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The lander module from India's moon mission was located on the lunar surface on Sunday, one day after it lost contact with the space station, and efforts are underway to try to establish contact with it, the head of the nation's space agency said.
The Press Trust of India news agency cited Indian Space and Research Organization chairman K. Sivan as saying cameras from the moon mission's orbiter had located the lander. "It must have been a hard landing," PTI quoted Sivan as saying.
[...] The space agency said it lost touch with the Vikram lunar lander on Saturday as it made its final approach to the moon's south pole to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
A successful landing would have made India just the fourth country to land a vessel on the lunar surface, and only the third to operate a robotic rover there.
The space agency said Saturday that the lander's descent was normal until 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the lunar surface.
Previously: Chandrayaan-2: India's Vikram Lander Presumed to Have Crashed
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday September 09 2019, @10:14AM (9 children)
But they did land a vessel:
A hard landing is still a landing and, if they manage to establish contact with the lander module and get even a beep from it, one might even call it a successful one, even if the mission is scrapped.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 09 2019, @11:23AM (4 children)
Any landing you can walk away from, right? Oh, wait - no one walked away.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday September 09 2019, @01:45PM (2 children)
Did it have a rover? Does it still count if something rolls away?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 09 2019, @01:52PM (1 child)
I'm not real sure. People who are rolled away from a hard landing are generally headed to the hospital or the morgue. We'll need an AI to decide how the lander counts. ;^)
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday September 09 2019, @07:13PM
I guess it brings to meaning to the term "heads will roll". Perhaps we can say "CPUs will roll".
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday September 09 2019, @04:13PM
Actually, all the module's passengers walked away!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 09 2019, @01:00PM (3 children)
Who will nab the prestigious title of "first country to nuke the Moon"?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 09 2019, @03:24PM (2 children)
That's insane. Let's just go ahead and use this Nuke on the orbiting body, that drives our tides. Sure, it's a huge chunk of material and likely, nothing would come of it, but why take the chance? For all our luck, we'd hit it in the only spot that would make it split in two.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday September 09 2019, @03:31PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119 [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTJ3LIA5LmA [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 09 2019, @06:21PM
Well done.
I was going to go with this: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575262/nuking-the-moon-by-vince-houghton/9780525505174/ [penguinrandomhouse.com]
But you beat me to it. Good show!