also will serve as the company's mission operations center for the 2023 delivery.

"The payloads we're sending as part of this delivery service span across multiple areas, from investigating the lunar soil and testing a sample capture technology, to giving us information about the Moon's thermal properties and magnetic field," said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Mare Crisium, where Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost will land, is a more than 300-mile-wide basin where instruments will gather data to provide insight into the Moon's regolith – loose, fragmented rock and soil – properties, geophysical characteristics, and the interaction of solar wind and Earth's magnetic field.

The payloads, collectively expected to total 207 pounds (94 kg) in mass, include:

• The Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC), which will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon's environment during landing and lander operations. Components will be derived from the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) facility currently on the International Space Station.

• The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors (NGLR), which will serve as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the Moon. The retroreflector that will fly on this mission also will provide data that could be used to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and address fundamental physics questions.

• The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), which will capture images of the interaction of Earth's magnetosphere with the flow of charged particles from the Sun, called the solar wind.

• The Reconfigurable, Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC), which aims to demonstrate a radiation-tolerant computing technology. Due to the Moon's lack of atmosphere and magnetic field, radiation from the Sun will be a challenge for electronics. This investigation also will characterize the radiation effects on the lunar surface.

• The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), which is designed to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon's mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields. The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.

• The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), which is designed to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon. The probe will attempt to drill 7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) into the lunar regolith to investigate the Moon's thermal properties at different depths.

• The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), which is designed to acquire lunar regolith from the surface and transfer it to other instruments that would analyze the material or put it in a container that another spacecraft could return to Earth.

• Stereo CAmeras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS 1.1), which will capture video and still images of the area under the lander from when the engine plume first disturbs the lunar surface through engine shutdown. Long-focal-length cameras will determine the pre-landing surface topography. Photogrammetry will be used to reconstruct the changing surface during landing. Understanding the physics of rocket exhaust on the regolith, and the displacement of dust, gravel, and rocks is critical to understanding how to best avoid kicking up surface materials during the terminal phase of flight/landing on the Moon and other celestial bodies.

• The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), which will generate a non-uniform electric field using varying high voltage on multiple electrodes. This traveling field, in turn, carries away the particles and has potential applications in thermal radiators, spacesuit fabrics, visors, camera lenses, solar panels, and many other technologies.

• The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), which is based on GPS. LuGRE will continue to extend the reach of GPS signals and, if successful, be the first to discern GPS signals at lunar distances.

The CLPS initiative is a key part of NASA's Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon's surface as part of the initiative will help lay the foundation for human missions and a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.

posted 05-20-2021 10:29 AM               

Firefly Aerospace Awards Contract to SpaceX to Launch Blue Ghost Mission to Moon in 2023

Firefly Aerospace Inc., a leading provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, announced today (May 20) that it has awarded a contract to SpaceX to launch its Blue Ghost lunar lander in 2023. Blue Ghost will be carrying 10 payloads for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order 19D mission, in addition to separately contracted commercial payloads.

Shea Ferring, Firefly Senior Vice President of Spacecraft, said, "Firefly is excited to fly our Blue Ghost spacecraft on the highly reliable Falcon 9, which will deliver NASA instruments and technology demonstration payloads that support NASA science goals and NASA's Artemis program. The high performance of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle permits a lunar transit using minimal Blue Ghost propulsion resources, thereby allowing the lander to deliver more than 150 kg of payload to the lunar surface."

Firefly was awarded the CLPS 19D task order by NASA in February 2021 and has since made rapid progress on the Blue Ghost program. The team has key long lead items on order, production underway, and is conducting regular vision navigation test flights at Firefly's one-acre Briggs, Texas lunar landscape site.

"The Blue Ghost mission will include delivery of NASA payloads that will support scientific lunar research and will contribute to developing a sustainable presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis program," said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero. "We're honored Firefly selected Falcon 9 for launch."

Tom Markusic, Firefly CEO, said "Firefly is excited to leverage the performance and reliability of Falcon 9 to propel Blue Ghost on the first phase of its journey to the Moon."

