Moon missions set to advance lunar exploration in March
Two landers, Athena and Blue Ghost, are set to land on the Moon at the beginning of March. During the same period, SpaceX's Starship rocket is scheduled to launch its eighth test flight.
The American company Firefly Aerospace sent the Blue Ghost lander to the Moon on January 15. Its landing in the Mare Crisium region is planned for March 2. The mission includes scientific experiments, such as examining the adhesion of lunar soil, known as regolith, and testing the radiation resistance of computers. The goal is to support future crewed missions under NASA's Artemis program.
The Athena lander, built by Intuitive Machines, launched on February 26 aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. The planned landing is set for March 6 in the Mons Mouton area.
The mission focuses on mobility, advanced communication, drilling on the Moon's surface, and transmitting and storing data beyond Earth. After landing, Athena is expected to send photos. Additionally, it will deploy the Lunar Outpost MAPP rover and the robot Grace and activate NASA's PRIME-1 drilling kit.
Data collected by these devices will be sent to Earth and the Freedom data centre in lunar orbit. The mission will also test a new 4G/LTE communication system.
Starship rocket test
SpaceX plans to launch the eighth test of the Starship rocket on March 3. After analyzing the previous unsuccessful flight, hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability. The goals include the rocket's first deployment of a payload and experiments related to re-entering the atmosphere.
Starship is a two-stage mega-rocket over 120 metres tall. Its first stage is the Super Heavy booster, and the second is the Starship spacecraft. SpaceX plans to return and catch the upper stage with the mechanical arms of the Mechazilla tower and to launch, return, and catch the Super Heavy booster.
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