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Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

cnn.com

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Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#91

Post by consumer451 »

nerdponx wrote: post #59
RangerScience wrote: post #39

Horray! Also: - Wow but the moon is 3D. Like, when we see shots of Earth, the ground always looks so flat, but the depth of the craters and the heights of the ridges is really, really amazing to see - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing

I noticed this too. Something about the perspective is unnerving, like an amusement park ride. You can see clearly that the moon is small, the craters are big, and the orbiting spacecraft is moving really really fast, all at the same time. None of that is apparent from video of low Earth orbit. And then the stark lighting makes it feel even more bizarre and alien.

The most 3-D experience that I have had with the moon, on the cheap, is when its not in it's full phase. With a cheap telescope, when you observe the edge of the partial-phase moon's crescent, you see the "terminator." It suddenly feels so different, finally you see the moon's bumpy spherical nature. It's like you are flying just above it.

> The terminator is where you'll see the most pronounced shadows cast by the lunar features like craters, mountains, and valleys. This is because the Sun is at a low angle relative to the lunar surface, emphasizing the topography and allowing you to see craters and other features in sharp relief

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#92

Post by zingerlio »

sfjailbird wrote: post #12

Here are the pictures it has taken so far: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflyspace/albums/7217772031... There's also a cool lunar flyover video taken during final deorbit.

How are the videos captured or processed? The solar lens flares are smoothly interpolated but the moon surface shows lower FPS, almost feels like the flares were on a separate layer.

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#93

Post by mrandish »

gonzo41 wrote: post #60
decimalenough wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fascinating how the pictures have that "Apollo moon landing" look. I'd always assumed that a huge part of this was just 1960s technology (film not digital etc), but apparently it's actually coming from the literally unearthly lighting conditions of being on the Moon.

Well it's either that or the tin foil hat people will say they just rented the OG soundstage. Nvidia did a great presentation about the lighting for the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syVP6zDZN7I

Once SpaceX gets Starship launching weekly, it'll probably be cheaper to send a bot with a camera to the moon than to rent a sound stage and build a big set!

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#94

Post by aaronblohowiak »

bruce511 wrote: post #77
tombert wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be cool, and I don't know that I care if there's a "reason" to do it other than "human achievement". I mean, there wasn't really a "reason" to go to the moon in the 60's either. I think I more or less agree with JFK on this: "Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there'. Well, space is…

When Mallory climbed on Everest (and possibly summited) it was a big deal because it had never been done. When Hilary and Tenzing did it, it pushed human achievement forward. Today people still do it, but it means nothing to anyone other than those people. Going to the moon in the 60s was an impressive feat. It pushed the boundary forward. But that's all it did. There's literally nothing of value there. Sure most of…

> There's literally nothing of value there.

ISRU water to hydrolox to reduce amount of uplift from earth's gravity well?

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#95

Post by somenameforme »

koolala wrote: post #25
inamberclad wrote: post #13

As a former Intuitive Machines employee, I feel obligated to correct the title! IM-1 landed on the moon last February and although it didn't stay upright, it was still operational and returned some decent scientific data.

It was flipped upside-down like a Turtle?

Well how else do you expect to be able to keep the Moon up?

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#96

Post by somenameforme »

agentkilo wrote: post #36
scubatubafuba wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It feels like the moon is well within humankind's reach by now. It has been for the last 65 years. ;)

Yeah that's true, but I haven't really experienced the Apollo era personally. After the "gap" between the old space race, and the new race inspired by private space agencies, I do feel we are getting closer, to the moon at least.

Something most people don't appreciate is that, outside of the distance, Mars is super easy mode compared to the Moon. The Moon has 2 week long nights cycling between highs and lows in the range of -130C to +120C, inhospitable terrain, constantly getting pounded by meteorites, no atmosphere whatsoever, much higher radiation, much less gravity, and so on. Mars, by contrast, is oddly similar to Earth - similar day/night cycle, even a similar axial tilt meaning similar seasonal cycles, relatively reasonable temperature ranges, some atmosphere, and more.

This is why the image of the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars doesn't really make any sense. The Moon is very much 'hard mode', but it's closer. So the main tech issue to make up (long distance travel) is not one that progress on the Moon will go much towards advancing.

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#98

Post by xoxxala »

tombert wrote: post #21
SoftTalker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no reason for humans to ever return to the moon. The cost and risks are not justified. Drones and robots can do anything that needs to be done. They don’t need to breathe, they don’t need to sleep, or eat.

I think it would be cool, and I don't know that I care if there's a "reason" to do it other than "human achievement". I mean, there wasn't really a "reason" to go to the moon in the 60's either. I think I more or less agree with JFK on this: "Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there'. Well, space is…

If you haven’t heard it, Public Service Broadcasting used the JFK speech in their song “The Race for Space” from the album of the same name. If you’re even partially a space nerd, it’s worth a listen. Very inspirational and the final album track is relevant to todays news.

https://youtu.be/4HZAc7EKFJQ

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#99

Post by pwnOrbitals »

gwarrr wrote: post #58
decimalenough wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fascinating how the pictures have that "Apollo moon landing" look. I'd always assumed that a huge part of this was just 1960s technology (film not digital etc), but apparently it's actually coming from the literally unearthly lighting conditions of being on the Moon.

I am no expert, but to my knowledge the space flight tech evolves very slowly, if at all. One reason for that is that modern tech is supposedly too sensitive to radiation. So you want to balance what's worthwhile to upgrade, and fancy videos are probably low on that list.

Space engineer here, not exactly true, esp for non-critical systems. Check out the "Careful COTS" paper by Doug Sinclair

Re: Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon

#100

Post by NitpickLawyer »

RangerScience wrote: post #39

Horray! Also: - Wow but the moon is 3D. Like, when we see shots of Earth, the ground always looks so flat, but the depth of the craters and the heights of the ridges is really, really amazing to see - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing

> - ...KSP did a really good job mimicking the real thing

The pic with the shadow of the lander is really close to what you get out of KSP when you first land on Mun or Minmus. Really really cool. Congrats to everyone who made this happen!

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