SpaceX, the aerospace company of billionaire Elon Musk, launched last Wednesday (14), at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying two private missions towards the Moon.
One of them is the Blue Ghost module, from the American company Firefly Aerospace, which carries several experiments, including an Italian instrument that seeks to break the record for the most distant GPS signal receiver.
The other is the Resilience module, from the Japanese company ispace, which aims to become the first private company outside the US to land on the Moon.
After reaching Earth's orbit, the two missions separated from the Falcon 9 rocket and began separate paths to the natural satellite: the first will attempt to land on the moon in early March, while the second will remain in space for four to five months before landing on lunar soil.
One of the experiments on the Blue Ghost module is LuGre (Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment), which could be the first receiver of signals from the GPS (USA) and Galileo (European Union) satellite navigation systems on the Moon.
Currently, the furthest such device is located halfway between Earth and its natural satellite. “No one has dared to go that far before,” said Teodoro Valente, president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), which developed LuGre in partnership with NASA, the company Qascom and the Polytechnic of Turin, which is responsible for processing the data.
The aim is to make the equipment receive signals from devices located both on Earth and in space. “The experiment will open the door to future navigation systems for the permanent exploration of our natural satellite,” Valente added.
The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, stated that LuGre will be used to prepare for “future lunar missions” – NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) intend to carry out a manned trip to the Moon in 2026. (HANDLE)
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