Blue Ghost (named after the rare Phausis reticulata firefly) will land at Mare Crisium in the Moon's Crisium basin and operate on-board payloads through lunar transit, during lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days) and well into the freezing dark of lunar night.

Opportunities are open for early-career and seasoned professionals alike to work on Firefly's lunar lander, launch vehicles, and various space-related projects.

posted 10-25-2021 09:57 AM               

Firefly Aerospace is One Step Closer to Landing on the Moon

Announces it has successfully completed NASA's Critical Design Review of its Blue Ghost lunar lander and is on schedule for September 2023 lunar mission

Firefly Aerospace, Inc., a leader in economical launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, today [Oct. 25] announced it reached a major milestone with the successful completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR) of their Blue Ghost lunar lander. This CDR paves the way for construction of the Blue Ghost lander, which is scheduled to touch down in the Mare Crisium lunar basin in September of 2023 carrying ten NASA payloads as part of the $93.3-million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract secured by Firefly earlier this year. The lander will also take several commercial payloads to the lunar surface. The 2023 Blue Ghost mission will be the first of what are expected to be yearly lunar surface missions for Firefly.

"This milestone marks another step in an aggressive schedule and meeting it continues to showcase our spacecraft team's ability to consistently deliver incredible work," stated Dr. Tom Markusic, Firefly's CEO. "This mission is a forerunner of what we see as a growing cadence of recurring data and payload service missions in cis-lunar space that will kickstart a lunar economy, and we're honored to be demonstrating our ability to deliver these services for NASA and for our commercial customers."

Blue Ghost will operate a variety of payloads through lunar transit and orbit, as well as while on the lunar surface. These payloads will explore the region's regolith properties, geophysical characteristics, and interaction of the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field. There are also several key technology demonstrations related to navigation and sample collection.

"The Firefly team is greatly humbled by the confidence external reviewers have shown in our lander and mission plan, in addition to the sign-off on this milestone completion by NASA. Our team has steadfastly driven to remain on schedule while producing the best product and plan in the face of both a global pandemic and the associated supply chain challenges," said Dr. William Coogan, Blue Ghost Chief Engineer. "Every day I have the pleasure of working with some of the most creative people in the industry, who believe in the importance of this mission and who work together to make it a reality."

Mare Crisium has been the subject of previous lunar missions including the Soviet landers Luna 15, Luna 23, and Luna 24. In 2012, the NASA GRAIL mission confirmed and mapped a mass-concentration at the center of the basin.

posted 03-14-2023 03:19 PM               

NASA Picks Firefly Aerospace for Robotic Delivery to Far Side of Moon

To carry multiple payloads to the far side of the Moon including a satellite to orbit that area, NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas. The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA.

The contract award, for just under $112 million, is a commercial lunar delivery targeted to launch in 2026 through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, and part of the agency's Artemis program.

Above: Rendering of Firefly's Blue Ghost transfer vehicle deploying the European Space Agency's Lunar Pathfinder satellite to lunar orbit. ESA's Lunar Pathfinder is designed and developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. ESA collaborated with NASA for delivery through the CLPS initiative. (Firefly Aerospace)

This delivery targets a landing site on the far side of the Moon for the two payloads, a place that permanently faces away from Earth. Scientists consider this one of the best locations in the solar system for making radio observations shielded from the noise generated by our home planet. The sensitive observations need to take place during the fourteen earth-day long lunar night.

One of these payloads delivered to the lunar surface aims to take advantage of this radio-quiet zone to make low-frequency astrophysics measurements of the cosmos – focusing on a time known as the "Dark Ages," a cosmic era that began some 370,000 years after the Big Bang and lasted until the first stars and galaxies formed. Since there is no line of sight and no direct communication with Earth from the far side of the Moon, Firefly also is required to provide communication services.

"NASA continues to look at ways to learn more about our universe," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Going to the lunar far side will help scientists understand some of the fundamental physics processes that occurred during the early evolution of the universe."

