darthgently Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 3 hours ago, cubinator said: Well, I don't think the lander they'll be trying with is going to be "small"... Understood, but I was thinking more in the short-term they could use F9 in some configuration to land a small demonstrator. I mean they are the world leader in landing rockets. If CLPS is cast in doubt by the previous failures, and now given IM's situation, a commercial landing would dispel that doubt and SpaceX is well situated to do this, imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 5 minutes ago, darthgently said: Understood, but I was thinking more in the short-term they could use F9 in some configuration to land a small demonstrator. I mean they are the world leader in landing rockets. If CLPS is cast in doubt by the previous failures, and now given IM's situation, a commercial landing would dispel that doubt and SpaceX is well situated to do this, imo See previous post. They posted that it is upright, working to DL images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 1 minute ago, tater said: See previous post. They posted that it is upright, working to DL images. I think we posted near the same time, great news! 1 minute ago, tater said: See previous post. They posted that it is upright, working to DL images. I think we posted near the same time, great news! Anyone else getting KSP server connection errors? Janky tonight. Cloudflare is pointing the finger at this server Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 (edited) 29 minutes ago, darthgently said: Anyone else getting KSP server connection errors? Janky tonight. Yeah, I had a 502 error several minutes ago. But for the last 72 hours or so at least I’m not getting the kraken ban error that has been the dominant state for months now. Edited February 23 by StrandedonEarth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 26 minutes ago, darthgently said: Anyone else getting KSP server connection errors? Janky tonight. Cloudflare is pointing the finger at this server Yep. And the Forum Kraken is occasionally letting me see the whole S&Sf sub. But as often as not I get 502 and 503 errors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Sorry if already posted, but when the rangefinder failed they leveraged a lidar experiment on the craft to provide ranging data for the landing. Mind bogglingly cool https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/a-little-us-company-makes-history-by-landing-on-the-moon-but-questions-remain/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAL59 Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Still no pictures after 8 hours? Is this another Galileo antenna situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 14 hours ago, cubinator said: I dunno, it's basically a bunch of companies independently having a 'first try' at landing on the Moon, isn't it? If if was one company that had had five tries I'd see it differently. I hope the congress critters can see past that too. The ability to perceive companies as separate from the state that authorises their existence is usually inversely proportional to the degree the situation is politicised. The whole "startup" thing tends to go out the window in favour of mobilization economy and money hoses. So one should take said Congress critters and measure their blood pressure before and after seeing a Chinese flag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 1 hour ago, DDE said: The ability to perceive companies as separate from the state that authorises their existence is usually inversely proportional to the degree the situation is politicised. The whole "startup" thing tends to go out the window in favour of mobilization economy and money hoses. So one should take said Congress critters and measure their blood pressure before and after seeing a Chinese flag. The VIPER rover set for the next Astrobotic lander (yikes) apparently costs $400M (the lander is $199M)—but not sure if they are including the cost of the Resource Prospector rover (that it used to be called). That rover had a prototype driving around in 2015, so it's safe to say it was being worked on at least a year before. So a NASA effort at any of these would take 10 years+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 Anyone playing KSP with draconian comms settings knows to maybe put some alternate antennas on a lander, and probably a relay sat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 4 hours ago, DAL59 said: Still no pictures after 8 hours? Is this another Galileo antenna situation? I may be wrong on this, but it's also possible at least some of the crew went to bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 Press conf today at 5pm, which is usually a bad sign (late Friday = buried news), but doing the math, they need maybe 24 hours to DL a decent image at their abysmal data rate (something like 150 bps). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceception Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minmus Taster Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Rough Landing, caught a rock and tipped over, currently lying on another rock, yikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 So the rah rah was pretty weak. Gotta stay in the doghouse, guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Well, about that idea of SpaceX just doing a least-cost lunar lander purely to get past this commercial lunar landing perception hurdle. Once it has been done, the zeitgeist changes. Someone needs to do it and several have taken a shot. Maybe land a small rover that could drive around tipping other landers back upright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 51 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said: Rough Landing, caught a rock and tipped over, currently lying on another rock, yikes. 24 hours ago in a poll on the "Moons and Rings" Telegram channel, I voted "Something like SLIM (tipped over, but functional)" What do I and the other 30% win? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Smugness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 I wonder if they can get that third-person video of the landing and tipover, from that camera that they apparently launched out of the side(?). That would be especially exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 1 hour ago, cubinator said: I wonder if they can get that third-person video of the landing and tipover, from that camera that they apparently launched out of the side(?). That would be especially exciting. Yes, definitely hoping to see that. I'm also waiting/hoping for some official to admit they "kerballed" the landing. That's slang for a non-optimal but survivable landing that I would love to see adopted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minmus Taster Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 1 hour ago, cubinator said: I wonder if they can get that third-person video of the landing and tipover, from that camera that they apparently launched out of the side(?). That would be especially exciting. 9 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said: Yes, definitely hoping to see that. I'm also waiting/hoping for some official to admit they "kerballed" the landing. That's slang for a non-optimal but survivable landing that I would love to see adopted... Unfortunately I'm reading an article which states the camera wasn't used, power priority was given to saving the lander when the rangefinders failed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 9 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said: Yes, definitely hoping to see that. I'm also waiting/hoping for some official to admit they "kerballed" the landing. That's slang for a non-optimal but survivable landing that I would love to see adopted... On a similar note, given F9 boosters are not kamikaze rockets and have a life, they deserve real names just like ships. I propose naming them using the KSP kerbal first name generator with the current leader in number of landings having the their name prefaced with "Boss". So something like Boss Jimbarth 8 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said: Unfortunately I'm reading an article which states the camera wasn't used, power priority was given to saving the lander when the rangefinders failed Ironic in hindsight as it would have made discerning the final orientation a lot quicker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minmus Taster Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 11 minutes ago, darthgently said: Ironic in hindsight as it would have made discerning the final orientation a lot quicker It apparently may still be ejected just to see what shape the lander is in, so maybe we'll end up with a SLIM-like image Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 Friend at NASA kind of annoyed they are calling it a success. In somewhat harsher language. LOL Another friend via text: We unloaded your new refrigerator in your kitchen, ON ITS SIDE. We successfully landed your airline flight ON ITS SIDE. We dropped the dumpster in your driveway ON ITS SIDE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrandedonEarth Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 7 minutes ago, tater said: Friend at NASA kind of annoyed they are calling it a success. In somewhat harsher language. LOL Another friend via text: We unloaded your new refrigerator in your kitchen, ON ITS SIDE. We successfully landed your airline flight ON ITS SIDE. We dropped the dumpster in your driveway ON ITS SIDE. Well, it is still sending (whispering?) data. Call it a partial success. Certainly not a full success if some instrumentation wasn't working on descent. Sort of the equivalent of "Any landing you can walk away from" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.