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Firefly Aerospace, a market-leading space and defense technology company, announced a new commercial payload agreement with Volta Space Technologies to host a wireless power receiver on Firefly\u2019s Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander on the far side of the Moon. The payload will serve as a technology demonstration for Volta\u2019s planned lunar power network, called LightGrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirefly is proud to welcome <\/em>Volta<\/em> to our <\/em>second Blue Ghost mission<\/em> and serve as a core partner in the ongoing development of lunar power utilities,\u201d said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. <\/strong>\u201cOur international mission will enable critical technology demonstrations that lay the groundwork for lasting operations on the Moon. Longer term, our <\/em>Blue Ghost landers<\/em> and <\/em>Elytra orbiters<\/em> are well equipped to support Volta\u2019s larger vision for a lunar power network, and we look forward to seeing the evolution of our collaboration in the years ahead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Volta\u2019s planned LightGrid consists of a network of satellites in lunar orbit that collect solar energy and transmit it via laser to receivers known as LightPorts that are integrated on customer landers, rovers, and infrastructure on the Moon\u2019s surface. The Volta payload hosted on Blue Ghost Mission 2 will be used to test and validate the first LightPort, demonstrating how surface users can tap into Volta\u2019s power grid. The mission will further demonstrate how Volta\u2019s dedicated laser-receiver system can be integrated into centralized surface power generation architectures to enable local surface-to-surface power distribution and provide redundant power capabilities as the lunar ecosystem develops. <\/p>\n \u201cPartnering with <\/em>Firefly<\/em> on <\/em>Blue Ghost Mission 2<\/em> is an important step forward for <\/em>Volta<\/em> and the future of lunar infrastructure,\u201d said Justin Zipkin, CEO of Volta.<\/strong> \u201cThis collaboration allows us to prove our LightPort receiver in a real lunar environment and move one step closer to delivering a fully integrated power grid for the Moon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n With the addition of Volta, based in Montreal, Canada, Blue Ghost Mission 2 will now carry six payloads from five different countries. Other flying on Firefly\u2019s mission include NASA\u2019s LuSEE-Night radio telescope and User Terminal, and the European Space Agency\u2019s Lunar Pathfinder satellite as part of Firefly\u2019s NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order. Firefly also onboarded additional government and commercial payloads, including the United Arab Emirates Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre Rashid Rover 2 and Fleet Space Technologies\u2019 SPIDER payload. These payloads aim to provide insights into the geological properties and minerals on the Moon, enhance lunar surface mobility, improve lunar communications, and uncover new insights about the origins of the universe.<\/p>\n Blue Ghost Mission 2 will also initiate Firefly\u2019s Ocula lunar imaging service through Firefly\u2019s Elytra Dark vehicle, which is equipped with high-resolution telescopes. Elytra will first serve as a Blue Ghost transfer vehicle and communications relay for the mission and then remain operational in lunar orbit for more than five years to provide ultraviolet and visible spectrum imaging \u2013 a key capability to identify mineral deposits on the Moon\u2019s surface, map future landing sites with higher fidelity, and enable cislunar situational awareness.<\/p>\n Qualification testing for the fully stacked Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft structure is well underway for Blue Ghost Mission 2. The team has also begun assembling flight hardware and has accepted and tested a majority of the payloads at Firefly\u2019s spacecraft facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Firefly Aerospace, a market-leading space and defense technology company, announced a new commercial payload agreement with Volta Space Technologies to host a wireless power receiver on Firefly\u2019s Blue Ghost Mission 2 lander on the far side of the Moon. The payload will serve as a technology demonstration for Volta\u2019s planned lunar power network, called LightGrid. \u201cFirefly is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,27,20],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-power-systems","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\nAlso Read: What are the Different Types of Solar Panels used in Space?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
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