4 ms·
The lander has no way to correct its orientation, and in any case was never designed to survive in the lunar night, which starts in a few days on February 1st.
by resolutebat 3y ago
The lander has no way to correct its orientation, and in any case was never designed to survive in the lunar night, which starts in a few days on February 1st.
- nottorp 3y ago> was never designed to survive in the lunar night But does it mean it won't actually 'survive' ? What's survival in this case, getting enough power from the solar panel to boot up and transmit again, when the next day comes?
- yencabulator 3y agoSurvival means not being destroyed by the coldness of the lunar night, something like -130 C to even -250 C, for two weeks. Many spacecraft have a radioactive heat source to heat themselves through the cold stretches. It seems for this one, primarily aimed at developing landing methods, that wasn't thought to be worth it.
- HALtheWise 3y agoThis may be a silly question, but shouldn't the attitude thrusters still be restartable?