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Thermal protection and heat dissipation will most likely be a hard problem. Getting a lander to survive into the lunar night is a big challenge in its own righ
by JabavuAdams 18y ago
Thermal protection and heat dissipation will most likely be a hard problem.
Getting a lander to survive into the lunar night is a big challenge in its own right.
If it can't survive the night, that places other constraints on the mission.
- cool-RR 18y agoWhy is it hard to survive the night? Because of the coldness? Why would the coldness be a problem? Even if the machine couldn't operate in such a low temperature, can't it just hibernate until day?
- JabavuAdams 18y agoSo ... IANARS (I Am Not A Rocket Scientist) ... The lunar night is about 2 weeks long. The night-time surface temperature is about -230 C to -150 C. I'm not sure how long it would take a lander to cool down at local sunset, but it might be pretty fast. That kind of cooling can create stresses and actually break mechanical connections or electrical components. It's a lot warmer at about 1 m under the surface, but you have to get there somehow.