Firefly Aerospace to Fly Zeno Power Radioisotope Heater to Validate Lunar Night Survival Capability

Firefly Aerospace announced on August 19 that it has reached a commercial payload agreement with Zeno Power Systems to carry Zeno's "Lunar Night Survival Package" and radioisotope heater unit on a "Blue Ghost" lunar lander mission. The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than 2028 and aims to verify whether the relevant nuclear power technologies can help spacecraft, lunar infrastructure, and future lunar base systems continue operating through the long, extremely cold lunar night environment.

*Rendering of Firefly's "Blue Ghost" lunar lander with Zeno Power's "Lunar Night Survival Package" on its top deck.

Under the plan, Zeno's payload will travel with "Blue Ghost" to the lunar nearside. After landing, the lander will first operate multiple NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) payloads on solar power for a full lunar day, approximately 14 Earth days. Once lunar night falls, the Zeno payload will begin operating and transmitting operational data back to Earth.

The "Lunar Night Survival Package" on this mission includes a 5-watt americium-241 radioisotope heater unit, along with a dedicated platform incorporating subsystems for structure, communications, power, command and data handling, and thermal management. The heater leverages the natural decay of radioactive material to generate passive heat, providing continuous warmth without reliance on solar power to maintain the operational capability of critical components in environments such as lunar night low temperatures and permanently shadowed regions.

Firefly Aerospace stated that its first "Blue Ghost" mission measured dramatic thermal variations on the lunar surface, with daytime temperatures exceeding 230°F and nighttime temperatures dropping below -275°F. This demonstration will accumulate data for the application of radioisotope and nuclear power technologies in long-duration lunar missions, serving future robotic and crewed lunar missions that need to continue operations after sunset.