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Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

arstechnica.com

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Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#71

Post by jdminhbg »

elviejo wrote: post #36
dang wrote: post #114

[stub for offtopicness]

I know I'm a snob... but I can't read science news using the imperial system.

Well, the definition of 0ºC is based on the freezing point of water at one atmosphere of pressure, which isn't super relevant on the Moon. You could give it in K but that's not very relatable.

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#73

Post by scotty79 »

Koshkin wrote: post #58
dang wrote: post #114

[stub for offtopicness]

-280F = -173.33333C +280F = +137.77777C

I refuse to believe anyone knows how cold -280F is.

When you have such extreme temperatures you think in Kelvin or at least Celsius.

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#75

Post by shadowgovt »

> As a result, the privately built spacecraft struck the lunar surface on a plateau, toppled over, and began to skid across the surface. As it did so, the lander rotated at least once or twice before coming to a stop in a small, shadowed crater.

Oh yeah, we've all Kerbaled it in like that at one point or another.

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#76

Post by antonvs »

j_bum wrote: post #12
areoform wrote: post #9

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…

This reads like a “comment” version of Destin’s speech to a NASA group a few years ago [0]. The loss of institutional knowledge and fundamentals philosophical differences seem like they’ll need to be overcome. [0] https://youtu.be/OoJsPvmFixU?si=EUxpp6C9vRAYD3kA

The talk was to the American Astronautical Society, not specifically a NASA group. But Destin talked as though he imagined everyone in the audience worked at NASA. It actually bothered me a bit - if I had been at that talk I would have been a bit pissed off, because he was basically using it as a channel to talk to people who probably weren't actually even there.

Just youtubers doing youtube things, I guess.

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#77

Post by shadowgovt »

tempodox wrote: post #63
layer8 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s roughly a third of room temperature.

Exactly, the Kelvin unit makes it easy to see that. I can't believe they used fucking Fahrenheit in the title.

"You know how hot you feel when you're running a fever? Well, it was nearly three times that cold!"

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#78

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

jdminhbg wrote: post #71
elviejo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I'm a snob... but I can't read science news using the imperial system.

Well, the definition of 0ºC is based on the freezing point of water at one atmosphere of pressure, which isn't super relevant on the Moon. You could give it in K but that's not very relatable.

-280F, -173C, or 100K is not relatable to anyone except niche researchers. Maybe slap in the extra few people who happen to work with liquid helium and you are still talking about 0% of the population.

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#79

Post by nntwozz »

elviejo wrote: post #36
dang wrote: post #114

[stub for offtopicness]

I know I'm a snob... but I can't read science news using the imperial system.

Everyone knows feet and British stones is the way to measure things in space. Just ask any scientician:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nRnt3TE-V-Y

Re: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

#80

Post by sandworm101 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61
sandworm101 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The top-heavy design didn't help things either Just wait for SpaceX to start trying to land starships on the moon. Also vertically. Also doomed to tip over whenever the surface is slightly out of spec. https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/moon/

> Just wait for SpaceX to start trying to land starships on the moon. Also vertically SpaceX has done it. To date, other nation-states have tried and failed to replicate their achievements in this domain. IM’s design is wrongly optimised and probably requires a rethink. That the CEO won’t contemplate this isn’t a great sign for the company.

Lol. SpaceX has landed on prepared surfaces, concrete pads on land or on large barges. They literally have a big X to mark the target. Let's see them land on some random beach, an uneven surface that may or may not subside. But that is still peanuts comparted to the moon's surface.
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