6 ms·

Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lunar Landing

202 points by rolph 2y ago

_mitterpach 2y ago
Related: https://nyxspace.com/blog/2025/02/21/nyx-space-and-rust-power-fireflys-blue-ghost-lunar-landing/ https://nyxspace.com/blog/2025/02/21/nyx-space-and-rust-powe... Hope this one goes differently to my landings in Kerbal Space Program. From the wiki I read that this is a part of the Artemis program, but the connection seems unclear to me. Could anybody explain, will this be used to deliver just cargo or will it have people aboard sometime in the future?
- dagelf 2y ago
  Same budget line item?
- spookie 2y ago
  Iirc it had to do with the deployment of some navegation relay, may be wrong, but the new intuitive machines lander will also deploy one. (Edit: riffraff on th thread has the correct lede!)
- qingcharles 2y ago
  Me in Space Shuttle Simulator during liftoff: "I wonder what this red switch does?" Space Shuttle: bang
  - brookst 2y ago
    You know, everyone’s obsessed with training and knowledge and practice, but it’s so much more satisfying to do something amazing by just flipping switches and pushing buttons at random.
    - qingcharles 2y ago
      Me in Space Shuttle Simulator during liftoff: "Can you open the bay doors and operate the robot arm during takeoff?" *clickety click* Space Shuttle: No. *bang*
  - exsomet 2y ago
    I’m something of an expert in lunar landings myself, having years of experience in Space Engineers. In my opinion, the most effective strategy is to fly full speed at the moon, crashing headlong into it before it realizes you’re there and can run away.
- walrus01 2y ago
  After figuring out how to do most things successfully in Kerbal space program, a fun challenge is to install the "real solar system" mod which scales the delta v require for low orbit, and size of the solar system , up to approximately the same as reality. Delta v to orbit in stock KSP is like 2300-2500 if I remember right, in RSS it's 7800-8200. Everything else is also correspondingly more difficult like delta v require to get from a 35 degree inclined low earth orbit into a mars transfer orbit (even assuming 100% aero braking at mars and little or no fuel used at arrival)
- elkshadow5 2y ago
  Main goal is to deliver some NASA science gear to the Moon, I think some of it is supposed to test things directly related to issues Artemis may have as far as lunar operations go. There’s a limited amount of info available about the science on their website- https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/ https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/
riffraff 2y ago
An interesting part of the payload is LuGRE, an experiment designed to test reception of GNSS (GPS, Galileo) signals on the moon, which would be double the maximum distance tested until now. I never imagined that geolocation systems could work outside of the earth.
- dweekly 2y ago
  The pedant in me is curious if we would have to call it something different than geolocation. :)
  - gostsamo 2y ago
    but the pedant in you has no issue that navigation is used outside of the sea? I've always been annoyed when I see words like moonquake or marsquake, like earthquake is used for the planet and not for the dearth under your feet. IMHO, creating neologism for the sake of neologism creates the burden to parse them instead of adding additional clarity.
    - cgriswald 2y ago
      I’d like to point out a difference. Earthquake to marsquake is going from an inclusive term to a specific term of dubious utility. Geolocation on other worlds is a misnomer and could be replaced by a more inclusive term. I leave as an exercise to the reader the burden and value of any such change.
  - dabluecaboose 2y ago
    The industry term is PNT (Position, Navigation, Timing)
- walrus01 2y ago
  The approximately 1600MHz signals emitted from a gps satellite are generally aimed directly down at the earth at any given time, but with a good enough receiver and directional gain antenna on the moon you certainly could pick them up. I also have a theory this might work because at any given point in time, some of the gps satellites while moving at their orbital altitudes might be emitting signals aimed somewhat more directly towards the moon, at least for short periods of time.
lopsidedgrin 2y ago
Link to the livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEuA1AUJAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEuA1AUJAY I'd like to understand if there is a way to contribute to space missions like these, or space research in general, as a "civilian" software developer. Is there perhaps a community of space enthusiasts working on domain-specific open source tools? What are some unsolved problems in this field?
- _mitterpach 2y ago
  Great question, and I suggest you take a look at SatNOGS! It's a community driven satellite ground station project, where you can offer your own antenna and make use of the antennas of others. At my work we host 4 groundstations and regularly make use of those offered. A large open-source project like this can always use more contributors. https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs There's over 600 open issues with everything from hardware to website UX, so depending on your field there may be a lot you can contribute.
  - slow_typist 2y ago
    Thank you very much for sending me down that rabbit hole :-)
- colonial 2y ago
  > as a "civilian" software developer. Well, there's plenty of civilian space companies these days! It's largely embedded-oriented (code that controls launch vehicles and satellites) from what I've seen, but the opportunities are there.
- walrus01 2y ago
  There's always some small nonprofit, research, university, ham radio and similar themed 'cubesat' projects that need embedded software engineering. I'd suggest to start familiarizing yourself with common cubesat platforms, then see what the embedded hardware looks like and what you think you could do with it.
- notahacker 2y ago
daeken 2y ago
Successful touchdown! Congrats to Firefly
- qingcharles 2y ago
  Watch the touchdown by rewinding here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GfQbq1lPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GfQbq1lPE
adinb 2y ago
They made it!
qingcharles 2y ago
First photo arrived: https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1896125390386606333 https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1896125390386606333 Apologies for the X link. Can someone convert?
- mikewarot 2y ago
  Here is the image from that Tweet, saved on the Internet Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20250302091628/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlBj_efXcAAYwdU?format=jpg&name=large https://web.archive.org/web/20250302091628/https://pbs.twimg...
- joninous 2y ago
  Also available in this Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/72177720313239766/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/7217772031...
- rogerallen 2y ago
  They also post to Threads https://www.threads.net/@fireflyaerospace https://www.threads.net/@fireflyaerospace
freitasm 2y ago
Congrats to the team. Disappointed there was no stream of actual touchdown or maneuvers.
- freediver007 2y ago
  We didn't have the bandwidth for live steaming on the radio. But we're currently down linking tons of footage and expect to publish the video of the landing and the hazard avoidance redirect soon. Stay tuned!
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jeanlucas 2y ago
Salute to the original founder that was forced to give up his partnership

