How Firefly Aerospace’s Lunar Lander Works
Over time we have gotten closer and closer to Firefly’s expected lunar landing attempt. Reaching the Moon is an incredible feat that few agencies have achieved around the world. While Firefly has not yet reached orbit, they have the ambitious goal of landing on the Moon with a lunar lander. With the help from agencies like NASA and more, Firefly has developed a lander of the future.
Named Blue Ghost, Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander was selected by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services or CLPS. The mission entails delivering a suite of ten different payloads to the surface of the Moon in the middle of 2023. The lunar lander features unique power, telecommunications, thermal control, deployment, and more. All of which will play a vital role in not only delivering the payloads but helping some operate as well.
While Firefly is hard at work on other projects such as Alpha, they are still working towards even more ambitious goals including reaching the Moon, creating a future spaceplane, and much more. However, this ambition, while risky, can provide great rewards in terms of success. Here I will go more in-depth into the general build and specific features within the lunar lander.
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander was selected by NASA to deliver ten Payloads to the lunar surface in mid-2023, with a mission award price of $93.3 million. These Payloads will operate using lander-provided data and power resources through an entire lunar day and beyond lunar dusk in Mare Crisium. The capabilities of the Blue Ghost lander exceed those needed to complete the missions of the NASA-sponsored Payloads. This has to do with the fact that Firefly is interested in many future Moon missions after the initial NASA-sponsored mission. The additional capabilities mean Firefly can offer a large host of different mission opportunities and more to companies and agencies around the world looking to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon. Here I want to highlight the design along with some of the important payload service and operation features. Starting with the general stats, Blue Ghost has a payload capacity of 50 kilograms. This 50-kilogram payload capacity is available at a specific location of the lander. Specifically, there are four different payloads orientations that have different benefits and challenges. These 4 configurations feature different power line options along with a payload capacity from 10 up to 50 kilograms. Some other important stats include a 6 Mbps surface downlink average, 10 Mbps downlink peak, 196 W peak power per payload, and 300 W total remaining surface PL power average, just to name a few. These different features of Blue Ghost allow the lander to do much more than just drop off different payloads to the surface of the Moon. Instead, it can support payloads and missions for a period of time after landing.
First I want to take a closer look at the power provided by this lander and its importance. Firefly’s lander provides nominal power services on the ground, in orbit, and on the lunar surface. Keep-alive power is provided to the payloads during launch if needed. The spacecraft also provides a signal to power on the payloads upon completion of In-Orbit-Testing, or upon landing on the lunar surface, as desired. Firefly provides a table that highlights that power can be supplied continuously or in a duty cycle manner to the payloads from Earth orbit through lunar surface operation completion. The power listed for each mission phase is the total available to be divided among each payload. These mission phases include launch readiness, launch and separation, Earth and lunar orbit, descent, and finally surface operations.
The next key feature has to do with telecommunications. The lander supports usable data downlink rates of at least 10 Mbps from the lunar surface to the Swedish Space Corporation network while maintaining at least a 3 dB margin. A minimum of 2 kbps downlink is available throughout transit (except during lunar eclipse), and during Safe Mode operation. Firefly can increase average transit data through periodic usage of its high-gain antenna. To put it in perspective, 2 minutes of high gain operation per day yields an average of about 15 kbps through transit. 2 kbps uplink is available throughout the mission. For rovers or other payloads deploying from the lander, Firefly can provide a Wi-Fi signal for communication between the payload and the lander. They work with the payload provider to make sure that data rates are sufficient over the anticipated range of travel. Not only this but Firefly invites a representative for each separate payload to support the duration of that payload’s operation, either at the Firefly MCC or at a Payload Operations Center.
Next is the thermal control and deployment of payloads. Thermal environments can vary widely depending on the positioning and line-of-site requirements of the payload. They work with each customer to provide and make sure the payload is maintained in a suitable environment, beginning with an analytical model of the integrated technology. The customer is responsible for supplying a thermal model to Firefly early in the PL integration process. Once received, Firefly increases the duration of the battery recharging period that begins after landing. Firefly has the tools to either passively or actively support customers’ payload’s thermal requirements, and to confirm these requirements are met through both analysis and integrated thermal vacuum testing. Looking at deployment, Firefly has significant experience with mechanisms, including thrust vector control actuators and mission-critical fairing latches. Firefly understands that each payload mission has unique requirements, therefore they do not offer a one-size-fits-all solution. They have the expertise needed to develop a custom deployment mechanism for different customer payloads, in order to integrate and validate a proprietary deployment mechanism, or to integrate industry standard in-orbit deployment mechanisms such as canisterized dispensers.
Lastly, you have the payload operation. Firefly recognizes the importance of automated and scripted command sequencing for long-haul cislunar missions, and for human intervention to ensure mission success when corrective actions are required. Their approach baselines automated execution of simulator-validated scripts supplemented with human commanding during cislunar flight, Lunar Orbit Insertion, and to a limited extent, during descent & landing operations. The lander includes omnidirectional coverage on the low-gain antennae for commanding, and the command receiver is always powered on. The command processor in the Command and Data Handling system includes the functionality to power on and off the payloads based on ground commands. In specific modes, such as Safe Mode or Descent, commands to power a specific payload may be prohibited. Payloads may even be powered off autonomously by fault protection on the spacecraft at any time.
Conclusion
Landing on the Moon is a very difficult and impressive task. Firefly has plans to not only land on the Moon but support multiple payloads once landed using its Blue Ghost lunar lander. Firefly has been working with NASA and awarded nearly $100 million to develop and prepare a mission for the middle of 2023. The Blue Ghost lunar lander features unique capabilities including power options, telecommunications, thermal control, deployment, and more. All of which are vital to the success of future missions to the Moon. We will have to wait and see how the upcoming mission develops and its impact on the space industry.