A recent experiment conducted by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost spacecraft has successfully started drilling into the lunar surface, marking a significant milestone in the company’s mission to better understand the geology of the Moon.
After touching down on the Moon just days earlier, the lander quickly met its demise when it stumbled and fell onto its side. However, the follow-up lander kicked off its Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) experiment, which involves drilling into the lunar surface within the Mare Crisium basin to measure temperature and heat flow from the Moon’s interior.
The primary goal of this mission is to gather insights into how the Moon formed and cooled over billions of years. The probe aims to drill down to a depth of nearly 3 meters, collecting data every 1.6 feet on thermal conductivity and heat flow using a custom-built thermal probe.
By analyzing these findings, scientists hope to reconstruct the thermal evolution of the Moon, enabling them to better understand its geological processes. This research has significant implications for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the lunar surface.
As part of the mission, Blue Ghost is equipped with nine other NASA payloads, including active dust mitigation technology and an experiment to study how lunar regolith sticks to various materials.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/lunar-lander-starts-drilling-moon-140003258.html