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Japan launches rocket carrying lunar lander and X-ray telescope
- throwawayy2o93 3y ago[flagged]
- riffraff 3y agoThe trajectory of this missions is really cool [0], basically it will use both the earth _and_ the moon to slingshot itself and then approach the moon in a sort of tangential path. As I understand it this means the mission will take quite a bit more time than "usual" but save a lot of power. [0] I'm on mobile, but this looks like a decent representation https://twitter.com/TitaniumSV5/status/1695724234339954779?t=mbejmKuCVH5VX3tZbgL7YQ&s=19 https://twitter.com/TitaniumSV5/status/1695724234339954779?t...
- delphico 3y agoISRO missions to Moon and Mars leveraged Sling-shotting (saves on Fuel and weight of the same to be carried). The Russian probe took a more direct approach landing to the moon.
- zertrin 3y agoOne could say it was somewhat too direct :)
- midoridensha 3y agoIt was a highly successful special lunar operation.
- goku12 3y agoOf all the recent failures of moon landers, Luna 25 is the most intriguing one. It failed simply because the retro-burn continued too long. It was a simple timed operation, unlike all the complex logic that goes into landing. Makes me wonder about the state of the Russian space programme.
- bigDinosaur 3y agoThe most recent former head of the agency has apparently expressed skepticism about the US moon landings in 1969 and also has a degree in economics. Allegedly the program has been hollowed out by corruption. Perhaps someone more qualified to comment could shed some light on this?
- dotnet00 3y agoIf you mean Dmitry Rogozin, then yeah, he was a total dick (a part of which he has allegedly lost recently in Ukraine) who peddled all sorts of lies and oversaw the decline of Russian space capabilities. I wouldn't be surprised if he expressed doubt over the Moon landings considering that he was also the one to push the absurd claim that the hole that had been drilled into a Soyuz was sabotage done by a space-crazed American female astronaut.
- nkoren 3y agoThis wouldn't be the first time that they've lost a major mission due to a similarly simple root cause: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft)
- verzali 3y agoThe Russian space program is a real mess and a shadow of what it once was.
- sashank_1509 3y ago[flagged]
- bouvin 3y agoHeaven forbid that all conversations should not be about the USA.
- lnenad 3y agoHe just mad Russia landed on Venus 50 years ago and the USA didn't.
- matkoniecz 3y ago> The constant ISRO fanboyism is annoying Maybe. But why you complain in response to comment without any of it? Also, why being excited about lunar mission is supposed to be a problem? People can be excited about things smaller than some large achievement. And human landings were not so useful anyway.
- chimp_brain 3y agoI don't think space fanboyism hurt anyone, if at all someone feels proud let them be as long as it's in good spirits. Comparison of SpaceX to ISRO or even other organisation seems a bit unfair, SpaceX have access to ecosystem of sensors, components that are restricted by US. Develop something as simple as reaction wheel takes decades. While I don't appreciate fanboyism in general, I also believe there is a world beyond writing a few lines of codes...
- f6v 3y agoAny kind of nationalism is annoying when it comes to science.
- farhanhubble 3y ago[flagged]
- goku12 3y agoISRO missions leveraged Hohmann transfers to gradually raise the orbit. It does save on fuel using the Oberth effect. It also has somewhat less uncertainty. However, they were not gravitational slingshots. Have a look at the tweet linked by the other commenter - the probe approaches moon twice. The first approach causes a rather drastic change in velocity and trajectory. It's unlikely that such a change comes from the probe's thrusters alone. I assume that the second approach and capture is somewhat mild (tangential as the other commenter put it). In comparison, the Chandrayaan and Mars orbiter missions approached their target only once. And the insertion was also somewhat drastic, with a long retro-burn.
- numpad0 3y agoLanding mechanism is cool too. The lander has deformable metallic sponge balls on the legs, hits the soil at its "heel" and tip forward[1]. Official reasons given is it allows reduction of structural margins, physical interferences and tipover risks on inclined surfaces, which seem to make sense. Maybe it's just me that it looks a bit like someone had to have a spacecraft that lands like the Space Shuttle with engines pointing back. 1: https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/feature/forefront/files/201912_1.jpg https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/feature/forefront/files/201912_1.jp...
- berniedurfee 3y agoThat’s pretty much my standard landing method in Kerbal. Descend vertically to keep from having to worry about balancing a bunch of thrusters. Then, tip over, hopefully in the right orientation and gently enough to not blow up.
- emadehsan 3y agoSlingshot analogy animation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-3#/media/File:Animation_of_Chandrayaan-3_around_Earth.gif https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-3#/media/File:An...
