Private US Moon Lander Now Headed For Earth, Might Burn Up In Atmosphere (ndtv.com) 41
The fuel-leaking Peregrine lunar lander is now "on a parth towards Earth," according to Update #16 from Astrobotic, which predicts their spacecraft "will likely burn up in the Earth's atmosphere."
"Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak... The team is currently assessing options and we will update as soon as we are able. The propellant leak has slowed considerably to a point where it is no longer the teams' top priority...
We have now been operating in space for 5 days and 8 hours and are about 242,000 miles from Earth.
"A soft landing on the Moon is not possible," the announcement emphasizes. NDTV explains: Shortly after it separated from the rocket, the spaceship experienced an onboard explosion and it soon became clear it would not make a soft lunar touchdown because of the amount of the propellant it was losing — though Astrobotic's team were able to power up science experiments they were carrying for NASA and other space agencies, and gather spaceflight data...
Astrobotic itself will get another chance in November with its Griffin lander transporting NASA's VIPER rover to the lunar south pole.
We have now been operating in space for 5 days and 8 hours and are about 242,000 miles from Earth.
"A soft landing on the Moon is not possible," the announcement emphasizes. NDTV explains: Shortly after it separated from the rocket, the spaceship experienced an onboard explosion and it soon became clear it would not make a soft lunar touchdown because of the amount of the propellant it was losing — though Astrobotic's team were able to power up science experiments they were carrying for NASA and other space agencies, and gather spaceflight data...
Astrobotic itself will get another chance in November with its Griffin lander transporting NASA's VIPER rover to the lunar south pole.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Russia have never had a successful lunar mission. The Soviet Union did in the 1970s, which included contributions from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other Soviet states.
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So that's why Putin is desperate to get Ukraine back.
He's got more chance of landing on the moon.
Also, Ukraine was the country producing engines and parts for Russian military helicopters. With that avenue closed, Russia has been desperately looking to replenish its dwindling helicopter count and parts stockpile by buying back previously sold engines and helicopters [businessinsider.com].
LOL COPE harder Russian troll. (Score:1)
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So, according to you, Russia only wants half of eastern europe to keep NATO away. And it’s intentions are totally nice, fuzzy and peaceful beyond that, and it’s the west that’s behaving like nazis, eh? Dayyummmmm.
And, if your goal was to decrease your exposure to NATO, how’d Finland work out, eh?
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of course the goal was to stop nato expansion, even that lackey stoltenberg admitted that much. yeah he slipped, but the cat was out of the bag anyway. it's been 2 years! get used to it. the u.s. ofc will get away with it but all you fanatics/drones will have to eat your words.
finland? what should i know. i think their decision was stupid but whatever, they'll have their reasons. i don't think finland is very important to russia.
btw, i'm not russian, but you already knew that.
Re: (Score:3)
But we can tell that you wish you were. That's why you're going to vote for Putin's stooge, Trump. Since you don't like looking up actual facts, when Ukraine separated they held a referendum in all the country's oblasts (their states), asking if they want to stay with Ukraine or Russia. A properly monitored referendum unlike Russian ones where people are forced to side with Russia at the point of a gun. 90% of people wanted their states to be in Ukraine with the exception of 2 places, which still had a majo
Re: (Score:1)
sure enough they all wanted an independent state. and russia has been ok with that for a long while. sadly they have forfeited that reality now but ... to your point:
look at any other election in ukraine since and you will see a clear (and radical) west/east division. look at opinion polls and surveys of whether to join european or eastern institutions, and you'll see the same. it was a badly divided country to the extreme of ... you might have missed that, but before russia's invasion they were actually wa
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know why the both of you are arguing about Russia and Ukraine, when we are here talking about Moon landing. BTW, Russia stopped mattering to the world a long time ago, except for the oil perhaps.
There's your problem (Score:5, Funny)
You're measuring your spacecraft's altitude in miles.
--
First time, its a kludge.
Second time, a trick.
Now its a well-established technique!
Re: (Score:2)
You're measuring your spacecraft's altitude in miles.
They probably measured stirring the tanks in rpm as well.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
You're measuring your spacecraft's altitude in miles.
There's two kinds of countries on Earth: those that use metric, and those that have sent man to the Moon.
(yes, yes, there's exceptions noone ever heard about, like Gabon or something?)
Re:There's your problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you ever hear of The Gimli Glider? It was an Air Canada 767 that ran out of gas mid flight because someone screwed up imperial to metric conversions. Canada had recently converted to the metric system and not all industries were caught up. The pilot actually managed to glide it to an old WW2 training air strip in Gimli, Manitoba, north of Winnipeg, that had been converted into a drag strip for cars. No one died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider#Miscalculation_during_fueling
So... (Score:1)
Sending human remains to the moon wasn't such a good idea after all, eh?
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They should have listened to the Navajo!
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I'm just glad my ashes aren't on it.
Stylish Cremation (Score:5, Funny)
Why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cos every Tweet's timestamp says 'Earth' and they were hoping to tweet from 'Moon', or since there are many moons in the solar system 'Luna' ?
Re: (Score:2)
Because it is cheap and low-effort. Kind of the aged yellow press of physical news media.
In other news, any social media we want to that ruined fast? Musk can do it!
Re: (Score:2)
Why are companies like this still using Twitter/X for their updates?
Why wouldn't they? It's what people who aren't obsessed with politics still use.
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on a parth towards Earth? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a common corruption of "darth" :)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Astrobotic apparently did a spell check -- "parth" is in quotes in TFS, but it is spelled correctly in their Twitted statement.
Someone forgot to tell it... (Score:2)
"That's no moon!"
Cheaper-than-possible commercial crap (Score:3)
An investigation would probably find that "management" made engineering decisions.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, yeah. That's kinda part of the point.
NASA have already demonstrated that you can land on the moon if you get a blank check from the government and award a bunch of cost-plus contracts. The more interesting challenge, now, is to see whether we can get a private company to do it for cheap.
onboard explosion (Score:2)
"the spaceship experienced an onboard explosion"
I hadn't heard that before, I thought it was just a leak.
Re: (Score:2)
space houthis
Laws of Space Salvage? (Score:3)
If it lands in my back yard, do I get to keep it? I'm thinking of previous situations: F-117, Boeing airliner door plug, thermonuclear bomb here in Nawth Ca'lina, etc.