8 ms·

India locates lander lost on final approach to moon

148 points by oblib 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
qubex 7y ago
“It must’ve been a hard landing.”
- raverbashing 7y ago
  According to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xKJG00-S_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xKJG00-S_c, end velocity was probably around 100m/s (also that the lander started tumbling at the end stage) I have the impression that would leave a big mark
  - rkagerer 7y ago
    Love Scott Manley's videos. Wonder how long 'till we get a re-enactment in KSP.
hu3 7y ago
More information on the video here: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/chandrayaan-2-mission/video/chandrayaan2-orbiter-locates-lander-vikram-on-moon-yet-to-establish-contact-1596866-2019-09-08 https://www.indiatoday.in/science/chandrayaan-2-mission/vide... It was located via thermal image which I find interesting for something that far away.
- z92 7y ago
  It was spotted from the satellite which carried it there and is now orbiting the moon. Not too far I guess.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    That's actually a pretty great accomplishment to find it so quickly. When Apollo 11's Eagle was on the moon no one could figure out where it was. The orbiter couldn't spot it and mission control had all these detailed maps and telemetry and couldn't get the right spot based on data and descriptions from the astronauts of what they were looking at. Seeing something on the moon is hard.
    - rjsw 7y ago
      Something designed as an unmanned orbiter will have better sensors than a "man in a can" like the Apollo Command Module.
      - z92 7y ago
        Also the 50 years factor. Digital camera that we use today started to sell in the market at around year 2000. And then those were only VGA resolution 640x480 pixel.
- kappi 7y ago
  discussion about the Doppler curve observed https://twitter.com/cgbassa/status/1170481030932942848 https://twitter.com/cgbassa/status/1170481030932942848
thewhitetulip 7y ago
They are going to try to connect with the rover for 15days.
ericboog 7y ago
Maybe leave it to the professionals next time and just worry about feeding your starving population?
- mav3rick 7y ago
  ISRO has had many successful missions. Your ignorance is clear to see.
  - dang 7y ago
    Please don't break the site guidelines by replying to an egregious comment, a.k.a. feeding trolls. It just makes the thread even worse. Ditto for going into personal attack. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kerng 7y ago
What a bummer. Would be cool if it survived. Let's see, hope they can figure out details and share learnings.
ralusek 7y ago
After seeing the way the Pakistani minister of science was tweeting about this, then the negative comments like the one in this very thread by an account created 6 minutes ago, I can't help but assume that the enemies of India must represent the majority of the negative sentiment about this attempt. ISRO should be very proud of their accomplishments. The people saying that India should worry about their starving population first and foremost don't understand that: a.) populations feed themselves, there is no government on Earth that has ever successfully fed its population b.) ISRO has been able to recover a large part of its costs by launching foreign payloads c.) ISRO provides non-bureaucratic pencil pushing jobs for Indians, in particular the sorts of jobs for some of the brightest Indians who would otherwise be very likely to leave the country for better prospects d.) We all benefit from the sort of science being done here, today
- infiniteseeker 7y ago
  As the saying goes, haters gonna hate.. best to ignore and carry on the process. Extemely proud of ISRO.
- negamax 7y ago
  Actually it's not as much as enemies of India. I have seen fairly negative comments about India's accomplishments from neutral folks. My own understanding is that India's rise makes people uncomfortable because they can no longer think that there's this mass of people who's worse off than them. India's accomplishments challenge their worldview and their place in it. I have indeed noticed this trend amongst people who aren't well off themselves. They are extra vocal and vicious in their attacks. Earlier, this used to affect me. And I would try to correct them, even have arguments. But I have accepted this now. India and others should just ignore them as it's not really a constructive criticism and double down on all growth attempts
  - SomeOldThrow 7y ago
    There may also be bad sentiment leaking over from the media blackout and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir. FWIW I think that’s silly and stupid to take it out on the space agency, but it’s also human.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
known 7y ago
I think something gone wrong in estimating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation_of_the_Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation_of_the_Moon and/or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field_of_the_Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field_of_the_Moon And I suspect ISRO compromised on critical aspects during simulation due to cost cutting.
- LyndsySimon 7y ago
  Do you have any evidence to support your assertions of this being a likely cause, or that cost cutting could be to blame?
  - userbinator 7y ago
    One of the prominent claims about the mission is its low cost, which makes that a reasonable hypothesis.
    - nitinreddy88 7y ago
      This implies nothing. We have more man power with low pays compared to US. We have launched many more successful launches which cost nothing compared to NASA
dang 7y ago
All: please don't take this thread, or any other HN thread, into nationalistic flamewar. It breaks the site guidelines and is off topic here. If your comment might contain flamebait, please edit it until it clearly doesn't.
- pattisapu 7y ago
  Thank you for consistently and tirelessly following through on these guidelines throughout. It is hard work and we (well, many of us) appreciate it.
woodandsteel 7y ago
Landing on extraterrestrial objects is really difficult. Even the US, which is the champion at this, has had a number of failures. I trust the Indian engineers will figure out what went wrong, keep trying, and eventually succeed, maybe on the very next mission. Also, the mission includes an orbiter with a number of scientific instruments for studying the Moon which is still going strong.
brij0102 7y ago
Any chance the rover might have survived? Also I wish it was more a ball than a shape that could tip over!

