On March 2, NASA confirmed the first ever successful soft-landing attempt by a private company. Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 (named after a rare species of fireflies thought native to the United States), touched down at precisely 2.04 p.m. IST, near Mons Latrielle at Mare Crisium on the moon’s near side. Firefly Aerospace issued a press release shortly thereafter.

The soft-landing comes after another US-based private company, Intuitive Machines, attempted one a year ago. On that occasion however, the lander, known as Odyssey, bounced off hard on the lunar surface at touchdown, following a steep descent. It rested titled with a stray lunar rock to offer a shoulder. In contrast, Blue Ghost which stuck both an upright landing, and its payloads intact.

The landing was the culmination of a 45 day trip that began early this year. On January 15, Blue Ghost blasted to space aboard a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Block 5 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. Sharing space during the launch was yet another commercial lunar lander, the Hakuto-R Mission 2  – built and operated by the Japanese space technology company, ispace. However, Hakuto-R has a projected landing date on the moon sometime in April, owing to a different arrival approach.

Firefly had released pictures of the lunar terrain, the Blue Ghost‘s photographed from its landing site. One of them shows a rugged gray dusty terrain, with a portion of the lander’s chassis in view in the foreground. Whereas a second one showed a desolate terrain with the earth reflecting sunlight above the horizon. Blue Ghost‘s shadow looms in the foreground in the image.

This site located close to Mons Latrielle, is what scientists think is an ancient basin formed upon a rogue asteroid impact eons ago. More than 500 km wide, Mare Crisium, as the basin is known by, is believed to have been flooded by lava in volcanic eruptions dating to some 4 billion years ago.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that carried Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander, Blue Ghost Mission 1, is seen stationed here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida | Credit: NASA

Laying groundwork for NASA’s Artemis

“Firefly is literally and figuratively over the Moon,” Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said shortly after the landing, in a press release.  “Our Blue Ghost lunar lander now has a permanent home on the lunar surface with 10 NASA payloads and a plaque with every Firefly employee’s name. This bold, unstoppable team has proven we’re well equipped to deliver reliable, affordable access to the Moon, and we won’t stop there. With annual lunar missions, Firefly is paving the way for a lasting lunar presence that will help unlock access to the rest of the solar system for our nations, our partners, and the world.”

In 2023, Firefly Aerospace ferried the instruments as part of a $93.3 million contract signed with NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The CLPS program is Nasa’s attempt at driving private participation on future lunar missions. But the payloads help set stage for NASA’s Artemis program, which would mark their first attempt since the Apollo program, to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

Some of the payloads reflect the new engineering demands for such long-term lunar missions. To streamline tracking lander and rovers on the moon, NASA supplied the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE). It is a GNSS receiver to help earth-orbiting satellite constellations, including GPS and the Galileo, track the lunar lander with high accuracy in real-time. Another one is the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) that investigates possible soil degradation left behind in the wake of a typical lunar mission soft-landing.

Other payloads were designed to explore various science objectives. Research institutes and universities across the United States contributed to a variety of instruments. They included laser retro reflectors to measure distances, an x-ray imaging device to study how the solar wind affects space weather on earth; a probe which can inject itself into the moon’s sub-surface to measure heat dissipation.

In a press release applauding Blue Ghost’s successful soft-landing attempt, NASA’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, said, “This incredible achievement demonstrates how Nasa and American companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all … We have already learned many lessons – and the technological and science demonstrations onboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 will improve our ability to not only discover more science, but to ensure the safety of our spacecraft instruments for future human exploration – both in the short term and long term.”

A recent study conducted in Delhi sheds light on the contrasting mathematical abilities of children who work in markets versus those who attend school, raising questions about how educational systems can better address these disparities. The research, which involved over 200 children, compared the performances of children engaged in market work with those focused solely on their studies.

In the study, children were tasked with solving math problems under various conditions. Remarkably, 85 percent of children with market jobs were able to answer a complex market transaction problem correctly, while only 10 percent of their school-going counterparts succeeded in solving a similar question. However, when the same group was given simple division and subtraction problems, with pencil and paper for assistance, the results shifted. Fifty-nine percent of school kids solved the problems correctly, while only 45 percent of market-working children did.

