The lander of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar vehicle showed the lunar eclipse in all its glory. Although on the Moon, it is a solar eclipse.
Firefly Aerospace published in X frames of the eclipse that occurred on March 14. A short video of individual frames demonstrates the phases of the process. At this time, residents of North America could observe the red Moon, and it was already too light for that in Ukraine. On the Moon, it was a solar eclipse when the Earth covers the luminary.
«Blue Ghost is turning red! Our lander has transmitted more images of the Moon, taken around 2:30 CDT [9:30 Kyiv time, — ed.] during last night’s total solar eclipse. These images, quickly captured by our top camera with different exposure settings, were combined into a short clip. The red hue is the result of sunlight refracting through Earth’s atmosphere as our planet’s sun is blocked by our planet, casting a shadow on the lunar surface», — Firefly writes.
The photo also shows Venus and Mercury. Details of the lunar terrain are also visible, although not clearly. During its lunar mission, Blue Ghost has repeatedly pleased with interesting photos and videos. At the end of February, the device low «passed» over the Moon and filmed the sunrise of the Earth above its surface. At the beginning of March Blue Ghost landed on the moon and transmitted the first footage from the surface. A few days later NASA showed a video of the landing apparatus, with many shots «first-person».
Blue Ghost delivered 10 NASA scientific instruments to the moon to measure radiation and test new sample collection methods. Blue Ghost’s landing experience will be useful for future missions of the Artemis lunar program to deliver humans to the moon. NASA has allocated $93 million to Firefly Aerospace for the Ghost Riders in the Sky mission, and the program has subsequently risen in price to $101.5 million.
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