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"At the end of its operations, Blue Ghost will stay put, destined to remain on the moon’s surface indefinitely." Is that a euphemism for "Humans are leaving rubbish to pollute another part of the universe?"
Yes, in the same sense that the Pyramids and Stonehenge and the Parthenon are rubbish
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It feels like the moon is well within humankind's reach by now. It has been for the last 65 years. ;)
It's now within reach for a medium sized corporation, largely ignored by humankind. That's huge progress!
As a former Intuitive Machines employee, I feel obligated to correct the title! IM-1 landed on the moon last February and although it didn't stay upright, it was still operational and returned some decent scientific data.
It was flipped upside-down like a Turtle?
Here are the pictures it has taken so far: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/7217772031... There's also a cool lunar flyover video taken during final deorbit.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/54353240540/in/al...
Here are the pictures it has taken so far: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/7217772031... There's also a cool lunar flyover video taken during final deorbit.
This is excellent news. Private sector companies are going into space, landing on extraterrestrial bodies. Hope this spur more activities outward.
Horray! Also: - Wow but the moon is 3D. Like, when we see shots of Earth, the ground always looks so flat, but the depth of the craters and the heights of the ridges is really, really amazing to see - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing
Pro-tip: the full moon isn't so fun to look at, you want some level of crescent moon so you can avoid getting overloaded on the brightness.
(You can also stay up for a few hours and actually observe Io revolving around Jupiter, I think it takes most of the night to get 1/4 of the way around. Pretty obvious revolutions when you keep observing throughout the night.)
“Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon,”
I really like "Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar surface..." It's rare that usage of word "permanent" has this close to an accurate meaning. Complete development of the moon's surface aside, what are the factors what will destroy it? Solar and cosmic radiation? What timescale are we talking about here?
Landed craft on the moon often carry reflectors that help laser location of the Moon.
Spacecraft that have spent decades the Moon's surface are also going to give valuable clues about the behavior of their materials in these conditions, if / when someone collects and inspects them. Could save quite a bit of uncertainty for a larger project on the Moon.
Also, isn't basically everything you see on the moon some kind of debris? There are no apparent structures there created by complex, interesting processes, such as life, or by interesting geological processes. The spacecraft would be an aesthetical center of the area :)
https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1896158394295390367/photo...