I like the name "Jade Rabbit" :)
It sounds like a dildo name to me.
People are limited by what they live with.
China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
61–70 of 78 posts
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#62Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#63Actually, it's working - not perfectly, but it's 'awake,' sending and receiving signals:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283...
Xinhua is adding new info on Twitter:
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#64This is a shame, but most people -- even in space programs -- don't appreciate how cold the Moon's shaded areas become. It's now estimated that these areas get to 26 Kelvins -- that's 26 degrees above absolute zero. To get a sense of how cold this is, Pluto's average surface temperature is seven degrees warmer . Also consider that, because of the specifics of the Moon's orbit, a given area stays shaded for just over…
That said, temperature works differently in hard vacuum - with no air to conduct/convect the heat away, isolated objects don't actually get "cold" the way they would in a pool of liquid nitrogen or something. Notice you don't hear about the ISS freezing at night.
A great deal of effort has gone into keeping the ISS at civilized temperatures:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/as...
It's got 100,000 watts of solar power, so that combined with good insulation means it won't freeze as long as the panels keep working...
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point of the parent comment was that simply being in a cold vacuum doesn't make you instantly cold. That still requires a process of heat transfer, which occurs in a fluid via conduction, convection, and radiation. When immersed in a vacuum the conduction and convection heat transfer paths are sharply reduced, so the question then becomes how fast do you cool off via radiation alone? I'm not a physicist s…
As it turns out, even on earth's surface, radiation is a more efficient heat transfer method than conduction and convection through the air. Objects under a clear sky quickly drop below air temperature in many circumstances.
Thank you! I did an hour jog tonight, and most of that time was spent trying to figure out why there was frost on the ground with an air temperature above freezing and a warm breeze.
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#66My biggest shock was "Why haven't I heard about this lunar rover before!?" I'm not news hound, but I do spend too much time on tech sites (HN/Reddit) that would report this. I remember years ago mention of China (and India) moon missions. But, really first man mad object to land in 37 years should have been blasted over most news sources. After shock... "Kick ass, we're (finally) getting back on the moon!"
it was a top story on NPR for 4 days straight. by top story I mean it was what was on when I drove into work
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#67My biggest shock was "Why haven't I heard about this lunar rover before!?" I'm not news hound, but I do spend too much time on tech sites (HN/Reddit) that would report this. I remember years ago mention of China (and India) moon missions. But, really first man mad object to land in 37 years should have been blasted over most news sources. After shock... "Kick ass, we're (finally) getting back on the moon!"
There were some discussion earlier, on HN:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6904717
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7128978
Yes, ISRO (India's space agency) sent an orbiter and impactor to Moon called Chandrayaan-1, back in 2008. NASA and ISRO's instruments on-board Chandrayaan-1 had detected water on Moon.
It's good to see rekindled interest in science missions to satellites and planets. I'm eagerly waiting for ISRO's next Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, which will have a soft lander and a rover. Probably in 2016 :)
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point of the parent comment was that simply being in a cold vacuum doesn't make you instantly cold. That still requires a process of heat transfer, which occurs in a fluid via conduction, convection, and radiation. When immersed in a vacuum the conduction and convection heat transfer paths are sharply reduced, so the question then becomes how fast do you cool off via radiation alone? I'm not a physicist s…
As it turns out, even on earth's surface, radiation is a more efficient heat transfer method than conduction and convection through the air. Objects under a clear sky quickly drop below air temperature in many circumstances.
What he's trying to say is that if you toss a rock into liquid helium or a 4 Kelvin zero g vacuum it's going to get colder faster via direct contact with the helium than via radiation in the vacuum.
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#69Chinese space program had come a long way. Interesting test would be how they handle this failure. Will they go assigning blame and scapegoats. Or will they learn from this mistake and improve quality control/redundancy for future missions.
I expect the latter, they aren't known to give up big dreams so easily. Consider for instance that India and Russia have had numerous failed launches for various rockets and / or space probes and both countries continue to try again and eventually succeed. Why would China not try again? I pray they do. Chinese or American or Russian or Indian, I want to see a minimal human habitat on the moon in my lifetime. Our spec…
There is no such thing as deserve, especially in cases like this. There is no ice cream for failure.
Well I mean you can go out and buy ice cream if you're at mission control and not dead. And I guess you can eat some astronaut ice cream as your air runs out or you freeze to death if you are in space.
But this isn't some deserve type thing.
Re: China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover dies on moon
#70I found it quite appropriate that the referenced CBC article referred to it as a moon "buggy." More seriously, I'm excited to see more countries, and more people in general, involved in space exploration. I also think that instead of pointing to the rover's failure, we shout point to its success: Launching a rover to the moon and getting it to work in any way, shape, or form, is a pretty amazing triumph. Sure, the US…
Let's not bury Yutu alive in our haste to eulogize it. The rover is awake and transmitting. Lot of news sites have been reporting on news from many many hours ago. My guess is the mechanical error interfered with the solar intake and delayed the power-on process.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-02/13/c_133111283...