A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently delivered a high-resolution optics system to Firefly Aerospace in support of Firefly's Ocula commercial lunar imaging service.
The payload is scheduled to fly onboard Firefly's Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026.
The collaboration between LLNL and Firefly, facilitated by the Laboratory's Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO), presents an emerging model for modern space missions, pairing national laboratory innovation and commercial capabilities to accelerate timelines and reduce cost.
"By partnering with Firefly to get to lunar orbit, we're able to take extremely high-resolution images of the lunar surface at a fraction of the cost and development time of previous missions," said Tina Dinh, LLNL project lead for Ocula.
Firefly is the first commercial company to successfully land on the moon, and Blue Ghost Mission 2 will be their second lunar mission, which utilizes a dual spacecraft with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander and Elytra orbiter. Elytra will first serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for the lander during its approximately two-week surface lifetime. Elytra will then remain in lunar orbit and continue operating for several years to enable ongoing imaging for Firefly's Ocula service. LLNL is supplying the advanced optics system for Ocula, the embedded NVIDIA Jetson computing module, as well as flight software to support on-orbit data processing and real-time data insights.
The optics system builds on the Laboratory's expertise in monolithic telescopes, leveraging the compact, highly stable design to capture high‑resolution ultraviolet and visible images of the lunar surface. It extends the team's work on the 2024 PTD-R Mission, which used an ultraviolet telescope and camera to image the moon from low-Earth orbit.
"While thousands of satellites operate in low-Earth orbit, only a few hundred kilometers above Earth, traveling more than 300,000 kilometers to the Moon is still a truly unique opportunity," Dinh said.
The instrument has the same ultraviolet telescope and camera as the optics for the PTD-R Mission, but instead of the additional short-wave infrared sensor, it carries a larger aperture optical telescope. The two telescopes together allow for more advanced lunar surface characterization and mineral detection capabilities, such as mapping ilmenite deposits that indicate the presence of helium-3.
With more nations and companies in the lunar domain, the precise mapping and surface characterization offered by Ocula will also help to advance lunar reconnaissance, assure space flight safety and improve awareness of activity in the region for national security.
As Firefly prepares for launch, the Texas-based team is set to conduct payload integration, alignment verification and environmental testing to verify performance under the anticipated conditions of deep space.
This collaboration is enabled by a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) through IPO, which is the LLNL's focal point for industry engagement. IPO facilitates partnerships to deliver mission-driven solutions that support national security and grow the U.S. economy. LLNL Business Development Executive Clarence Cannon is responsible for the Laboratory's space intellectual property portfolio.
