News How to screw up a moon landing.

[ralphc1]

The latest moon landing apparently was screwed up by neglecting to switch a safety switch on the laser rangefinder system. They are trying to put the SpaceX spin on this. Their best guess to the IM lander situation is that it was moving sideways and landed at higher speeds than intended so they think it's laying on it's side like the Japanese lander did. The antennas that they use to transfer data aren't in the proper orientation. The lander is still alive and they hope to get pictures from it before the sun moves.

After watching the video of the press conference, it seems that the laser rangefinder system they used had a safety switch to prevent it coming on without notice during the build stage. The mechanical switch was supposed to be turned on before loading the craft for launch. They were lucky to find out about it before the landing. The craft was not orbiting as expected so the laser range finder was activated earlier than normal to check the orbital distance when they found it wasn't working. They had a NASA experiment on board that was also capable of measuring range but they had to come up with software to patch it into the guidance system after delaying the launch for another orbit. That experiment wasn't taking readings from as many places as the original system. The change might have had some effect on how the landing ended up.

It's about 37 minutes into the video where they start describing the problem but the entire video is worth watching.

 

[GSP_37]

Did they foresee the thing ending up on its side and build in some sort of erection extender device to get it upright?

 

[Tone C]

Did they foresee the thing ending up on its side and build in some sort of erection extender device to get it upright?

Does no-one watch Robot wars ?

 

[666]

Guys we could still be astronauts!

 

[ralphc1]

Did they foresee the thing ending up on its side and build in some sort of erection extender device to get it upright?

That seems like it would be a good idea especially since they are now trying to land at the lunar poles where the surface seems to be less friendly. The earlier landings were targeted for areas that had large smother surfaces probably from craters or magma flows.

The latest series of craft seem to have a higher vertical to horizontal relationship than the manned landers of the Apollo program. You can see from the photos below that the Nova C sitting on a yellow stand in the upper photo would be much less stable than the Apollo lunar module in the lower photo. The struts on the Nova C look very fragile so one might have failed if it landed at a higher speed than it was designed for. Any horizontal velocity would also be a problem.

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

The latest moon landing apparently was screwed up by neglecting to switch a safety switch on the laser rangefinder system. They are trying to put the SpaceX spin on this. Their best guess to the IM lander situation is that it was moving sideways and landed at higher speeds than intended so they think it's laying on it's side like the Japanese lander did. The antennas that they use to transfer data aren't in the proper orientation. The lander is still alive and they hope to get pictures from it before the sun moves.

After watching the video of the press conference, it seems that the laser rangefinder system they used had a safety switch to prevent it coming on without notice during the build stage. The mechanical switch was supposed to be turned on before loading the craft for launch. They were lucky to find out about it before the landing. The craft was not orbiting as expected so the laser range finder was activated earlier than normal to check the orbital distance when they found it wasn't working. They had a NASA experiment on board that was also capable of measuring range but they had to come up with software to patch it into the guidance system after delaying the launch for another orbit. That experiment wasn't taking readings from as many places as the original system. The change might have had some effect on how the landing ended up.

It's about 37 minutes into the video where they start describing the problem but the entire video is worth watching.

The way to screw up a moon landing is when the power goes out at the studio during filming

 

[spamking]

It seems so weird to me that this happened and I hadn't even heard about it until it was actually in the process of landing.

Crazy how we live in a world where something like landing on the moon is no longer a "big deal".

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

So they actually landed a spacecraft on the moon? Or was just an animation?

 

[I Am Legion]

They landed on the moon and it was a PRIVATE company. This is some cool stuff. We should have colonies on the moon withing 30 years. No need for a wall up there.

 

[Spam On Rye]

The moon landing is fake and gay.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Why didn't they just land on The Darkside of the Moon

 

[MichiganMMA1978]

It seems so weird to me that this happened and I hadn't even heard about it until it was actually in the process of landing.

Crazy how we live in a world where something like landing on the moon is no longer a "big deal".

I remember when they stopped school so we could all watch the Challenger explode...

Not many classmates wanted to be an astronaut after that...

 

[MichiganMMA1978]

Why didn't they just land on The Darkside of the Moon

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."


Maybe this is why?

 

[ralphc1]

They say they have about 7 days to try to get more data back before that part of the moon will be in total darkness and the temperatures will drop to near absolute 0. They don't think the electronics will survive that. Once that area of the moon gets back in sunlight, the small solar panels can slowly collect light and charge the batteries, they will try to get in contact with it if possible. In the meantime they are trying to recover as much data as possible before the site goes dark.

The Voyager spacecraft used radioactive material to power an electric generator and both are still sending back data The CCS computer used has been running continuously since 1977.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

I don’t remember NASA fucking up half as many times as Space X.

 

[TeTe]

If there's one conspiracy theory out there that I might be inclined to agree with... Is that a human never landed on the moon in the 60s. Never underestimate what we'd have done to one up the Soviets during the cold war. Just look at the history of space travel since.

 

[Osculater]

The way to screw up a moon landing is when the power goes out at the studio during filming

NASA ain't that dumb they probably have backup generators

 

[lsa]

NASA ain't that dumb they probably have backup generators

Damn thats pretty smart

 

[KnightTemplar]

Why didn't they just land on The Darkside of the Moon

Because the Nazis who set up their own Lunar city at the end of WWII would shoot them down, duh.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

Tin foil is the duct tape of space.


Needs more tin foil