- riffraff 3y agoyeah but notice the JAXA one is different, since it approaches the moon twice. It starts sort of the same way, but then it uses the moon's own attraction to project itself much further out and then come back approaching the moon in a different way.
- goku12 3y agoGravity assist or gravitational slingshot [1] is a specific type of maneuver that's different from the Hohmann transfer that Chandrayaan-3 is seen taking in your video. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
- Aachen 3y agohttps://nitter.net/TitaniumSV5/status/1695724234339954779?t=mbejmKuCVH5VX3tZbgL7YQ&s=19 https://nitter.net/TitaniumSV5/status/1695724234339954779?t=...
- waihtis 3y agoIs it just Baader-Meinhof at play or are multiple nations running lunar missions at an accelerated rate?
- dmurray 3y agoDefinitely happening now at an accelerated rate. Wikipedia has a graph by decade: 12 in the 2010s and 19 already in the 2020s, with 30+ more planned missions planned and already funded. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon
- waihtis 3y agoInteresting. Very happy to have a reignited space enthusiasm across the globe, just curious if something has developed which is spiking the interest. As far as I understand landing on the moon doesn't contain a whole lot of ROI apart from the mission success itself.
- sylware 3y agoCut it. It is not against China or north korea, but Asian democraties must have their own nukes or the US&|NATO must guarantee we will die with them if they are attacked, namely provide a "nuclear umbrella" via a treaty. Rockets is only the first step for nuke delivery.
- robviren 3y agoI am uncertain that more nuclear weapons in the hands of more groups will ultimately lead to more safety. While I understand the desire for self defense and MAD, it only takes the dissolving of one nation into a radical group with a truly unhinged leader to then have the power to wipe millions of the face of the earth. Rolling more dice seems like it makes nuclear apocalypse more likely.
- simion314 3y ago>I am uncertain that more nuclear weapons in the hands of more groups will ultimately lead to more safety. Try to tell Ukraine this, if they had nukes then a lot of people would be alive. But I understand your point if your country already has nukes or it does not have imperialist/aggressive countries as neighbors. But to get protected from the insane empire neighbor IMo this days you do not longer need super complex rockets, a ton of small drones with dirty bombs in it wold also do a good job preventing an invasion, you need to first prove the world how effective it is.
- zirgs 3y agoYou people already tried this in 1994. Ukraine gave up their nukes and got invaded anyway. Good luck convincing any other country to give up their nukes. If NK has nukes then why can't SK and Japan have some too?
- robviren 3y agoI do not question the effectiveness of deterring with nuclear weapons. It would be great if Ukraine had nuclear weapons... for now. How long till a nation state becomes unstable. How long can any entity remain in control of itself. Hell, I don't trust my own country the US to have these weapons and we have the longest track record of not ending the world. But at some point there will be revolution on every country. My source is all of human history. One radical group getting ahold of these weapons with actual intent to use them is all it takes to change the face of the world.
- nness 3y agoIn recent news; China banned seafood imports from Japan after raising concern regarding the release of nuclear wastewater from Fukushima. ... but that felt like a red-herring. Perhaps this is related.
- dotnet00 3y agoThat was indeed a red-herring as the water was very diluted. China's probably just throwing another tantrum about Japan's position on Taiwan.
- feitingen 3y agoDefinitely a tantrum. It's diluted tritium. It's almost a shame to throw it away. It's hard to tell what the tantrum is really about.
- tjpnz 3y agoMeanwhile Chinese nuclear plants are doing the same but in significantly larger quantities. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230824_36 https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230824_36
- Aachen 3y agoHow in the world do you see a relation between China banning Japanese fish and the Japanese space agency continuing to do space exploration?
- fidotron 3y agoThe one to watch here is the X ray telescope. JAXA previously lost Hitomi, which was a very promising mission, so hopefully this time they get to use the actual payload.
