Double Moon Conquest: SpaceX to Launch Two Landers at Once

(Dan Tri) - SpaceX will launch two private landers to the Moon in January 2025, opening up new opportunities and strengthening the role of the private sector in the space industry.

The Resilience lander is being tested at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) facility in Tsukuba, Japan (Photo: Reuters).

SpaceX plans to launch two private lunar landers in January 2025. They will launch simultaneously on a Falcon 9 rocket built by the company.

One of them is the "Resilience" lander of the Japanese company ispace.

This is considered ispace's mission to "regain trust" in the context of the company having two consecutive failures in launching and landing spacecraft in 2023.

The "Resilience" spacecraft will carry five scientific instruments, including a water electrolysis device, an experimental food production module, a deep space radiation probe, a commemorative alloy plate and a small autonomous robot, named "Tenacious".

The 26-centimeter-tall rover, developed by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary, is tasked with exploring the lunar surface and collecting data. It is scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris ("Cold Sea") region, a large basalt plain located at 60.5 degrees north latitude from the lunar equator.

"In about a month, ispace's historic mission will launch and we will make a second attempt to land on the Moon," Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, said in a statement.

The second lander, called "Blue Ghost", was built by Firefly Aerospace (USA).

The Blue Ghost lander will carry 10 NASA science instruments, focusing on studying lunar dust, geophysical features and space weather interactions.

The spacecraft is expected to attempt to land near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature on the far side of the Moon, to avoid large magnetic anomalies that could affect the instrument’s measurements. The area is also said to have little rock, making it easier for the spacecraft’s drilling equipment to operate.

Image of the Blue Ghost lander being tested in an environment simulating the lunar surface (Photo: Orbital Today).

One of the mission's main goals is to study lunar dust, or regolith, which can affect mechanical components, degrade materials, and pose health risks.

Instruments on the "Blue Ghost" will examine how dust adheres to different materials and investigate methods for using electromagnetism to prevent dust buildup.

In addition, the lander will carry instruments to image interactions between Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind, providing important data for weather forecasting and protecting satellite connectivity.

The mission is expected to last about 60 days, during which "Blue Ghost" will collect scientific data and record astronomical phenomena such as eclipses and sunsets on the Moon.

Both missions are part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to foster private sector participation in lunar exploration and support NASA's Artemis program.

According to experts, the simultaneous launch of two private landers on the same rocket not only represents progress in space technology but also marks an important development in cooperation between private companies and national space agencies.

This opens up new opportunities for lunar exploration and resource exploitation, while strengthening the role of the private sector in the space industry.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc-cong-nghe/cu-dup-chinh-phuc-mat-trang-spacex-sap-phong-cung-luc-hai-tau-do-bo-20241220025148139.htm