The private spacecraft landed on the moon, becoming only another commercial vehicle that came to the lunar surface.
Blue Spirit left the land on January 15th. JanuaryAfter being launched by US company Firefly Aerospace with the intention of exploring the sea of crisis, a huge crater visible from Earth.
The project is the latest cooperation of US space agency NASA and private companies.
Intuitive machines, another company, hopes that in the next few days it will land its spacecraft in Athens near the month of the South Pole.
She was intuitively the first private company to achieve a lunar landing. His spacecraft Odysseus arrived on the month of February 2nd. last year.
However, the mission was short -lived while the spacecraft landed on the slope of the crater, broke some ground equipment and collapsed.
The blue spirit touched smoothly, after being Orbid month of the last two weeks.
The staff at the Firefly headquarters Texas broke out cheering and applause when they were told that their landing was successful.
Dr Simeon Barber, a researcher of planetary sciences from the Open University, said Blue Ghost is basically the first successful private venture on the moon, because the vehicle is intact and responsive.
BBC Breakfast said: “[They’ve] demonstrated the landing technology to the surface of the moon, a species forgotten after the Apollo era when we had astronauts on [lunar] surface.”
The importance of the moon for many private companies, said Dr. Barber, was used as a launch pillow to explore the rest of the space.
“Going to the Moon, we can learn how to launch robotic instruments in space [and] In a really sharp environment of the moon, which is sometimes hot and sometimes cold. It is very dusty, there is a lot of radiation. “
He said that at some point, people would probably return to the lunar surface and explained that it had been so long due to lack of financing.
The last time the people went to the moon were December 19, 1972, During the Apollo 17 mission.
“Apollo missions were extremely successful,” explained Dr. Barber. “But there were missions” touched and go. “
Then astronauts would be there for three days before they had to leave again, as the costs ran into billions of dollars. “That’s not sustainable,” he said.
Dr. Barber said it was a belief that bringing private companies to the crease would help reduce costs as a result of commercial competition.
This could lead to cheaper chanders and innovations that could draw resources from the moon, such as astronaut drinking water.
The first private company to try to reach the moon was another US company, astrobotic technology.
They tried to reach the month in January 2024, but their Lander never reached the moon, due to leakage of fuel suspicion and collapsed back to Earth.
AND Fire lowering meant that the spacecraft fell apart In the last moments before he crept into the southern Pacific Ocean.
