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Is there an actual commercial reason for landing on the moon? What was this lander going to do? It seems like a lot of missions from various companies and countries are trying to get to the moon and they're all crashing. Is it just a rite of passage for a space program? What is the point of this
Beautiful images of Earth from the lander: https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1650506233575604227/ph... and https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1649707714447306753/ph...
If you look carefully at Earth, as the image was taken during the eclipse, you see the shadow of the Moon on Earth.
Is there an actual commercial reason for landing on the moon? What was this lander going to do? It seems like a lot of missions from various companies and countries are trying to get to the moon and they're all crashing. Is it just a rite of passage for a space program? What is the point of this
Yeah I'm curious too. It seems like if there was actually some commercial benefit to this then USA would be dropping rovers on the moon every week. But it's mostly lost interest now.
Beautiful images of Earth from the lander: https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1650506233575604227/ph... and https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1649707714447306753/ph...
If you look carefully at Earth, as the image was taken during the eclipse, you see the shadow of the Moon on Earth.
It was heartbreaking to see the control room during the first few minutes after the landing. Imagine a project you've worked on for years going kaput and you won't even know why. None of these engineers will find sleep tonight. I hope some moon orbiter can take pics of the landing site soon.
This was a commercial landing though. I guess its not there to do science or improve the human race. What was behind it?
Is there an actual commercial reason for landing on the moon? What was this lander going to do? It seems like a lot of missions from various companies and countries are trying to get to the moon and they're all crashing. Is it just a rite of passage for a space program? What is the point of this
Acquire neat rocks to flex on lesser nations with
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was a commercial landing though. I guess its not there to do science or improve the human race. What was behind it?
A commercial endeavor being able to land on the moon is an accomplishment in itself. That’s how you go from proof of concept to economic viability
I don't think this is particularly coherent in this case. It's commercial, but there is no private sector customer.
All of the customers are government scientific agencies. It's all still very much science and/or nation-state prestige-driven. What's more, it's unclear what the commercial case for lunar landing would be in the near term, where "near term" means "any reasonable expectation of return on capital that doesn't come from taxpayers".
It was heartbreaking to see the control room during the first few minutes after the landing. Imagine a project you've worked on for years going kaput and you won't even know why. None of these engineers will find sleep tonight. I hope some moon orbiter can take pics of the landing site soon.
Three failed commercial landers now. Are the moon Nazis shooting them down on approach? /s
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A commercial endeavor being able to land on the moon is an accomplishment in itself. That’s how you go from proof of concept to economic viability
> That’s how you go from proof of concept to economic viability I don't think this is particularly coherent in this case. It's commercial, but there is no private sector customer. All of the customers are government scientific agencies. It's all still very much science and/or nation-state prestige-driven. What's more, it's unclear what the commercial case for lunar landing would be in the near term, where "near term"…
As for economic motivations in the near term, a lot I can think of are indeed still based on public funds, but one important thing about commercial landing being viable is that those publically funded endeavors don’t need to work the bureaucracy engine to get a government launch/can span governmental boundaries. If some US or UAE entity wants a telescope array on the moon, if they have the money for it, they could just pay for a commercial lunar lander. If the DOE wants to test he-3 mining they don’t need to go through congress to get NASA to deliver their payload.