The launch of the Blue Ghost module, scheduled to land on the moon early next month, is a key step in creating an Earth–moon supply chain.

The lunar economy, complete with its own supply chain, may seem like a distant concept, but its foundations are already here. It will center around using the moon’s natural resources to construct scientific infrastructure on its surface, as well as develop capacity for future space exploration (the moon is a potential spaceport for more distant destinations, such as Mars).

There are many countries and companies vying to be part of this new lunar gold rush. Among them is private space firm Firefly Aerospace, based in Texas. Its Blue Ghost 1 mission, which launched on January 15, has just shown what the first stage of a delivery system between Earth and the moon will look like.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander is currently in transit to the surface of the moon. To complete its mission, the module must enter orbit, make a controlled descent to Mare Crisium—a large basin in the moon’s northern hemisphere—survive the extreme conditions, deploy its scientific equipment, and take environmental readings and conduct autonomous drilling and regolith extraction.

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