- Aachen 3y agoHadn't heard of x-ray space telescopes before so this sounded like a cool new thing to avoid atmospheric interference and do better measurements, perhaps even in the moon's shadow to avoid earth-originating noise, but then I looked up whether there have been others and there's a whole host of them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-ray_space_telescopes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-ray_space_telescop... What would we do with yet another one? Clicking through to the article about this telescope: > As the only international X-ray observatory project of its period, XRISM will function as a next generation space telescope in the X-ray astronomy field, similar to how the James Webb Space Telescope, Fermi Space Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory are placed in their respective fields. The mission is a stopgap for avoiding a potential observation period gap between X-ray telescopes of the present (Chandra, XMM-Newton) and those of the future (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA)). Without XRISM, a blank period in X-ray astronomy may arise in the early 2020s due to the loss of Hitomi. –https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Ray_Imaging_and_Spectroscopy_Mission https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Ray_Imaging_and_Spectrosco... You also made me curious why Hitomi got "lost" (launch failure? Micrometeorite? Hard-/software failure?) From its article at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitomi_(satellite) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitomi_(satellite) > [Problems] began with its inertial reference unit (IRU) reporting a rotation of 21.7° per hour at 19:10 UTC on 25 March 2016, though the vehicle was actually stable. The attitude control system attempted to [correct that nonexistent spin, spun it faster and faster, and that broke it up] What caused this glitch or what was known on the ground at the time (did they know it wasn't spinning but couldn't tell it to stop?) is not mentioned Edit: oh but it did science in the 36 days that it operated! > Measurements by Hitomi have allowed scientists to track the motion of X-ray-emitting gas at the heart of the Perseus cluster of galaxies for the first time. Using the Soft X-ray Spectrometer, astronomers have mapped the motion of X-ray-emitting gas in a cluster of galaxies and shown it moves at cosmically modest speeds. [...] [So now we know] turbulence is responsible for only about 4 percent of the total gas pressure.
- goku12 3y agoThe attention is all on the lander. But X-ray telescopes are impressive all by themselves. It isn't as easy to manipulate X-rays as light can be using optics. Wishing good luck for both missions.
- aloe_falsa 3y ago> Only four nations have successfully landed on the moon, the U.S., Russia, China and India. Correction: the U.S., the Soviet Union, China, and India.
- agloe_dreams 3y agoThat is such a hardcore burn. Yikes haha
- theultdev 3y agoOnly until recently the Russians were our only ride to the ISS. The US didn't even have a shuttle program... The US itself still doesn't have a working program, thankfully SpaceX can do it. The Russians could probably go to the moon again, but there's no real point to.
- icegreentea2 3y agoRussia has tried to go to the moon (Luna 25) like a month ago. It failed.
- agloe_dreams 3y ago1. The SpaceX Commercial Crew Program was intentionally the US's plan. That was the expectation of the program (Not that the Boeing side of it looks good to anybody) 2. Russia, just last month, flubbed a rover a couple feet deep into the surface of the moon...so, no if they wanted to, apparently they could not.
- justrealist 3y agoYes. Luna 9 was designed by a Ukranian[1] and launched from Kazakhstan[2]. Calling it a "Russian" accomplishment is pretty silly. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9
- lostmsu 3y ago
- modzu 3y agoin almost a non sequitur, the article reads, "plasmas have the potential for healing wounds, making computer chips...". it made for a good chuckle wondering if the journalist reporting on this was thinking we might harvest some plasma from space
- hinkley 3y agoWhy from space? We have people donating plasma every day! Silly scientists.
- Brusco_RF 3y agoHealing wounds? The author wouldn't confuse the 4th state of matter with blood plasma... right?
- cjbgkagh 3y agoCold atmospheric plasma, used for cleaning wounds.
- nickpsecurity 3y agoThey sterilize the wound first by putting the object into space. Then, apply the plasma they collected during lift off.
- goldbeck 3y agoCame for the space talk, stayed for the LLM artifacts.
- what-no-tests 3y agoHey off-topic maybe but why do photos from space always look so fake?
- dfxm12 3y agoI'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, but, mostly, photos from space are taken differently from photos we're used to taking, like with our cell phones. For example, the Webb Telescope works partly on the spectrum outside of light visible to us, so color has to be added to represent these parts. Other times, we might be seeing a composite image with overlapping parts.
- thomastjeffery 3y agoObjects in space are illuminated by a single light source, and are not surrounded by atmosphere. This is similar to the most fundamentally basic raytraced scenes. To contrast, objects on Earth are often illuminated by many light sources, by the light reflected off of other nearby objects, and even by the light reflected/refracted through the atmosphere the surrounds them. This is very challenging to reproduce in a raytraced scene; so what we are used to is something on the spectrum between realistic and oversimplified. An oversimplified render of a scene on Earth will have sharp shadows and lack the color reflected off of surrounding objects.
- what-no-tests 3y agoInteresting - I hadn't considered the single-point-illumination aspect.
- thomastjeffery 3y agoIt also goes both ways: one reason we can have certainty that the Apollo moon landings were real is that the photographs have sharp parallel shadows that could not have been faked using contemporary methods.
- JoeAltmaier 3y agoThe 'palm-sized mini rover' fascinates me. A novel solution space for a difficult problem! https://www.space.com/japan-transformable-moon-robot-ispace-2022-lunar-lander https://www.space.com/japan-transformable-moon-robot-ispace-...
- stephenr 3y agoWith all these countries taking renewed interest in the moon, and analysing what's in the regolith, Sam Rockwell must be getting nervous.