India's Moon Lander Has Not Replied to Its First Wake-Up Call (nytimes.com) 34
"As the sun rose on Friday over the lunar plateau where India's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover sit, the robotic explorers remained silent," writes the New York Times:
The Indian Space Research Organization, India's equivalent of NASA, said on Friday that mission controllers on the ground had sent a wake-up message to Vikram. The lander, as expected, did not reply. Efforts will continue over the next few days, but this could well be the conclusion of Chandrayaan-3, India's first successful space mission to the surface of another world...
The hope was that when sunlight again warmed the solar panels, the spacecraft would recharge and revive. But that was wishful thinking. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan were designed to survive a long, frigid lunar night when temperatures plunge to more than a hundred degrees below zero, far colder than the electronic components were designed for. The spacecraft designers could have added heaters or used more resilient components, but that would have added cost, weight and complexity...
The mission's science observations included a temperature probe deployed from Vikram that pushed into the lunar soil. The probe recorded a sharp drop, from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface to 10 degrees just three inches down. Lunar soil is a poor conductor of heat. The poor heat conduction could be a boon for future astronauts; an underground outpost would be well-insulated from the enormous temperature swings at the surface. Another instrument on Vikram, a seismometer, detected on Aug. 26 what appeared to be a moonquake... The Pragyan measurement suggests that concentrations of sulfur might be higher in the polar regions. Sulfur is a useful element in technologies like solar cells and batteries, as well as in fertilizer and concrete.
Before it went to sleep earlier this month, Vikram made a small final move, firing its engines to rise about 16 inches above the surface before softly landing again. The hop shifted Vikram's position by 12 to 16 inches, ISRO said. "Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!" ISRO posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 2. "Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."
"Efforts to establish contact will continue," ISRO tweeted yesterday...
The hope was that when sunlight again warmed the solar panels, the spacecraft would recharge and revive. But that was wishful thinking. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan were designed to survive a long, frigid lunar night when temperatures plunge to more than a hundred degrees below zero, far colder than the electronic components were designed for. The spacecraft designers could have added heaters or used more resilient components, but that would have added cost, weight and complexity...
The mission's science observations included a temperature probe deployed from Vikram that pushed into the lunar soil. The probe recorded a sharp drop, from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface to 10 degrees just three inches down. Lunar soil is a poor conductor of heat. The poor heat conduction could be a boon for future astronauts; an underground outpost would be well-insulated from the enormous temperature swings at the surface. Another instrument on Vikram, a seismometer, detected on Aug. 26 what appeared to be a moonquake... The Pragyan measurement suggests that concentrations of sulfur might be higher in the polar regions. Sulfur is a useful element in technologies like solar cells and batteries, as well as in fertilizer and concrete.
Before it went to sleep earlier this month, Vikram made a small final move, firing its engines to rise about 16 inches above the surface before softly landing again. The hop shifted Vikram's position by 12 to 16 inches, ISRO said. "Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!" ISRO posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 2. "Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."
"Efforts to establish contact will continue," ISRO tweeted yesterday...
Re: (Score:1)
It's remarkable because it's the most extreme version of a "liar culture" that's humanly possible. Liars so profound that they insist on cultivating an image of honesty and directness that nobody familiar with them would believe. An image that they react violently to having challenged.
We're never going to fully be a free country until Texas is put in its place, because they don't like freedom. They're slavers through and through.
Re: (Score:3)
So... shut-the-fuck-upksy.
Did they try ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
They did, actually.
It turned off successfully. It did not turn back on.
It hit the snooze button (Score:3)
Surveyor 1... (Score:2)
performed a soft landing on its first attempt, on June 2, 1966, and continued transmitting data back until January 7, 1967, across multiple lunar nights. Must be a timezone thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of men are extremely "fluid" in your mother's tongue.
Re: (Score:3)
They took a chance (Score:3)
I'm given to understand previous probes used a radiation based heat source, most likely a small piece of plutonium just to keep things warm rather than generate power. I think this was somewhat of an experiment to see if they could get by without that under real conditions. I was trying to find out what the battery tech was last night, but I came up short. I did find out about the previous probes thermal support though. It seems like the batteries would be the weakest link. They're probably wondering how the Earth-based testing came up short. It's a shame this didn't work. I wonder if they'll try again. Not having to put radioactive material on board would not only save weight and complexity, but avoid the hassle of handling those materials and the controversy that always surrounds loss due to launch failures.
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Not having to put radioactive material on board would not only save weight and complexity, but avoid the hassle of handling those materials and the controversy that always surrounds loss due to launch failures.
While I agree, there likely is no better power source on other planets. Not until we invent or discover it.
Perhaps we should get better at launches to stop worrying about what should be the default power source for now. We've only been doing this for half a century...
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Most probes to the Moon haven't used a radiation source. I can't find any in the US Surveyor, Ranger, or Explorer programs nor the USSR Luna probes. China's recent Chang'e 4 lander/rover is the only one I can find.
They didn't design it to last t
Re: (Score:3)
I guess you didn't look too hard. Decay sources were used for heating, not for power. The Soviet Lunokhod rovers [wikipedia.org] used Polonium-210 decay sources to maintain temperature while using solar panels and batteries for power (the output of the solar panels wasn't sufficient to run the rovers, so they'd stop periodically to charge their batteries before continuing).
Fo
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, we all know that. The point is, including it adds a lot of weight and cost to the mission, and introduces a risk of spreading contamination on the ground in case of a launch failure. The first Lunokhod launch disintegrated and spread Polonium-210 across Russia.
It worked fine for the two Lunokhod rovers that successfully landed on the moo
The lander (Score:2)
failed to do the needful.
Re: (Score:1)
Indeed. It didn't revert their e-mail.
Maple (Score:2)
We never..poked a stick in it? (Score:2)
"The mission's science observations included a temperature probe deployed from Vikram that pushed into the lunar soil. The probe recorded a sharp drop, from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface to 10 degrees just three inches down...The poor heat conduction could be a boon for future astronauts; an underground outpost would be well-insulated from the enormous temperature swings at the surface."
First, hats off to any country putting probes on any other planet. Well done. That's an achievement in itself.
That said, does it strike anyone else as strange that we had humans walking on the lunar surface half a century ago, and yet this reads like we never thought to bring a thermometer and stick it in the dirt before? Just seems a bit odd, since playing in the dirt is something we tend to do as soon as we're introduced to it.
In India we call it a customer feedback vindaloop (Score:1)
Yay! (Score:2)
"We landed 2 tons of useless junk on the Moon!"
--India, possibly.
Show of hands (Score:2)
Is anyone shocked (SHOCKED I SAY!) about this development?
Re: (Score:2)
Considering it wasn't expected to survive the lunar night, I'm pretty sure the only people who are shocked are completely clueless about the mission.
what value? (Score:2)
This thing was supposed to have value in the search for water near south pole. All I see for results is detecting a moonquake and measuring temp below the surface. Did this thing actually accomplish anything other than showing that India can land a lander? ...Near the south pole?
Should have spent an additional Memento on it (Score:2)
On top of the Interstellar