Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Never invade Russia in winter. I thought it was never get involved in a land war in Asia.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death (of a spacecraft) is on the line
Only slightly less well known.
Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
251–260 of 360 posts
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Physics 1A: the center of mass does not change. It is irrelevent. The tendancy to tip over is how wide the base is: look at the LEM. Big wide base. Did not tip over. None of them tipped over. They tip over faster on earth due to larger Earth's gravity and mass.
A big wide base with a center of mass magically very high off the ground would still be tippy though.
When it's "very high off", the base stops being "big wide".
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#253given the low gravity and $200M+ cost of mission, one would think that 3-4 thin spider-like-wide legs would be a must, especially after similar failure several months ago. Or just an inflatable "donut" around the lander (which would be deflated once the lander is standing upright).
This is brilliant but for the very wrong reasons. Make it a rescue mission. All you have to do is to have one mission pick up the first mission.
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#254Now, stuff like that spoon-feed with honey every conspiracy theorist that says/writes that we (humans) never actually went to the moon blah blah blah. My thoughts about it is that.. 'hey we got tech to stream live the whole thing... from lift off to landing, with 10 cameras to each direction. I remember watching live the "Red Bull Stratos" and it was soooooooooo cool!!!!!! Why not to the moon??? How come we went to t…
Did you look at the development cost of the apollo program vs intuitive machines budget? And the number of participating people? The IM-1 mission was about 100 million dollars, a single Saturn V launch was more than a billion. Total Apollo budget for Apollo (6 crewed landings and a few manned missions for testing, and some uncrewed test flights) was 260 billion in todays money.
"The Saturn V program cost was $41.3 billion in present day dollars and its cost per launch was $3.2 billion also in present day dollars."
Thus, the IM-1 was cheap.
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
> One similarly structured craft (thin and tall) reached the Moon a year ago, and also eventually toppled. Presumably it's that shape to fit in the fairing of a Falcon 9?
No, that's not why. I found dimensions and a picture of IM-1 here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id... The IM-1 lander was 1.57 meters wide and 4m tall, but based on the picture I think the width doesn't include the legs. The Blue Ghost lander also launched on an F9; it's 2m high and 3.5m wide, and it landed without falling over. (dimensions from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ghost_Mi…
Correction: (too late to edit): cylinder with a diameter of "180.020 [ 4572.5011 ]"
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#256Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#257Not a native English speaker here, my focus stopped at the subtitle "Robotic private spacecraft touched down about 250 miles from its intended landing site on Thursday". It feels odd to read "robotic private spacecraft" instead of "private robotic spacecraft" but I can't explain why.
They should just call it a robotic spacecraft, and then mention private company elsewhere in the sentence if they must.
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
250 miles? The mission official website of Intuitive Machines says 250 meters. From https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-2 > HOUSTON, TX – March 7, 2025 – Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure, and services company, has announced the IM-2 mission lunar lander, Athena, landed 250 meters from its intended landing site in the Mons M…
250 miles would be over 13 degrees around the moon’s circumference.
And yet the ranks of proofreaders and editors never blinked.
Re: Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder what height you can safely jump from onto the moons surface?
Probably around 12 meters (40 feet or so?). That would be like falling 2 m (6 feet) on earth, which isn’t very safe but pretty doable. Maybe 8 meters to make it more safe? That’s based on impact speed.
Probably less than that. Consider your suit needs to survive without a tear.