202 points by rolph 2y ago

Related: https://nyxspace.com/blog/2025/02/21/nyx-space-and-rust-power-fireflys-blue-ghost-lunar-landing/ https://nyxspace.com/blog/2025/02/21/nyx-space-and-rust-powe... Hope this one goes differently to my landings in Kerbal Space Program. From the wiki I read that this is a part of the Artemis program, but the connection seems unclear to me. Could anybody explain, will this be used to deliver just cargo or will it have people aboard sometime in the future?

dagelf 2y ago
Same budget line item?
spookie 2y ago
Iirc it had to do with the deployment of some navegation relay, may be wrong, but the new intuitive machines lander will also deploy one. (Edit: riffraff on th thread has the correct lede!)
qingcharles 2y ago
Me in Space Shuttle Simulator during liftoff: "I wonder what this red switch does?" Space Shuttle: bang
- brookst 2y ago
  You know, everyone’s obsessed with training and knowledge and practice, but it’s so much more satisfying to do something amazing by just flipping switches and pushing buttons at random.
  - qingcharles 2y ago
    Me in Space Shuttle Simulator during liftoff: "Can you open the bay doors and operate the robot arm during takeoff?" *clickety click* Space Shuttle: No. *bang*
- exsomet 2y ago
  I’m something of an expert in lunar landings myself, having years of experience in Space Engineers. In my opinion, the most effective strategy is to fly full speed at the moon, crashing headlong into it before it realizes you’re there and can run away.
walrus01 2y ago
After figuring out how to do most things successfully in Kerbal space program, a fun challenge is to install the "real solar system" mod which scales the delta v require for low orbit, and size of the solar system , up to approximately the same as reality. Delta v to orbit in stock KSP is like 2300-2500 if I remember right, in RSS it's 7800-8200. Everything else is also correspondingly more difficult like delta v require to get from a 35 degree inclined low earth orbit into a mars transfer orbit (even assuming 100% aero braking at mars and little or no fuel used at arrival)
elkshadow5 2y ago
Main goal is to deliver some NASA science gear to the Moon, I think some of it is supposed to test things directly related to issues Artemis may have as far as lunar operations go. There’s a limited amount of info available about the science on their website- https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/ https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/

riffraff 2y ago

An interesting part of the payload is LuGRE, an experiment designed to test reception of GNSS (GPS, Galileo) signals on the moon, which would be double the maximum distance tested until now. I never imagined that geolocation systems could work outside of the earth.

