Japan's Successful Moon Landing Was the Most Precise Ever (nature.com) 32
Japan has become the fifth country in the world to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon, using precision technology that allowed it to touch down closer to its target landing site than any mission has before. However the spacecraft might have survived on the lunar surface for just a few hours due to power failure. Nature: Telemetry showed that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, touched down in its target area near Shioli crater, south of the lunar equator early Saturday morning, four months after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Centre, off the south coast of Japan. [...] According to [Hitoshi] Kuninaka (VP of Kanegawa-based Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), SLIM has very likely achieved its primary goal -- to land on the Moon with an unprecedented accuracy of 100 metres, which is a big leap from previous ranges of a few to dozens of kilometres. SLIM carried vision-based navigation technology, which was intended to image the surface as it flew over the Moon, and locate itself quickly by matching the images with onboard maps.
It remains unclear if the car-sized, 200-kilogram spacecraft actually touched down in the planned, two-step manner with its five legs. Unlike previous Moon landers, which used four legs to simultaneously reach a relatively flat area, SLIM was designed to hit a 15-degree slope outside Shioli crater first with one leg at the back, and then tip forward to stabilize on the four front legs. Observers suggest that SLIM might have rolled during its touch-down, preventing its solar cells from facing the Sun. Kuninaka said not enough data were available to establish the probe's posture or orientation. However, if some sunlight is able to reach the solar cells there is a chance that SLIM could come back to life.
It remains unclear if the car-sized, 200-kilogram spacecraft actually touched down in the planned, two-step manner with its five legs. Unlike previous Moon landers, which used four legs to simultaneously reach a relatively flat area, SLIM was designed to hit a 15-degree slope outside Shioli crater first with one leg at the back, and then tip forward to stabilize on the four front legs. Observers suggest that SLIM might have rolled during its touch-down, preventing its solar cells from facing the Sun. Kuninaka said not enough data were available to establish the probe's posture or orientation. However, if some sunlight is able to reach the solar cells there is a chance that SLIM could come back to life.
There's a chance that SLIM could come back to life (Score:2)
a... slim chance
Land on a Slope? (Score:2)
Why would you want to land on a Slope? Success would be better then trying new things.
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Considering the accuracy of the landing I'd call it pretty successful even if it doesn't complete the rest of the mission. That's a pretty substantial advance, right there.
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Because the rolling issue mucked up power, I find it hard to call it "successful". "Promising", but not "successful".
Re:Land on a Slope? (Score:5, Insightful)
They are trying to develop a way to land around hilly areas because of the potential for trapped oxygen. Aside from oxygen, a lot of the interesting sites on the moon are hilly, and they are working on ways to better position the landers for good solar panel orientation as well.
In this case, the Japanese were doing SCIENCE, not ENTERTAINMENT/PROPAGANDA, so they were more worried above trying to solve these problems than a media event. They would not have learned much from doing it the way everyone else does, they had new systems to test. I assume they learned a lot from this, one thing being that they have pretty damn good accuracy. Now they know they need something more for the anti-tumble.
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Also, the whole mission cost around $120m.
Shucks (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone know "Dammit!" in Japanese?
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The last transmission from the lander was "Banzai!"
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The last transmission from the lander was "Banzai!"
Maybe it committed Seppuku then.
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The romaji [wikipedia.org] for this would be "chikushou" which is can be “shit”, “son of a bitch”, or “dammit”. Using this alone can be an interjection if something unexpectedly happened, so it would be apt for this situation.
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Actually, damai desu or dameda.
Coincident.
Just like name is nomu (u silent)
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If you want precision, just wait till the Germans try it. I love those Bavarians.....so meticulous.
And if disaster strikes their mission, there's probably already a German word that means "My/our lunar lander tipped over!"
So there'll be no need for multiples posts here on /. discussing what the appropriate epithet would be.
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Well, I have to admit their track record to date has been more miss than hit, all their previous moon shots somehow ended up hitting London or Antwerp, but hopefully they'll do better in the future.
Bad arglebargle! Bad! Best line I've heard all month!
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If you want precision, just wait till the Germans try it. I love those Bavarians.....so meticulous.
And if disaster strikes their mission, there's probably already a German word that means "My/our lunar lander tipped over!"
So there'll be no need for multiples posts here on /. discussing what the appropriate epithet would be.
There will be 9 different articles for that word.
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The landing was the primary goal. They deliberately picked a slope as a stretch goal, to see if they could remain upright on it. The fact that the lander appears to have tipped over was expected.
Since nobody has landed on a slope yet, they were in uncharted territory. They had a novel method where the lander was supposed to tip a bit, and then right itself, to avoid having to land at an inclination. Obviously it didn't work, but maybe they can learn what went wrong and fix it, or write this method off and t
How is this accurate? (Score:2)
Apollo 12 put down beside Surveyor 3 at only slightly larger distance in 1969, and that's because they wanted to land on the higher ground.
File this one under "big deal".
Re: How is this accurate? (Score:3)
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No AI? Blasphemy! Bender's union shall hear about this!
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A human pilot and a handy landmark (the Surveyor probe). Japan landed this fully automatically, at a location of their choosing, without relying on visual references on the surface. They also deployed two rovers.
Too precise? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe they've also demonstrated Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: The more precisely you know an object's position, the less you know about its momentum.
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Maybe they've also demonstrated Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: The more precisely you know an object's position, the less you know about its momentum.
Or, in this case, orientation.
oh THAT kind of precision (Score:1)
accuracy (Score:3)
This is a step towards establishing a permanent base, even if that's not what this particular mission was about.
Any base will require multiple payloads, and the best current plans include several of those sent ahead of any crewed missions. You absolutely want these to land somewhat close to each other. And while remote navigation may be somewhat possible for Luna (1.3 light seconds away), you can forget about any such work-arounds for Mars (6+ light minutes at the closest distance).
Tumble or slippage (Score:1)
Tumble or slippage, I would think that it until contact is made with the surface, it would be hard to tell how stable the ground is, and I imagine on the side of a scree hill on the moon it would be difficult to make sufficient purchase, I suspect when they say tumble they mean slid down the hill then fell over.
It was a mostly peaceful landing (Score:2)