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Israeli Spacecraft Beresheet Crash Site Spotted on Moon

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday May 16 2019, @10:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the apollo-18 dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit organization, is dedicated to landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon. Beresheet was their first attempt at meeting this goal. While the spacecraft did land, it first touched the surface about 1000 meters per second faster than intended. The mishap occurred late in the descent profile when the main engine failed—resulting in a very low-angle (<10°), high-speed impact.

The Beresheet impact occurred on 11 April 2019 and LRO passed overhead 11 days later, allowing LROC to acquire a six-image (three NAC left-right pairs) sequence of the search area. The coordinates of the darkest pixel (lowest reflectance) of the central "smudge" are 32.5956°N, 19.3496°E, with a 20-m (latitude) by 8-m (longitude) 95% confidence interval, estimated from seven images acquired before the impact event (over the course of the LRO mission). The elevation is ~2613 meters, and although the uncertainty is not well constrained at this time, it is likely less than 10 meters.

What really happened is they encountered this.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 17 2019, @07:55AM (5 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 17 2019, @07:55AM (#844638) Journal

    Did they find any Aristarchus submissions? I mean, other than in the Aristarchus Crater, where of course one would find aristarchus submissions, and submit them, since they are from a Crater on the Fucking Moon! Sometimes I think our Soylent Editors are completely Earth bound, like that.

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  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday May 17 2019, @10:24AM (4 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Friday May 17 2019, @10:24AM (#844652)

    Magister should worry more about these:

    ╔══════════╦════════════════════════════════════╦════════════════╦════════╗
    ║ Quantity ║              Relation              ║ Reconstruction ║ Modern ║
    ╠══════════╬════════════════════════════════════╬════════════════╬════════╣
    ║    s/t   ║     Sun's radius in Earth radii    ║       6.7      ║   109  ║
    ╠══════════╬════════════════════════════════════╬════════════════╬════════╣
    ║    t/ℓ   ║    Earth's radius in Moon radii    ║      2.85      ║  3.50  ║
    ╠══════════╬════════════════════════════════════╬════════════════╬════════╣
    ║    L/t   ║ Earth-Moon distance in Earth radii ║       20       ║  60.32 ║
    ╠══════════╬════════════════════════════════════╬════════════════╬════════╣
    ║    S/t   ║  Earth-Sun distance in Earth radii ║       380      ║ 23,500 ║
    ╚══════════╩════════════════════════════════════╩════════════════╩════════╝

    (Sic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Aristarchus)#Results [wikipedia.org] )

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    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 17 2019, @10:40AM (3 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 17 2019, @10:40AM (#844655) Journal

      Are you suggesting I was wrong? Well of course, instruments are much more precise today! Do you not think I keep up?

      (I hope you hold Aristotle to the same standard!)

      • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday May 17 2019, @05:52PM (2 children)

        by RamiK (1813) on Friday May 17 2019, @05:52PM (#844794)

        instruments are much more precise today!

        A good craftsman never blames his tools:

        The error in this calculation comes primarily from the poor values for x and θ. The poor value for θ is especially surprising, since Archimedes writes that Aristarchus...

        ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Aristarchus)#Results [wikipedia.org] )

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        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday May 18 2019, @08:17AM (1 child)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday May 18 2019, @08:17AM (#844969) Journal

          A good craftsman never blames his tools:

          Ah, but a good scientist always mistrusts his instruments, and seeks to develop better ones. And it is a good idea to actually read your citations before you cite them, lest they undercut your case.

          The disagreement of the work with Archimedes seems to be due to its taking an Aristarchus statement that the lunisolar diameter is 1/15 of a "meros" of the zodiac to mean 1/15 of a zodiacal sign (30°), unaware that the Greek word "meros" meant either "portion" or 7°1/2; and 1/15 of the latter amount is 1°/2, in agreement with Archimedes' testimony.

          your wikipedia source

          Funny, Archimedes himself was Greek.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 21 2019, @09:39AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 21 2019, @09:39AM (#845757)

            Funny, Archimedes himself was Greek.

            Yes, I remember laughing for like 10 minutes when I first learnt that.