Firefly Aerospace has announced Ocula, a service that will allow governments and commercial partners to acquire high-resolution images of the lunar surface. The company will take them using a telescope mounted on the Elytra probe, which is planned to replace NASA’s aging Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
The quality of the images will also improve, as LRO takes them with a resolution of 50 centimeters per pixel. Ocula will offer a resolution of up to 20 centimeters. Observations are planned in the visible and ultraviolet range. This feature will allow interested companies to calculate the location of certain minerals, such as ilmenite, which is associated with the presence of helium-3. The system can also be used to observe the lunar space and objects in it.
Ocula will be one of the first, if not the first, commercial lunar imaging service. We will provide critical data that will inform future human and robotic missions.
The service will be launched next year. The Elytra orbiter will be a secondary payload for the Blue Chost-2 lunar landing platform. Another Elytra probe will be sent with another similar platform in 2028.
Currently, the main supplier of lunar surface images is the LRO probe, which has been in operation since 2009. Although it is in good working order, industry experts have repeatedly stated that it requires a worthy replacement with more modern equipment. Devices launched into lunar orbit by other organizations have the ability to photograph the surface of the Earth’s satellite, but not in high enough resolution. The appearance of the Ocula service may mean the end of LRO. In this case, NASA will be among Firefly Aerospace’s clients and will buy images of areas of the lunar surface that interest the agency.