After decades of relatively little research being done on the moon, the announcement of the Artemis mission from NASA, which will hopefully lead to longer-term bases being set up, has helped to encourage both public and private entities to plan missions to the lunar surface.

One incredible example of this is the Blue Ghost spacecraft, which was made by Firefly Aerospace. They hitched a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 to get into space on January 15, 2025, and then landed on the moon on March 2, 2025.

Once on the surface of the moon, this craft got right to work engaging the various tools and instruments onboard to get as much information as possible. This mission was designed to last for 14 days (which is about one lunar day), and it accomplished this quite well. In fact, they broke the record for the longest commercial operations on the moon ever.

There were many different activities performed, but one of the most interesting and most important was drilling into the lunar surface. The experiment was dubbed the “Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity”, or LISTER. To perform this, a drill was positioned in a large basin at the northeastern area of the moon’s near side called Mare Crisium.

Once in place, they began drilling down into the surface with the pneumatic drill. The video of the project, which can be seen below where they posted it on X, shows rocks, sparks, and other debris being pushed away.

GO LISTER! This @NASA payload, developed by @TexasTech and @HB_Robotics, began drilling into the surface shortly after landing to determine the heat flow from the interior of the Moon. Get the latest #BGM1 updates here: https://t.co/ju2QMaax5R pic.twitter.com/lxLN863nrl

— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) March 10, 2025

The team took measurements will digging down to learn more about heat flow, thermal conductivity, and much more. In a December post about this mission, NASA said:

“By making similar measurements at multiple locations on the lunar surface, we can reconstruct the thermal evolution of the Moon. That will permit scientists to retrace the geological processes that shaped the Moon from its start as a ball of molten rock, which gradually cooled off by releasing its internal heat into space.”

So, this is just the first of several missions that will be drilling down into the lunar surface. Another one was supposed to take place earlier this month. The Athena lander from Intuitive Machines landed on the moon, but was unable to remain upright, so the mission ended up getting scrubbed.

This is just one of the many important things that the Blue Ghost accomplished, and this Blue Ghost mission is just one of many that are planned. The coming years will be very busy on the moon.

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