131–140 of 277 posts
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One conversion comment is on-topic, even though any replies to it are most likely to be off-topic.
Is there any sort of international body with regulatory power over the moon, or is it completely lawless and unrestricted? This startup has already crashed two pieces of space junk onto the lunar surface. Can any startup able to get there do whatever they want?
By the way, in comparison to the cost and complexity of said "junk", everything you own is cluttering up the Earth. You should really do something about that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Athena knew where it was relative to the surface of the Moon" - but without a working altimeter it was kinda fucked for actually touching down. Z is an axis that exists in our 3d world, and a required value for any relative position, which means it DID NOT know where it was, relative to the moon.
Ya the wording was not quite … satisfactory. I think they meant , it could tell X and Y, but not Z. But all three are important. Related - I’m not clear how the article can describe that landing as “not crashing”. If that was not a crash, what was it? Will they call it a crash only if there are Hollywood-style explosions?
Relevantly, it sounds like this lunar spacecraft was still functioning after the hard (non-)landing. The only reason it died after that was because of debris settling on the solar panels, which made it run out of power.
Can someone ELI5 why it's at that temperature? I mean, because it's in the dark I'd expect it to reach equilibrium with space background thermal radiation which is around 3K. Yet its 100K. Where does that heat comes from? It radiates from earth? Conduct through the floor coming from the inner of the moon itself? (Is there some kind of geothermal gradient on the moon BTW?)
There are multiple factors. The biggest ones are reflected sunlight; infrared and thermal conduction from surrounding rocks; and the Moon's internal heat (the region between the core and the mantle has a temperature of over 1,300 C).
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That seems rather uncharitable. I looked through the comments as soon as I saw there wasn't a Celsius figure in the headline or first paragraph. One conversion comment is on-topic, even though any replies to it are most likely to be off-topic.
Edit: but I've put the Celsius number in the title now as well...hopefully that will reduce the swelling.
If you take the time to study the documentation from the 1950s & 1960s, the engineering culture of that era appears to be markedly different from the engineering culture prevalent today. And I think it's deeply rooted in the symbiotic relationship between computing, Baumol's cost disease and our obsession with precision, results-oriented, MBA-style-min-maxing, "good enough for government work" engineering. Robert Tru…
Is there any sort of international body with regulatory power over the moon, or is it completely lawless and unrestricted? This startup has already crashed two pieces of space junk onto the lunar surface. Can any startup able to get there do whatever they want?
Well, there's a natural barrier to entry, i.e. it costs millions on dollars and years of time to be able to "crash" your "junk" onto the surface. So it's not like a bunch of hobby rocketeers are throwing away their McDonald's garbage. By the way, in comparison to the cost and complexity of said "junk", everything you own is cluttering up the Earth. You should really do something about that.
Giant neon McDonalds billboards visible from everywhere on Earth? Mining with zero restriction on impacts to the surface of the Moon or its atmosphere?
Apparently the HN crowd doesn't stand anyone criticizing a "startup", but I'm asking a legitimate question. So far most of the junk we've launched onto the Moon has been in the name of science and operated by nations. An assault by the Free Market is unprecedented. I'm asking a legitimate question about regulation, and implying a question about whether regulation is warranted.
If you take the time to study the documentation from the 1950s & 1960s, the engineering culture of that era appears to be markedly different from the engineering culture prevalent today. And I think it's deeply rooted in the symbiotic relationship between computing, Baumol's cost disease and our obsession with precision, results-oriented, MBA-style-min-maxing, "good enough for government work" engineering. Robert Tru…
> "I think we've become so accustomed to living in a silicon driven world where our personal devices are engineered at microscopic level that we've forgotten how to do things the Apollo-era way." This is a really interesting point. I think a practical issue in modern times as well is that companies are being inspired by SpaceX while forgetting that it took SpaceX alot of work to get to the point of being able to do t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has SpaceX ever landed their rocket on a surface that isn't purposefully engineered to be flat?
Multiple sea landings, but I guess you'd argue those don't count since the vehicles tip over in water and explode. Moving barges in the sea should qualify though.