Blue Ghost moon landing Nasa Chandrayaan 3 – Nasa preps to land on the Moon: Will Blue Ghost land close to Vikram lander?

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is on track to make a historic landing on the Moon’s surface.

The spacecraft has been reducing its orbit around the Moon in preparation for the historic touchdown in the first week of March.

It recently performed a crucial engine burn to lower its orbit to approximately 120 kilometres above the Moon.

WHERE WILL BLUE GHOST LAND?

The Blue Ghost spacecraft will land specifically near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within the vast Mare Crisium basin.

Located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side, Mare Crisium is a large, dark basaltic plain that was once an ancient asteroid impact site. Approximately 3 billion years ago, volcanic eruptions flooded this basin with basaltic lava, creating the unique geological landscape that exists today.

Mare Crisium, one of the Moon’s lunar maria, was mistakenly believed to be a sea by early astronomers due to its dark appearance.

However, it is actually a vast plain of basalt formed by early volcanic activity. The basalts in this region range in age from 2.5 to 3.3 billion years old, as determined by radioactive isotope signatures from samples returned by the Soviet Luna 24 mission.

WHY IS BLUE GHOST LANDING THERE?

The landing site near Mons Latreille offers a unique opportunity for Firefly’s payload, developed by Nasa, to gather critical data about the Moon’s regolith, geophysical characteristics, and the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field.

The Blue Ghost mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, aims to support future human exploration of the Moon under the Artemis program.

Scheduled to land on March 2, 2025, the Blue Ghost lander will deliver ten scientific payloads to the lunar surface, including instruments designed to study heat flow, plume-surface interactions, and crustal electric and magnetic fields.

This mission marks a significant step in advancing lunar research and paving the way for regular lunar access.

WILL IT LAND CLOSE TO CHANDRAYAAN-3’S VIKRAM LANDER?

No, the Blue Ghost mission will not be close to Vikram lander.

Vikram landed at the southernmost point on the Moon also know know as the Shiv Shakti Point, while Blue Ghost will land in the northeast quadrant.