NASA Explores The Moon With Firefly Aerospace Instruments Worth IDR 2 Trillion

Illustration of payload landing on the Moon (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA NASA is working with Firefly Aerospace, a private space company, in exploring the Moon. Through this partnership, Firefly will send six instruments to support the Artemis program.

The space agency has provided 159 million US dollars (Rp2 trillion) to Firefly. Under the Commercial Moon Loading Service (CLPS) program, Firefly will send a series of science and technology experiments to the Moon's surface.

The Firefly instrument will later assist NASA in understanding the planet's processes and evolution, as well as better understanding the Moon's environment. That way, NASA can re-land humans on the Moon via the Artemis 3 flight mission.

"The CLPS initiative carries out a US scientific and technical study on the lunar surface by robotic explorers," said Joel Kearns, Deputy Administrator of the Association for Exploration at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. (CLPS) will help the US answer important questions about the lunar surface.

The six technologies Firefly developed will be launched at different times. The first shipment is scheduled to be as early as mid-January next year and will land near a volcanic called Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium, to be precise on the near side of the Moon.

The second launch will include two tasks, namely launching satellites into lunar orbit and sending sources of lunar orbit calibration. The second flight is scheduled for 2026.

The next flight is planned for 2028. Through the CLPS mission, Firefly will land its cargo to Gruithuisen Domes and Sinus Viscositatus. Gruithuisen Domes is thought to have been formed by magma whose composition is similar to that of her.

In fact, the Moon doesn't have the main ingredients to rely on, so scientists question the origins or how Gruithuisen Domes can form. By using Firefly's payload, scientists want to learn features similar to those features.

In accordance with NASA's previous statement, there are six instruments to be landed on the Moon. This instrument has a collective mass of about 97 kilograms. The charge to be added by Firefly is Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer.

There are also Heimdall charges, Low Frequency Radio Observations of the Moon's Surface Near Side were designed, Photovoltaic Investigations on the Moon's Surface, Neutron Measurements on the Moon's Surface, as well as Sample Acquisition, Morphological Screening, and Moon Regolit Examination.