March 3, 2025 | Private mission Firefly Blue Ghost 1
Perfect Moon landing in Mare Crisium
Blue Ghost on the lunar surface
The Blue Ghost lander from the company Firefly Aerospace is on the surface of the Moon, ready to commence science activities with its ten onboard experiments on board. This includes measuring heat flow from the Moon's interior using the LISTER experiment, in which DLR is involved. This image shows the shadow cast by the lander in Mare Crisium, "the Sea of Crises", facing west.
Blue Ghost approaches over the far side of the Moon
The descent from Blue Ghost's 100 km lunar orbit was initiated from Earth on the morning of 2 March 2025 CET, with the Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) command. The lander then autonomously executed the landing sequence with no control manoeuvres from the ground. After 67 minutes, the probe touched down at the planned landing site in Mare Crisium in the northeast of the Moon's near side. This image shows Blue Ghost approaching over the Sun-lit, crater-strewn lunar far side.
After receiving the command to descend from lunar orbit, the Ghost Rider in the Sky' lander autonomously completed its descent in 67 minutes, without further instructions from the ground station in Texas, USA, landing safely on the Moon's surface.
On 2 March 2025 at 9:34 CET, the private New Space company Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost probe on the northeast of the Moon's near side, on behalf of NASA.
DLR is involved in the LISTER heat flow experiment onboard Blue Ghost, developed by Texas Tech University.
Ten experiments will be conducted over two weeks to answer fundamental scientific questions.
On 14 March, Firefly's Blue Ghost is expected to capture high-resolution images of a total solar eclipse as seen from the Moon.
Focus: Moon, planetary research, spaceflight
With a fully automated, picture-perfect landing, the Blue Ghost mission touched down on the morning of 2 March 2025 Central European Time (CET) in Mare Crisium, on the northeast of the Moon's near side. This achievement makes Firefly Aerospace the first private company to successfully land a robotic probe on the Moon, on schedule and without incident. Blue Ghost Mission 1 transported ten scientific and technical instruments to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. These instruments will be used to conduct scientific experiments during the nearly two-week period in which the Sun illuminates the near side of the Moon, and for several hours during the subsequent lunar night. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is contributing to the LISTER heat flow experiment, led by Texas Tech University.
The Moon is an ideal target for planetary research
"As Earth's closest companion, the Moon is only about 400,000 kilometres away and an accessible target for spaceflight," explains Heike Rauer, Director of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. "At the same time, from a planetary research perspective, among the five rocky bodies in the Solar System the Moon is the complete opposite of our Earth, which is still-dynamically active after four and a half billion years. In geological terms, the 'small' Moon is as good as entirely inactive. However, it still holds many clues about the early evolution of the Solar System." Matthias Grott, a fellow researcher from the DLR institute in Berlin, adds: "With the CLPS programme, we now have the opportunity to address questions on the lunar surface that remained unanswered after the six Apollo missions. We hope to learn a lot about the thermal evolution of the Moon with the first experiment on heat flow from the Moon's interior since 1972. The experiment was developed by Texas Tech University in collaboration with Honeybee Robotics and DLR, based on our experience from the HP3 experiment for NASA's InSight mission."
After its launch on 15 January, Blue Ghost took about 45 days to reach the Moon. This relatively long but planned journey enabled the testing of individual subsystems and start of the partial deployment of the scientific payload while still en route to the Moon. The mission has a strong research component, with results expected to help pave the way for humans to return to the Moon in the latter half of this decade, under NASA's Artemis programme.
Key measurements of heat flow from the Moon's interior
The LISTER experiment (Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity), in which the DLR Institute of Planetary Research is involved, measures the heat flow from the depths of the Moon's interior. LISTER will conduct a similar experiment to the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), developed by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research for NASA's InSight Mars mission. The probe, equipped with a two-millimetre-thin needle sensor at its tip, is designed to penetrate up to three metres into the lunar surface, collecting data on the temperature and thermal conductivity of the soil at 50-centimetre intervals. These measurements provide insights into the Moon’s composition, origin and geological development.
First images of a total solar eclipse taken from the Moon
On 14 March, Firefly's Blue Ghost is expected to take high-resolution images of a total solar eclipse from the Moon, during which Earth will pass in front of the Sun, blocking its light. On Earth, this astronomical event will appear as a partial or total lunar eclipse, depending on the location. Two days later, on 16 March 2025, Blue Ghost will then capture the lunar sunset, collecting data on how lunar dust levitates in the backlight of the setting Sun, creating the lunar horizon glow first described by Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan (1934–2017).
The properties of the lunar dust, which is as fine as cement powder and sometimes also electrostatically charged, are not yet fully understood. This regolith is so fine that it poses a danger to technical equipment and astronauts' spacesuits on the Moon, as it can penetrate 'everywhere' through seals. Blue Ghost will also analyse regolith samples on-site. After sunset at Mare Crisium – Latin for the 'Sea of Crises' or 'Sea of Decisions' – Blue Ghost will be able to work for a few more hours in the lunar night, before the instruments fail in the darkness of the atmosphere-free lunar surface at temperatures of minus 160 degrees Celsius, and the mission will be over.
Later this week, on 6 March 2025, the next private robotic lander, IM-2, from Texas-based Intuitive Machines, is expected to land. The DLR Institute of Planetary Research, along with the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin, is involved in this mission with the Lunar Radiometer (LRAD). Developed in Berlin with contributions from industry and other research institutions, LRAD will conduct contactless thermal radiation measurements of the lunar surface.
The Blue Ghost mission is named after a species of insect, Phausis reticulata, in the firefly family, which is known as the Blue Ghost in the eastern and central United States. The mission also has the extended name 'Ghost Riders in the Sky', which is inspired by a country music song written by Stan Jones in 1948 and made famous by Johnny Cash and The Blues Brothers in 1978.
