5 ms·
According to IM's website, it landed within 250 _meters_ of the intended site - could there be a unit confusion (m / mi) somewhere in the press chain? https://
by olex 2y ago
According to IM's website, it landed within 250 _meters_ of the intended site - could there be a unit confusion (m / mi) somewhere in the press chain?
https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-2 https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-2
- sho_hn 2y ago250 meters is very respectable for a first try. Apollo 14 and 12 achieved 30 meters and 163 meters with human piloting, respectively, and that's after the program made precision landing a high-effort mission goal. The automated missions of the 60s-70s were often off target by a kilometre or more, but Surveyor 3 came in within 200 meters as well in '67. Japan did a mission in 2024 with the express purpose of achieving automated precision landing - SLIM, nicknamed "Moon Sniper" - and hit 55 meters off center of a 100-by-100 elipse despite losing a main engine nozzle during descent (but also landed on its side, bummer). 50-150 meters is what the Chinese missions in the 2010s generally managed to do at times as well. I think Chang'e 5 (2020) holds the present record at within 10 meters.
- mmooss 2y agoIs 50 year old technology and expertise a good standard for comparison for modern tech?
- macintux 2y agoI'd say relative to the difficulty of accuracy, the hostility of the environment, the known "lumpiness" of the moon, and the challenges of testing any of it in advance...yes?
- MadnessASAP 2y agoWell when I was a child I tried to land on the moon but missed by about 384,000 km. That was only about 30 years ago, so their doing a heck of a lot better then that which is something!