Lunar lander snaps mesmerizing views of a solar eclipse

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost is nearing the end of a two-week mission as the first commercial spacecraft to successfully land on the moon. Its primary objective following the March 2 touchdown inside Mare Crisium crater was to deliver 10 NASA instruments designed to gather lunar subsurface data. But the eastern edge of the moon’s near east side also provided a perfect spot for viewing a solar eclipse from the moon’s point of view. On Friday, Firefly released its first breathtaking photos of the most recent cosmic event’s “diamond ring effect” as captured by Blue Ghost’s onboard camera.

The first image shows off the eclipse’s initial moments around 1:30 AM EST on March 14. In addition to photographing the eclipse itself, the event can also be seen in a reflection on Blue Ghost’s solar panel array. The lander’s first shot was taken from its top deck, and also includes portions of the X-band antenna (left), Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (center), and Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder mast (right).

The second photo downloaded from Blue Ghost showcases the totality, which resulted in a glowing band of sunlight over the lunar horizon resembling a diamond ring. Given the positions of Earth, the moon, and the Sun, the image recalls the many photographs taken during last year’s total solar eclipse on Earth. From the position down here on Earth, however, it was a total lunar eclipse instead of solar, where the Earth’s shadow created a “blood moon” event. According to Firefly, this marked the first time a commercial company was actively operating on the moon during an eclipse. Blue Ghost  primarily relies on solar power, so it took the second photo while operating on battery reserves.

Mission control engineers will now need to wait a little while longer before downlinking more images in order to give the X-band antenna time to warm up after experiencing the extremely cold temperatures resulting from about two hours’ worth of totality. For reference, lunar nights regularly see temperatures plummet to -208 degrees Fahrenheit. While not an official part of the mission, Firefly mission engineers also plan to analyze data gathered from NASA’s equipment during the approximately 5-hour eclipse. In doing so, they hope to learn more about how an eclipse might influence the lunar environment.

Although Blue Ghost is scheduled to permanently power down a few hours after night descends on the moon on March 16, it still has at least one more photoshoot scheduled. Engineers plan to downlink images from the upcoming lunar sunset in another first for the historic lander.

The post Lunar lander snaps mesmerizing views of a solar eclipse appeared first on Popular Science.