dweekly 2y ago
The pedant in me is curious if we would have to call it something different than geolocation. :)
- gostsamo 2y ago
  but the pedant in you has no issue that navigation is used outside of the sea? I've always been annoyed when I see words like moonquake or marsquake, like earthquake is used for the planet and not for the dearth under your feet. IMHO, creating neologism for the sake of neologism creates the burden to parse them instead of adding additional clarity.
  - cgriswald 2y ago
    I’d like to point out a difference. Earthquake to marsquake is going from an inclusive term to a specific term of dubious utility. Geolocation on other worlds is a misnomer and could be replaced by a more inclusive term. I leave as an exercise to the reader the burden and value of any such change.
- dabluecaboose 2y ago
  The industry term is PNT (Position, Navigation, Timing)
walrus01 2y ago
The approximately 1600MHz signals emitted from a gps satellite are generally aimed directly down at the earth at any given time, but with a good enough receiver and directional gain antenna on the moon you certainly could pick them up. I also have a theory this might work because at any given point in time, some of the gps satellites while moving at their orbital altitudes might be emitting signals aimed somewhat more directly towards the moon, at least for short periods of time.

lopsidedgrin 2y ago

Link to the livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEuA1AUJAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEuA1AUJAY I'd like to understand if there is a way to contribute to space missions like these, or space research in general, as a "civilian" software developer. Is there perhaps a community of space enthusiasts working on domain-specific open source tools? What are some unsolved problems in this field?

_mitterpach 2y ago
Great question, and I suggest you take a look at SatNOGS! It's a community driven satellite ground station project, where you can offer your own antenna and make use of the antennas of others. At my work we host 4 groundstations and regularly make use of those offered. A large open-source project like this can always use more contributors. https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/satnogs There's over 600 open issues with everything from hardware to website UX, so depending on your field there may be a lot you can contribute.
- slow_typist 2y ago
  Thank you very much for sending me down that rabbit hole :-)
colonial 2y ago
> as a "civilian" software developer. Well, there's plenty of civilian space companies these days! It's largely embedded-oriented (code that controls launch vehicles and satellites) from what I've seen, but the opportunities are there.
walrus01 2y ago
There's always some small nonprofit, research, university, ham radio and similar themed 'cubesat' projects that need embedded software engineering. I'd suggest to start familiarizing yourself with common cubesat platforms, then see what the embedded hardware looks like and what you think you could do with it.
notahacker 2y ago

daeken 2y ago

Successful touchdown! Congrats to Firefly

qingcharles 2y ago
Watch the touchdown by rewinding here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GfQbq1lPE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GfQbq1lPE

adinb 2y ago

They made it!

qingcharles 2y ago

First photo arrived: https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1896125390386606333 https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1896125390386606333 Apologies for the X link. Can someone convert?

mikewarot 2y ago
Here is the image from that Tweet, saved on the Internet Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20250302091628/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GlBj_efXcAAYwdU?format=jpg&name=large https://web.archive.org/web/20250302091628/https://pbs.twimg...
joninous 2y ago
Also available in this Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/72177720313239766/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/7217772031...
rogerallen 2y ago
They also post to Threads https://www.threads.net/@fireflyaerospace https://www.threads.net/@fireflyaerospace

freitasm 2y ago

Congrats to the team. Disappointed there was no stream of actual touchdown or maneuvers.

freediver007 2y ago
We didn't have the bandwidth for live steaming on the radio. But we're currently down linking tons of footage and expect to publish the video of the landing and the hazard avoidance redirect soon. Stay tuned!

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jeanlucas 2y ago

Salute to the original founder that was forced to give up his partnership