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Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

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Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#421

Post by dotnet00 »

mmx4332 wrote: post #49
thyrox wrote: post #47

Not asking rhetorically but why is this a big deal? Is it because it's going to the south pole? What are some other benefits to be gained from this?

This may not be a popular question, but given the amount of poverty in India, is a space program really the best expenditure? As a geek, I love the space program. As a human, I don't think it makes sense given the poverty.

An alternative perspective to consider, what happens to all the skilled engineers interested in and capable of working on advanced technologies like those intended for space if a country decides to put all other development on hold to singlemindedly focus on eradicating poverty?

What would happen to the next generations of talented potential engineers? What value would there be to pursuing an advanced education? Since obviously a space program isn't the only "luxury" that should be put on hold if poverty exists!

The talent would all leave and the next generations would be less incentivized to pursue the very kinds of careers that help a country develop.

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#422

Post by dotnet00 »

tempnow987 wrote: post #344
kensai wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a very inexpensive/frugal attempt for that matter! It has been a miracle of cost effectiveness. This is a wonder on its own.

Really the true wonder! Compare this to the US's SLS plans! The budget is mindboggling.

To be fair, the spending is SLS's primary mission, the snakes pushing for it couldn't actually care less about how often it flies or how useful it is.

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#423

Post by WorldMaker »

Symmetry wrote: post #224
ganteth wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moon undergoes extreme temperature fluctuations from day to night, resulting in boil off. There are spots on the South Pole that never see sunlight, so it’s our best bet for finding large deposits of water (as ice).

The ice would also be pretty close to the Moon's peaks of eternal light[1] where you don't have to have your solar panels spend half of every month in darkness. So basically where you'd want to live on the Moon if you had to pick somewhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_of_eternal_light

Isn't that also related to why the Lunar Gateway (the proposed space station component of the current Artemis project at Nasa) was proposed to be in a lunar polar orbit?

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#424

Post by la64710 »

mzs wrote: post #420
mymacbook wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not yet, closest option now is a computer animation synced with the confirmation of touchdown at minute 44 of the video. :(

At least there are these five images from two more cameras: https://twitter.com/isro/status/1694360664675127726

Nice

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#425

Post by Symbiote »

darkclouds wrote: post #322
psychphysic wrote: post #172

Congratulations India! And everyone. Actually congratulations to all countries still running space programmes including Russia's failure. The more the merrier. This is a stupendously difficult thing to do, India is truly a superpower.

Here Here. It also ironic that a country and population seen as backwards by the British Empire have overtaken the British in landing on the moon. Would be nice to see the African and South American continent achieve a moon landing as well.

Note Britain is the third-largest contributor to the European Space Agency, and has a fairly large space industry (satellites, instruments etc).

(The Beagle 2 lander which crashed into Mars in 2004 was managed from Britain.)

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#426

Post by Symbiote »

bofadeez wrote: post #405
wiseowise wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some may argue that such endeavors push technological boundaries, inspire global scientific collaboration, and prepare humanity for existential threats. It is widely known, not “some may argue”. > However, considering the vast resources assigned for a mission with no direct immediate benefits to Earth's current problems, one could argue that our focus should be redirected towards addressing environmental crises, po…

While I appreciate your engagement with the topic, I must point out that the notion that we can 'tackle both' is a dangerously simplistic perspective. The resources—both financial and intellectual—that are poured into space exploration are not infinite and come at the expense of urgent, life-saving initiatives here on Earth. To say it's 'widely known' only underscores the normalization of this skewed prioritization.…

If you're looking for wasteful effort to direct elsewhere, I suggest reducing the money spent on social media, advertising, sport, movies and so on before space exploration.

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#427

Post by dotnet00 »

jgilias wrote: post #382
f6v wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you whole Internet personality is being obnoxious… I’m sorry you’re the way you’re. But do you really think you contribute something to discussion with your comment?

[flagged]

Agreed, Russia shouldn't get a pass just because "space" given all the ways they have shown total disregard for everyone else.

Their war set back many international cooperations, they've destroyed Ukraine’s space industry, they stole satellites, launches for which had been paid for, only to turn around and put absurd conditions to launch them, and under Rogozin they showed blatant disregard for NASAs attempts to keep the ISS cooperation neutral.

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#428

Post by ChuckMcM »

abhayhegde wrote: post #360

Especially impressive when taken into account that ISRO couldn't achieve the soft-landing with Chandrayaan-2 four years ago. One of the big things they changed with this lander compared to Chandrayaan-2 was to increase the landing zone from 500mx500m to 4000mx4000m and adding more sensors and cameras to help the computer find a good landing site. For those who didn't watch live, there was another hover phase (0 m/s d…

The whole hover and look around thing was super impressive to me. That choice to spend mass on fuel for such maneuvers vs science instruments seems to always go to science in NASA debates and we end up with "either it will land here, or it will die." :-)

Great outcome and I look forward to the pictures sent back by the rover!

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#429

Post by gourabmi »

itissid wrote: post #343

Congrats to all of the team at ISRO. Assuming the software development for these is non trivial; Its interesting that with the last mission(per Scott Manly) was designed to always select a spot(or more precisely a trajectory) and try hit it. What made them make that decision? Was it like "lets be as precise as we can because we want to get to the spot X because X is special" and thus "Lets let the software always com…

If you understand Hindi, Gareeb Scientist has an amazing video about the landing algorithm issues of Chandrayaan-2 https://youtu.be/4oUdD_QSgRs

Re: Chandrayaan-3 Soft-landing [video]

#430

Post by password54321 »

bofadeez wrote: post #405
wiseowise wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some may argue that such endeavors push technological boundaries, inspire global scientific collaboration, and prepare humanity for existential threats. It is widely known, not “some may argue”. > However, considering the vast resources assigned for a mission with no direct immediate benefits to Earth's current problems, one could argue that our focus should be redirected towards addressing environmental crises, po…

While I appreciate your engagement with the topic, I must point out that the notion that we can 'tackle both' is a dangerously simplistic perspective. The resources—both financial and intellectual—that are poured into space exploration are not infinite and come at the expense of urgent, life-saving initiatives here on Earth. To say it's 'widely known' only underscores the normalization of this skewed prioritization.…

It is almost like some fields try to drive off as many people as possible from lack of opportunity, to having extreme requirements and being driven by politics.
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