5 ms·

I've been watching for a few minutes. It appeared to do a weird roll during braking, and then the line of descent greatly varied from the anticipated line. The

I've been watching for a few minutes. It appeared to do a weird roll during braking, and then the line of descent greatly varied from the anticipated line. The room was jubilant prior to this, and now very somber. Hopefully there will be good news. But I think it crashed.

sp332 7y ago
That's the problem with simply losing communication. It's not positive evidence of a crash, it's just a lack of information. Possibly the landing jostled antennas or power relays causing a communications glitch... but you can't rule out that it just crashed :(
- djsumdog 7y ago
  They're all just staring at their screens, just waiting for their craft to come back and say something. :(
- vkou 7y ago
  Has a loss of communication with an unmanned probe on landing ever been resolved?
  - sp332 7y ago
    It happened before landing, so while the probe may have crashed, a crash did not cause the communications loss. Here are the most similar conditions I could find that recovered: Beresheet regained communications before landing but not in time to save the mission. Rosetta's Philae lander ended up in a bad spot and couldn't communicate much because of low solar power. Hayabusa had comms trouble when it was supposed to launch from its asteroid, but recovered.
scohesc 7y ago
Could it be possible that all the dust being kicked up in the "air" during landing could act as some sort of chaff that blocks radio signals?
- red75prime 7y ago
  Unlikely. In the absence of air dust particles are ballistic and cannot form a cloud.
  - ksaj 7y ago
    Buddy in the video explained that the reason there are 5 in use instead of just 4 for landing was to keep the dust clouds from obscuring the camera footage.
    - red75prime 7y ago
      Yes, a stream of high-speed particles flying away from landing site can obscure the ground. It is unlikely that such a stream will be deflected by some rocks to obscure antennas.

sp332 7y ago

That's the problem with simply losing communication. It's not positive evidence of a crash, it's just a lack of information. Possibly the landing jostled antennas or power relays causing a communications glitch... but you can't rule out that it just crashed :(

djsumdog 7y ago
They're all just staring at their screens, just waiting for their craft to come back and say something. :(
vkou 7y ago
Has a loss of communication with an unmanned probe on landing ever been resolved?
- sp332 7y ago
  It happened before landing, so while the probe may have crashed, a crash did not cause the communications loss. Here are the most similar conditions I could find that recovered: Beresheet regained communications before landing but not in time to save the mission. Rosetta's Philae lander ended up in a bad spot and couldn't communicate much because of low solar power. Hayabusa had comms trouble when it was supposed to launch from its asteroid, but recovered.

scohesc 7y ago

Could it be possible that all the dust being kicked up in the "air" during landing could act as some sort of chaff that blocks radio signals?

red75prime 7y ago
Unlikely. In the absence of air dust particles are ballistic and cannot form a cloud.
- ksaj 7y ago
  Buddy in the video explained that the reason there are 5 in use instead of just 4 for landing was to keep the dust clouds from obscuring the camera footage.
  - red75prime 7y ago
    Yes, a stream of high-speed particles flying away from landing site can obscure the ground. It is unlikely that such a stream will be deflected by some rocks to obscure antennas.