— NASA picks Firefly Aerospace to deliver science payloads to the moon in 2023 Once there, Blue Ghost will spend one lunar day (about 14 Earth days) operating its payloads before the cold, dark lunar night sets in and deplete the lander of its solar power source. Blue Ghost will operate for a few hours once night sets in, taking images of the lunar sunset and collecting data on how the surface of the moon behaves during lunar dusk. Blue Ghost's payloads include a lunar retroreflector that will be used to take precise Earth-moon distance measurements, the Lunar PlanetVac vacuum developed by Honeybee Robotics that will sample moon dust, and the Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), a tiny camera that will capture detailed images of how the lunar surface reacts with the lander's exhaust plumes during landing. NASA is increasingly turning to commercial lunar landers to deliver its science payloads to the moon through the CLPS program. In August, the agency awarded Intuitive Machines $116.9 million to carry six agency science instruments to the lunar south pole in 2027 on one of the company's robotic moon landers. The company landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the moon in February 2024, the first time a private spacecraft had ever landed on the moon in what was the first U.S. moon landing since 1972. NASA had been developing its own robotic lunar rover known as VIPER, but canceled the program in July 2024 due to rising costs. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. See all comments (0)