Firefly is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface and orbit of the Moon, and NASA payload operations for the first lunar day. This is the second award to Firefly under the CLPS initiative. This award is the ninth surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS vendor, and the second to the far side.

"We look forward to Firefly providing this CLPS delivery," said Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "This lunar landing should enable new scientific discoveries from the far side of the Moon during the lunar night. This particular group of payloads should not only generate new science but should be a pathfinder for future investigations exploiting this unique vantage point in our solar system."

The three payloads slated for delivery are expected to weigh in total about 1,090 pounds (494.5 kilograms). These payloads are:

• Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night): A pathfinder to understand the Moon's radio environment and to potentially take a first look at a previously unobserved era in our cosmic history. It will use deployable antennas and radio receivers to observe sensitive radio waves from the Dark Ages for the first time. LuSEE-Night, is a collaboration between the Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory, and NASA's Science Mission Directorate. It is managed for NASA by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

• Lunar Pathfinder: A communications and data relay satellite that will provide communication services to lunar missions via S-band and UHF links to lunar assets on the surface and in orbit around the Moon and an X-band link to Earth. ESA's Lunar Pathfinder is designed and developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. ESA collaborated with NASA for delivery through the CLPS initiative.

• User Terminal (UT): This payload will institute a new standard for S-Band Proximity-1 space communication protocol and establish space heritage. It will be used to commission the Lunar Pathfinder and ensure its readiness to provide communications service to LuSEE-Night. It consists of software-defined radio, an antenna, a network switch, and a sample data source. UT is in development by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

posted 03-14-2023 04:15 PM               

Firefly Awarded $112 Million NASA Contract for Payload Delivery to Lunar Orbit and the Far Side of the Moon

Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, was awarded a $112 million NASA contract to deliver multiple lunar payloads in 2026. As Firefly's second task order won under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload (CLPS) initiative, the company will use its Blue Ghost spacecraft in a two-stage configuration to first place a satellite into lunar orbit and then deliver two research payloads on the far side of the Moon.

"Our second lunar mission is something we're celebrating as a Firefly team, as a NASA commercial provider, and most importantly, as an all-American company committed to making space exploration an achievable dream for everyone," said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. "This mission will debut Firefly's unique two-stage Blue Ghost spacecraft, offering NASA and other customers multiple deployment options as we collectively build the infrastructure for ongoing lunar operations and planetary exploration."

The NASA-provided payloads Firefly is delivering will advance lunar research and infrastructure in conjunction with NASA's Moon-to-Mars roadmap. Before landing on the Moon, the company's Blue Ghost transfer vehicle will deploy the European Space Agency's Lunar Pathfinder satellite into lunar orbit to provide communications for future spacecraft, robots, and human explorers. After touching down on the far side of the Moon, the Blue Ghost lunar lander will deliver and operate NASA's S-Band User Terminal, ensuring uninterrupted communications for lunar exploration, and a research-focused payload that measures radio emissions to provide insight into the origins of the universe.

Along with the NASA payloads, Firefly's mission is offering payload delivery and orbital services for additional government and commercial customers. The robust and versatile design of the company's Blue Ghost transfer vehicle and its propellant reserve will enable a variety of mission opportunities, including lunar sample return to Earth, further exploration to nearby planets like Mars and Venus, and long-duration orbital services, such as communications and surveying.

"Firefly's ability to provide additional capabilities to multiple customers on the same mission lowers costs, further expands space exploration, and provides a win-win for everyone involved," said Jana Spruce, Vice President of Spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace. "We welcome additional partners to join us on this historic mission as our society embarks on a new era of commercial development in cislunar space and beyond."

Firefly's first mission, Blue Ghost Mission 1, is on track for launch in 2024 and will deliver 10 NASA-sponsored payloads and two commercial payloads to Mare Crisium, a low-lying basin on the Moon's near side.

Customers interested in payload delivery and orbital services available on Blue Ghost can find more information here.