India lands Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on Moon, is the first to lunar south pole India successfully put its Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon today, making the nation's space agency the first organization of its kind to touch down on the lunar south pole. Launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota, an island off the Bay of Bengal coast, on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 has three main parts: a …
I have waited so long for this. I still remember the exhilaration of watching Sputnik 2 crossing the night sky, although probably long after Laika had died:(
After the first Cosmonaut and the US Moon landings there was a great void in space exploration. So here's a beer, ideally a lot of beers, for the Indian team. Bravo!
《Critcal to brewing Lunar Lager》
With the lower gravity (1/6g) the bubbles should rise more slowly and thus, I suspect as the bubbles would linger longer around the nucleation centre, they will be larger (and fewer.) Will need a major investment in lunar beermaking technology to restore the same lager experience. ;)
Since ISRO has neatly dropped this scientific mission onto the lunar south pole I imagine they can fix any future lager problems. :)
Congratulation to ISRO and all involved.
Given the total mission* cost (a bit over $51,000 per Kg landed) of actually getting this onto the Moon I would think there's quite an incentive to dig it up locally.
The Lander & rover total up at 1,752Kg.
With a repeat mission basically costing only a rocket and payload (development costs not needed) there's probably scope to land a viable water extraction unit in time to offer the first set of new astronauts a drink - Hint. tea leaves are quite light... (accreditation for this wonderful bit of ISRO PR can be given via the Reg!)
*$90M US give or take
"there's probably scope to land a viable water extraction unit in time to offer the first set of new astronauts a drink"
There's been lots of work on that from the usual suspects and through contests. What's really needed is a good inventory on what forms water will be in to know what sort of extraction is going to work the best. There are plenty of hydrated minerals, but getting the water back out is tough so it makes sense to find an easier source and get to the point where machinery for more difficult extraction can be built in-situ.
"I'm not too sure about all this. First they'll have to demonstrate that the Lunar ice is actually feasible to mine and process into potable water. We're a very long way from doing so and it may take years and years before anyone is able to take a sip of Lunar water."
Has your day been that bad?
Have one and celebrate >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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The first mission failed because they essentially wanted to do a pinpoint landing, without having any experience in doing so. The main thing they changed in the software is to allow for a much greater landing zone (4km x 4km) instead of the original 400m x 400m. If I had been in charge the goal would've simply been to land "anywhere but in a crater" and the first try would've succeeded.
Oh well, they stuck the landing this time, so I guess they've paid their learning dues.
Roscosmos didn't have any comms for a lot of the mission, both ESA and NASA offered to give Roscosmos comms when their craft was out of sight of Russian ground stations but Roscosmos declined the offer.
As for this mission very well done but has nobody ever seen any SF? The instant anybody drinks the water on the moon they will be turned into a vacuum tolerant homicidal maniac.
It's still better than an article I saw on the BBC news web site last weekend that stated that any water near the Lunar South Pole hadn't been subjected to solar radiation, then told us later that the area would be great for a base as it can get up to 200 days constant illumination.
It's still better than an article I saw on the BBC news web site last weekend that stated that any water near the Lunar South Pole hadn't been subjected to solar radiation, then told us later that the area would be great for a base as it can get up to 200 days constant illumination.
The article also seems to say that the lander is in a place which contains many craters pernamemtly shadowed from he sun. I'm not sure that's right either
The bottom of some of the craters at the south pole are indeed sheltered from the solar wind by their oblique situation - and are in permanent darkness and very low temperature. Shackleton would be a good example and would hold its water as ice. I don't think the BBC article suggested "any" water. And it is indeed correct about the long period of illumination. So as a simplified description of what might be found, it's accurate enough for general consumption.
So both are correct.
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A wonderful achievement for India - the entire nation came to a standstill during the lander descent, and the youtube live feed was the most watched in the history of that platform. These things are a big deal in the grander scheme of things around nation building.
Chandrayaan 3 benefited from the terrain mapping by the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter, that continues to troop on around the moon despite the loss of its lander 4 years ago. That detailed terrain mapping data is valuable to ISRO for future endeavors, in addition to enabling them to easily nail the Chandrayaan 3 landing.
One thing I wish would change faster is the use of frugal engineering. It's fine that the mission cost only $80 million whatever. But science and technology research should get quite a bit more money. ISRO in particular needs resources to build far more powerful launchers than the LVM3 which currently tops out at 10 tonnes to LEO / 4 tonnes to GTO.
India Purchasing Power Parity (what you get for your $) is 24-25x the USA
I suspect that doesn't apply to paying rocket scientists - but India also has the advantage of not needing to build parts and operate duplicate facilities in 50 states.
Since manpower costs are likely the driver of the whole program, except for a few advanced semi-conductors that they have to buy in $, you can easily imagine how this can be done for 5% of the cost of a NASA or ESA mission
what it is we're celebrating?
India: first country to put a machine at the south pole of the moon.
India: country with more smart phones that flushable toilets.
Have you been to India in the last five years? More than a few blocks from your hotel?
Mine's the one with the extra dose of reality in the pocket. ----->
We all love reading a good British whine about India, but maybe you could try making a little more sense.
Do you normally carry a commode around in a backpack with you everywhere alongside your phone sofas to maintain a 1:1 ratio ?
Yes India has something like 800 million smartphones as of 2023 - effectively every adult having one as you’ve seen from all your hotel walks. You’ll also notice that none of them were also lugging a loo with them.
Don’t blame countries for your own inability to choose foods that don’t give you the runs at the wrong moments.
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