The researchers also introduced a word problem involving a boy buying vegetables at the market. One-third of market-working children successfully solved the problem without any aid, whereas fewer than 1 percent of schoolchildren were able to do the same. This stark difference in performance highlights the potential benefits that practical, real-world experience in the marketplace can offer.

Why, then, do nonworking students seem to struggle more under market conditions?

“They learned an algorithm but didn’t understand it,” said researcher Abhijit Banerjee, explaining the phenomenon. On the other hand, market-working children appeared to have developed useful strategies for managing transactions. One notable example was their use of rounding to simplify calculations. For instance, when faced with multiplying 43 by 11, many market kids would round 43 to 40, multiply by 10, and then add 43 to get the correct result of 473—an intuitive trick that seemed to help them tackle problems more efficiently.

“The market kids are able to exploit base 10, so they do better on base 10 problems,” said Esther Duflo, co-author of the study. “The school kids have no idea. It makes no difference to them.” Conversely, the schoolchildren demonstrated a better understanding of formal written methods for division and subtraction.

The findings raise an important issue: while market-working children excel in solving real-world problems quickly, they may be missing out on the formal education necessary for long-term academic success. “It would likely be better for the long-term futures if they also did well in school and wound up with a high school degree or better,” Banerjee said.

The divide between the intuitive problem-solving skills of market kids and the formal methods taught in school suggests that a new approach could be beneficial in the classroom. Banerjee suspects that traditional teaching methods, which often prioritize a single, formal approach to solving problems, may be limiting. He advocates for encouraging students to reason their way toward an approximation of the correct answer, a method that aligns more closely with the informal strategies used by market-working children.

Despite these concerns, Duflo emphasized, “We don’t want to blame the teachers. It’s not their fault. They are given a strict curriculum to follow, and strict methods to follow.”

The question remains: how can schools adjust their teaching methods to better support students’ diverse problem-solving strategies? The research team is actively exploring new experiments to address this issue, with the goal of creating a more inclusive and effective educational system.

“These findings highlight the importance of educational curricula that bridge the gap between intuitive and formal mathematics,” the authors concluded.

The study was supported by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab’s Post-Primary Education Initiative, the Foundation Blaise Pascal, and the AXA Research Fund.

At the 12th Convocation ceremony of Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) on January 28, 2025, Mukesh Ambani, the President of the university and India’s richest man, delivered a heartfelt address to the graduating class of 2024. Located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, PDEU is India’s premier institution dedicated to energy education and research, making it the only energy-focused university in the country.

Ambani expressed his pride in the students’ achievements and took the opportunity to share five life lessons that have shaped his own journey. He began by congratulating the graduates and acknowledging their energy and accomplishments, praising their self-driven initiatives, and highlighting the university’s commitment to fostering self-reliant, motivated individuals.

Ambani emphasized the importance of gratitude in one’s personal and professional life. “Gratitude is an emotion that lessens our ego, ripens our personality, and enables us to achieve more in life,” he remarked, urging students to always remember the contributions of their parents, teachers, and mentors.

Ambani shared five guiding principles for the students as they step into the next phase of their lives:

1. Discover Your True Passion – Ambani stressed the importance of finding what ignites one’s soul. “When you dedicate your energy to something you love, work becomes joy,” he said.
2. Commit to Lifelong Learning – In an age of rapid technological change, Ambani highlighted that continuous learning is essential for survival and success. He encouraged the graduates to embrace curiosity.
3. Inculcate the Virtue of Sharing – Sharing knowledge and helping others rise, according to Ambani, creates a community of mutual growth.
4. Invest in Meaningful Relationships – Genuine, trust-based relationships are foundational to both personal and professional success, Ambani said.
5. Cherish and Nurture Your Family Bonds – Ambani reminded students of the crucial role that family plays in providing direction, purpose, and resilience in life.

Ambani concluded his address by emphasizing the boundless opportunities available to young, ambitious individuals in India. He encouraged the graduates to seize the golden age of India with courage, determination, and integrity, highlighting the significant role they can play in the country’s bright future.