Lunar Sunsets: Timelapse Views | Blue Ghost Mission 1 | Firefly Aerospace
Firefly captured imagery of the lunar sunset on March 16, 2025, providing NASA with data on whether lunar dust levitates due to solar influences and creates a lunar horizon glow that was hypothesized and observed by astronaut Eugene Cernan on Apollo 17. Following the sunset, Blue Ghost operated for 5 hours into the lunar night and continued to capture imagery that measures how dust behavior changes after sunset.
The Blue Ghost lander arrived on the Moon March 2, 2025. The Blue Ghost Mission 1 ended on March 16. The lander operated, near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, for approximately 14 Earth days, or roughly one lunar day. Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was formed by the flooding of basaltic lava that filled an ancient asteroid impact.
This work was part of NASA’s CLPS initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence. Blue Ghost Mission 1 performed science and technology demonstrations, including lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, and X-ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field to advance research for future human missions on the Moon, as well as to provide insights into space weather effects.
Learn more about CLPS: https://www.nasa.gov/clps
Release Date: March 18, 2025
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