... LUSEE-Night will probably not operate until very late in the lunar day. The lander is designed to survive the lunar night, in fact to operate in the lunar night:
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-scientists-craft-radio-telescope-bound.html
It may operate as long as 2 years. That will be quite an accomplishment. I think the rest of the lander is gone after the first lunar day - only LuSEE-night survives, so no other activities in later days.
#moon #BGM2
NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) are working together to develop a science instrument that will survive the harsh and unforgiving environment of the lunar surface at night on the far side of the Moon to attempt first-of-its-kind measurements of the Dark Ages of the Universe.
I'm back from a trip to the edge of the universe (AKA Hornby Island BC). I had mentioned payloads on BGM2 earlier, but here's a bit more about them. This is the website for the Rashid 2 rover:
https://www.mbrsc.ae/rashid-rover/
The original description of the LuSEE-Night payload said it had to avoid interference from lander operations, so lander ops would be over quickly. The rover and SPIDER seismometer will need to operate as long as possible, so.....
#moon #BGM2
However, nothing is quite as final as it seems. A year later (2024) Benjamin Saliwanchik (Brookhaven) et al. gave very slightly different coordinates - only 250 m from the Bale site. The map on the right here shows both points. Fine-tuning like this is very common in any site selection process. I have been recording the story of site selection like this for years for my new project (about which more in future).
OK - time to look at payloads...
The LuSEE-Night payload on BGM2 is described here:
https://www.colorado.edu/ness/projects/lunar-surface-electromagnetics-experiment-night-lusee-night
It's one of two LuSEE payloads. The other, LuSEE-Lite, will go to another location later.
Site selection has been described in several meetings by Jack Burns (U. Colorado). Sites were on hills so the horizon would be low - to view the maximum amount of sky you want to avoid being in a valley or crater (Apollo 17's site would block quite a lot of sky).
#moon #BGM2
We are looking a few months ahead at lunar missions early next year. Griffin, Blue Moon, Vertex... also set for roughly the same period - but no fixed dates yet for any of them - is Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 2 (BGM2). Here is their website for it:
https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-2/
Lots to talk about here. NASA's focus is on the Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Experiment at Night (LuSEE-Night), a radio astronomy payload on the far side, complete with a communication relay.
#moon #BGM2
Phil Stooke