NASA’s “Blue Ghost” Lunar Lander Captures New Close-Up Images of the Moon’s Surface | Moon

The first images of a lunar lander engine thruster stirring up moon dust were captured by a team at NASA‘s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, during the successful Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost descent on March 2 of this year.

Future analysis of the images will provide valuable data about how the thrusters interact with the dust, soils, and rocks, known as regolith, on the Moon’s surface. In the wake of Intuitive Machines‘ failed IM-2 Athena landing on March 6, the data could prove crucial to NASA‘s Artemis project plans for long-term lunar habitation.

Capturing a Hot Landing

NASA used the Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument’s stereo camera to capture a first-person view of Blue Ghost’s touchdown in the Mare Crisium region. Although low resolution and heavily compressed, researchers produced a video by combining images from all four of SCALPSS 1.1’s short-focal-length cameras. With an eight-frame-per-second shutter speed, the cameras began rolling about 91 feet above the surface, judged by approximate altitude data.

Around 49 feet above the surface, reaction control thruster plumes began impacting the lunar surface. The interaction grew increasingly intense and complex, swirling any debris in its path. Calm finally settled when the thrusters disengaged after touchdown, allowing the lander to settle into the…more