148 points by oblib 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

qubex 7y ago

“It must’ve been a hard landing.”

raverbashing 7y ago
According to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xKJG00-S_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xKJG00-S_c, end velocity was probably around 100m/s (also that the lander started tumbling at the end stage) I have the impression that would leave a big mark
- rkagerer 7y ago
  Love Scott Manley's videos. Wonder how long 'till we get a re-enactment in KSP.

hu3 7y ago

More information on the video here: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/chandrayaan-2-mission/video/chandrayaan2-orbiter-locates-lander-vikram-on-moon-yet-to-establish-contact-1596866-2019-09-08 https://www.indiatoday.in/science/chandrayaan-2-mission/vide... It was located via thermal image which I find interesting for something that far away.

z92 7y ago
It was spotted from the satellite which carried it there and is now orbiting the moon. Not too far I guess.
- droithomme 7y ago
  That's actually a pretty great accomplishment to find it so quickly. When Apollo 11's Eagle was on the moon no one could figure out where it was. The orbiter couldn't spot it and mission control had all these detailed maps and telemetry and couldn't get the right spot based on data and descriptions from the astronauts of what they were looking at. Seeing something on the moon is hard.
  - rjsw 7y ago
    Something designed as an unmanned orbiter will have better sensors than a "man in a can" like the Apollo Command Module.
    - z92 7y ago
      Also the 50 years factor. Digital camera that we use today started to sell in the market at around year 2000. And then those were only VGA resolution 640x480 pixel.
kappi 7y ago
discussion about the Doppler curve observed https://twitter.com/cgbassa/status/1170481030932942848 https://twitter.com/cgbassa/status/1170481030932942848

thewhitetulip 7y ago

They are going to try to connect with the rover for 15days.

ericboog 7y ago

Maybe leave it to the professionals next time and just worry about feeding your starving population?

mav3rick 7y ago
ISRO has had many successful missions. Your ignorance is clear to see.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't break the site guidelines by replying to an egregious comment, a.k.a. feeding trolls. It just makes the thread even worse. Ditto for going into personal attack. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kerng 7y ago

What a bummer. Would be cool if it survived. Let's see, hope they can figure out details and share learnings.

ralusek 7y ago

After seeing the way the Pakistani minister of science was tweeting about this, then the negative comments like the one in this very thread by an account created 6 minutes ago, I can't help but assume that the enemies of India must represent the majority of the negative sentiment about this attempt. ISRO should be very proud of their accomplishments. The people saying that India should worry about their starving population first and foremost don't understand that: a.) populations feed themselves, there is no government on Earth that has ever successfully fed its population b.) ISRO has been able to recover a large part of its costs by launching foreign payloads c.) ISRO provides non-bureaucratic pencil pushing jobs for Indians, in particular the sorts of jobs for some of the brightest Indians who would otherwise be very likely to leave the country for better prospects d.) We all benefit from the sort of science being done here, today

infiniteseeker 7y ago
As the saying goes, haters gonna hate.. best to ignore and carry on the process. Extemely proud of ISRO.
negamax 7y ago
Actually it's not as much as enemies of India. I have seen fairly negative comments about India's accomplishments from neutral folks. My own understanding is that India's rise makes people uncomfortable because they can no longer think that there's this mass of people who's worse off than them. India's accomplishments challenge their worldview and their place in it. I have indeed noticed this trend amongst people who aren't well off themselves. They are extra vocal and vicious in their attacks. Earlier, this used to affect me. And I would try to correct them, even have arguments. But I have accepted this now. India and others should just ignore them as it's not really a constructive criticism and double down on all growth attempts
- SomeOldThrow 7y ago
  There may also be bad sentiment leaking over from the media blackout and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir. FWIW I think that’s silly and stupid to take it out on the space agency, but it’s also human.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

known 7y ago

I think something gone wrong in estimating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation_of_the_Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation_of_the_Moon and/or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field_of_the_Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field_of_the_Moon And I suspect ISRO compromised on critical aspects during simulation due to cost cutting.

LyndsySimon 7y ago
Do you have any evidence to support your assertions of this being a likely cause, or that cost cutting could be to blame?
- userbinator 7y ago
  One of the prominent claims about the mission is its low cost, which makes that a reasonable hypothesis.
  - nitinreddy88 7y ago
    This implies nothing. We have more man power with low pays compared to US. We have launched many more successful launches which cost nothing compared to NASA

dang 7y ago

All: please don't take this thread, or any other HN thread, into nationalistic flamewar. It breaks the site guidelines and is off topic here. If your comment might contain flamebait, please edit it until it clearly doesn't.

pattisapu 7y ago
Thank you for consistently and tirelessly following through on these guidelines throughout. It is hard work and we (well, many of us) appreciate it.

woodandsteel 7y ago

Landing on extraterrestrial objects is really difficult. Even the US, which is the champion at this, has had a number of failures. I trust the Indian engineers will figure out what went wrong, keep trying, and eventually succeed, maybe on the very next mission. Also, the mission includes an orbiter with a number of scientific instruments for studying the Moon which is still going strong.

brij0102 7y ago

Any chance the rover might have survived? Also I wish it was more a ball than a shape that could tip over!