Russia launches lunar lander - declaring space race

[Vertigo]

It used on Mars not on the Moon.

Incidentally that low atmospheric pressure on Mars is why the start of The Martian (as admitted by Andy Weir) is impossible. If you were stood in a 100mph wind on Mars you would barely feel it. Certainly wouldn't have been destroying their Mars base. Andy openly said this was the case but he needed a dramatic start to the story!

 

[mosaix]

Incidentally that low atmospheric pressure on Mars is why the start of The Martian (as admitted by Andy Weir) is impossible. If you were stood in a 100mph wind on Mars you would barely feel it. Certainly wouldn't have been destroying their Mars base. Andy openly said this was the case but he needed a dramatic start to the story!

I think Weir said that he was determined to get the science of the book correct only to discover that he'd got the opening scene totally wrong.

 

[Swank]

It used on Mars not on the Moon.

I must have misread your previous post.

 

[Vertigo]

I think Weir said that he was determined to get the science of the book correct only to discover that he'd got the opening scene totally wrong.

That's exactly what he said in a presentation talk he did that I saw online. It's also why he didn't go for the make-a-hole-in-your-suit-glove to to get him across to the other spaceship as used in the film. He said it just wouldn't have worked and would have been more likely to just send you spinning around like a top.

 

[Swank]

That's exactly what he said in a presentation talk he did that I saw online. It's also why he didn't go for the make-a-hole-in-your-suit-glove to to get him across to the other spaceship as used in the film. He said it just wouldn't have worked and would have been more likely to just send you spinning around like a top.

I bet you could control it if you could meter the flow with your other hand. It's a balance problem. I would just be surprised if there is enough air in a spacesuit to give much delta V.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I must have misread your previous post.

nope, it says it. I was more interested in tracking down the possibility that the Orion capsule might need a complete redesign of its heat shield and if the Chinese would use the skip reentry maneuver to return to Earth after their lunar mission.

The heat shield was tested by simply exposing it to continuous heat at maximum temperature. A test which had nothing to do with what was going to happen. They have redesigned the test at additional expense. During the skip reentry the ship skips a couple of times so it goes hot cold hot cold hot. The alternating temperature caused chunks of the heat shield to fly off. This probably is similar to putting something in a microwave that can't allow the steam to evenly escape so pieces fly off. The current solution is to change the reentry procedure by changing the reentry angle, then apparently later rebuild the heat shield at additional cost. If the new reentry procedure doesn't work, they will be really stuck. Which is where SpaceX steps. Or trump could cancel the whole thing and SpaceX gets the whole shot by default. It could be a big gamble but he's also got 2 years to practice. Musk could go straight to using the Starship to land and take off from the Earth and the Moon.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

The latest entries in the world's slowest space race, a lander and two satellites are not looking good. Google is more interested in what happened to the Athena Lander than in recalling anything about the other two satellites that shared a ride on the same rocket as Athena Lander.

Of the two satellites, one of the satellites encountered a malfunction in its propulsion system, which prevented it from maintaining the correct trajectory toward lunar orbit. It is tumbling slowly and unable to aim its solar panels towards the sun so it is operating on greatly reduced power. It was supposed to locate an asteroid and collect information for a future asteroid mining attempt.

The other satellite experienced a communication failure, it isn't talking, making it impossible to control or adjust its course. More space junk. It was supposed to look for lunar water, but It's going nowhere slowly.

Those two were forgotten as the Athena Lander plowed on towards the Moon, performing as expected, taking great pictures. Wish you were here, etc. Celebrations of success right up to to moment it landed. Opps. Another one lying on it's side. The champion is down but not out. It can still do things proclaims the controllers. Like take pictures using all the extra cameras this lander was carrying in case they needed visual information to tell the controllers what happened after it landed. Maybe drill holes in the lunar surface if the drill is pointing anywhere near the surface. Place your bets, odds are the drill is pointing skyward.

Some one needs to send a lander to the Moon whose only purpose is to be a lunar tow truck that can stand these lunar landers upright after they land. It could take months to reach the landing site but it can make marvelous travel movies and send them back to Earth. Maybe they should send two of everything. That way when one of them fails to land, its okay, there is another one able to do the job. The other things the lunar tow truck can carry are a battery charger and rags to wash the dusty solar panels. Maybe a hammer as well to bang bent stuff straight again.

Just in, Musk's latest test space launch of the Starship carrying satellites blew up 8 minutes after take off. Just like the last one did 8 minutes into the flight. The ground stage was successfully caught by the chopsticks.

For all countries and companies, Space 2025 is not shaping up to be what people were planning on. It's probably 0 for 10 at this point in time. Send in the robots. They could get outside and fix stuff before it tumbles out of sight or put the lander right side up like it's supposed to be.

 

[Toby Frost]

Too bad Norman Spinrad's not around to write a book on this. He could have called it "The Iron Sky Dream".

 

[Ursa major]

Too bad Norman Spinrad's not around to write a book on this. He could have called it "The Iron Sky Dream".

You're expecting Robert Zwilling's lunar tow truck to carry an iron, as well as (or instead of) a hammer, for ironing out problems with the landers...?

​

 

[Vertigo]

Well extreme ironing is quite the trendy thing nowadays so why not!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Well extreme ironing is quite the trendy thing nowadays so why not!

I'd be hard pressed to disagree.

 

[Ursa major]

Seems like it's full steam ahead for the space race....

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

This seemed a place for an old joke about the space race (originally USSR, sometime China is used) ---

The US and Russia launch rockets to the moon.
And the two capsules land at exactly the same time only a short distance apart.
The Astronaut and Cosmonaut stare at each other through their port holes.
And they both leap out flag in hand planting their flags at the same moment.
The Russian rushes to the back of his capsule and unload a rover with an enormous paint spray rig.
The Russian proceeds to travel back and forth painting the moon red.
The American watches in disbelief.
After a while the Russian returns triumphantly and announces to the American, "I have claimed the moon for Mother Russia!"
The American just shakes his head and walks to the back of his own lander with his own rover with an enormous spray rig.
This rig has White paint.
The American proceeds to paint in large curves --- Coca Cola.