Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Blue Ghost touched down on the Moon two weeks ago – and beamed back some stunning footage of its soft landing in never-before-seen detail, including "first-of-its-kind" footage of a lunar lander's engine plumes interacting with the lunar surface.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based private company, successfully planted its Blue Ghost lunar lander in the Moon’s Mare Crisium region on March 2, 2025, with support from a NASA-funded initiative.
Newly released footage showcases the lander's final descent and touchdown, captured at 8 frames per second by the short-focal-length cameras of its SCALPSS 1.1 instrument. This system provided a detailed view of the historic landing with its four short-focal-length cameras.
The sequence begins around 28 meters (91 feet) above the lunar surface. At roughly 15 meters (49 feet), the images reveal the first signs of Blue Ghost’s thrusters blasting against the ground to slow down and control its landing.
As the lander descends further, this interaction intensifies with the thrusters stirring up a swirling cloud of lunar dust, soil, and rocks. Upon touchdown, the thrusters shut off, allowing the dust to settle. Visibility clears and the lander stabilizes, revealing the lunar terrain around it.
It was a beautifully executed touchdown – and one that could help to inform the landing of future Moon missions.
“Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for in order to better understand plume-surface interaction and learn how to accurately model the phenomenon based on the number, size, thrust, and configuration of the engines,” Rob Maddock, SCALPSS project manager, said in a statement.
“The data is vital to reducing risk in the design and operation of future lunar landers as well as surface infrastructure that may be in the vicinity,” he added.
Blue Ghost has had a busy few weeks of work. As NASA explains: "The objectives of the mission are to investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, plume-surface interactions, crustal electric and magnetic fields. It will also take X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphere. Technology tests include regolith sampling, regolith adherence, Global Navigation Satellite System abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and dust mitigation using electrodynamic fields."
On March 16, the lander captured a stunning lunar sunset from the Moon’s surface – its final transmission before succumbing to the extreme cold of the lunar night. During these 14 days of darkness, when a specific region of the Moon is not exposed to sunlight, temperatures can plunge to -133°C (-208°F) near the equator and even lower at the poles, making survival nearly impossible for most equipment.
Don’t be sad it’s over, though – this awesome private mission leaves behind a treasure trove of data, images, and insights still waiting to be explored. Stay tuned!
