Firefly lands its craft, Blue Ghost, on the moon

A private American company has landed a craft on the north-east part of earth-facing Moon, becoming the first private moon-explorer to do so. Blue Ghost of Firefly of Austin, Texas, a builder of rockets, made a successful landing descending at a speed of 2 miles per hour.

Blue Ghost is carrying 10 scientific instruments, two of which will probe the temperature lunar surface and sub-soil. NASA’s Langley research Centre has put a stereo camera on the craft which will study the lunar dust kicked off by the landing of the craft to understand the moon material.

The four-legged Blue Ghost is the first private company lunar explorer which is supported by NASA’s new moon landing programme called Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). CLPS chief Chris Culbert said, “We’re hoping to get lower cost missions at a faster pace, and we just have proof it works. We landed on the moon, almost perfectly.” NASA has provided $101 million to Firefly for the Blue Ghost mission.

Firefly will not be the only company at work on the moon mission. Another, Houston-based Intuitive Machines had sent another craft, Odysseus, which had landed safely but it landed lopsided and the payloads inside Odysseus were damaged. Intuitive Machines had sent another lunar craft which will land soon.

NASA wants to build a lunar market where many private companies can participate and it is anticipated that the costs would come down. The final goal of the NASA moon mission is to land humans on the moon by the end of the decade. The United States is not alone in reviving the crewed moon landing mission. China is in the race and so is India.

In 1969 when the United States achieved success in landing men on the moon, it was seen as an end in itself. It was part of the space race between the United States and the then Soviet Union when Russia was a communist state. It was Cold War competition at its creative and innovative best, and so much better than the nuclear bombs and missiles that each side has piled up in anticipation of World War III. The Cold War ended with a whimper with the collapse of communism in Russia in 1991.

This time round the revival of interest in space exploration is fuelled by the desire to explore the mineral resources of the moon. There is also the intention to set up a base colony in the moon which would serve as a take-off for the Mars mission. There are then defined goals for the moon mission. And this time, the Americans know that they would not be the only ones on the moon trek and beyond. There are other countries and regions.

This is going to be a collective effort though each country, the United States, China, India, and also Japan are following their own paths. Will there be conflict of interest among these space-exploring countries? This cannot be ruled out. But each country is now trying to master the technology needed to make the journeys to the moon and beyond a routine affair.

To colonise Mars is the distant goal, which is envisaged by Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, the company which is now providing the Falcon shuttles to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). But Musk is looking to Mars as the destination of his space venture.

The Mars mission is not in the realm of science fiction. It is likely to be achieved in the next half-century or so. The space exploration will now be led by many private companies, and Musk’s SpaceX will be one of them.

Similarly, the United States will not be the lone country leading space travel. There will be other countries. The lunar market as conceived by NASA will transform into the Mars market by the end of the 21st century.