Space.com reports today that there are five lunar landers attempting to land being sent from the US and one from China. Companies that have both tried landers with varying success and those that have never tried are looking to try this year.
The Big Name Player Tries First
I'll give the big name top billing because NextSpaceflight shows the launch as being this month: "NET January," but doesn't give a likely date. The launch will be on their New Glenn rocket, making it the third flight of this system. The company announced the mission soon after their November launch of ESCAPADE satellites bound for Mars but which are temporarily stationed at the L2 (Lagrange point 2) of the Earth/moon system. Sketch of the mission at L2 here.
As expected for a first launch of a payload like the Blue Moon Mark 1 pathfinder, this flight is intended to be a technology demonstration of the Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo lander design, including its precision landing systems and propulsion tech. The lander will support later commercial and NASA payload deliveries to the lunar surface, with a capacity of up to 6,600 pounds
The lander will target the lunar south pole and will carry a NASA SCALPSS payload that will study how the lander's exhaust interacts with the moon's surface during the landing. There's a lot at stake: Blue Origin is a prime contractor for NASA's Human Landing System (HLS) with its Blue Moon lander, which is intended to land astronauts on the moon later this decade, making Mark 1 pathfinder a key rehearsal.
Firefly goes again with their Blue Ghost 2
Last March, Firefly successfully landed their first Blue Ghost lander in Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crises) on the near side, and they're looking to try the second launch in the second quarter of this year.
Blue Ghost M2 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than the second quarter of 2026, aiming to land on the far side of the moon — a feat that only China has achieved to date, with Chang'e 4 in 2019 and Chang'e 6 in 2024. Among six government and commercial payloads will be the Rashid Rover 2 for the United Arab Emirates and a wireless power receiver for Volta Space.
The mission also carries the European Space Agency's Lunar Pathfinder orbiter, which will be deployed into lunar orbit by Firefly's Elytra orbital transfer vehicle. Elytra will also act as a communications relay for Blue Ghost M2 during its 10 days of operations. A comms relay is a necessity, because the far side of the moon is not visible from Earth.
Intuitive Machines joins with their IM-3
Intuitive Machines looks to fly their IM-3 in the second half of the year. For a company that has gotten as close to successful missions as they could with both IM-1 and IM-2 without everyone acknowledging success, I see this as an important mission for them.
Both the the IM-1 Odysseus spacecraft in February 2024 and last year's IM-2 Athena, toppled onto their side shortly after touching down on the lunar surface. Last year, they did a good public display of their failure analysis of Athena, but a little less for Odysseus the year before.
IM-3, again using the NOVA-C lander, will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and target a landing in the Reiner Gamma region on the near side, which features a mysterious lunar swirl with an associated local magnetic field. The lander will be packed with science payloads, including magnetometers and plasma instruments, as part of the CLPS program.
Astrobotics next lander mission fills out the schedule
You might remember Astrobotics first attempt to land their Peregrine lunar lander in January of '24. Shortly after liftoff and deployment, it had a propulsion anomaly due to a faulty valve and eventually ended up in the Pacific.
The last update I had for the replacement lander, named Griffin, was that it was looking to be this summer on a Falcon Heavy.
Griffin-1 will target the south pole of the moon. It was initially planned to carry NASA's VIPER rover to seek out volatiles, but the rover has moved to a later mission, following its cancellation and subsequent revival. Instead, Astrolab's four-wheeled, 1,000-pound (450 kg) FLIP moon rover will join Griffin-1 for the ride, along with Astrobotic's own, much smaller CubeRover. The lander will also carry further small commercial and cultural payloads.
The last of the lunar lander missions is quite a bit harder to get info about
The last of landers likely to fly this year is Chinese, the Chang'e 7 mission.
The Chang'e 7 mission will consist of a lander, a rover and a mobile hopper, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua, and will launch sometime in 2026.
The hopper is a "first-of-its-kind lunar explorer," according to the report. It will jump from sunlit areas and into shadowed craters to look for water using a molecule analyzer.
"The lander will deploy China's inaugural deep-space 'landmark image navigation' system to ensure precision, while the hopper utilizes active shock-absorption technology to safely land on slopes," the report read.
The value of recovering water on the moon probably speaks for itself. It seems essential to any plans to station a human crew and have a chance to survive there.
Rendering of the Mark 1 Blue Moon lander. Image credit: Blue Origin
I am eager to see how Volta's LightPort, part of the LightGrid network, works out.
ReplyDeleteLooks like an opportunity for the eventual settlers to start recycling all those one-way landers.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone in the landing business has determined that they need to have a wider footprint, more like the Apollo lander, rather than the thin, overweighted systems they seem to be using today. And that goes for SpaceX, too.
ReplyDeleteLike that Blue Moon lander. Doesn't look particularly stable to my eyes. Really a WAG because I don't know what's inside the thing.
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