SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the much-harder-than-finding-a-needle-in-a-haystack dept.
NASA (USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration) reports that India's Vikram Lander has been Found:
The Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander was targeted for a highland smooth plain about 600 kilometers from the south pole; unfortunately the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown (Sept. 7 in India, Sept. 6 in the United States). Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team released the first mosaic (acquired Sept. 17) of the site on Sept. 26 and many people have downloaded the mosaic to search for signs of Vikram. Shanmuga Subramanian contacted the LRO project with a positive identification of debris. After receiving this tip, the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images. When the images for the first mosaic were acquired the impact point was poorly illuminated and thus not easily identifiable. Two subsequent image sequences were acquired on Oct. 14 and 15, and Nov. 11. The LROC team scoured the surrounding area in these new mosaics and found the impact site (70.8810°S, 22.7840°E, 834 m elevation) and associated debris field. The November mosaic had the best pixel scale (0.7 meter) and lighting conditions (72° incidence angle).
The debris first located by Shanmuga is about 750 meters northwest of the main crash site and was a single bright pixel identification in that first mosaic (1.3 meter pixels, 84° incidence angle). The November mosaic shows best the impact crater, ray and extensive debris field. The three largest pieces of debris are each about 2x2 pixels and cast a one pixel shadow.
See the NASA article for before/after pictures of the impact site.
Previously:
NASA Lunar Probe Will Help Search for India's Lost Moon Lander
Time is Running Out for India to Establish Contact With its Lunar Lander
India Locates Lander Lost on Final Approach to Moon
Chandrayaan-2: India's Vikram Lander Presumed to Have Crashed
Chandrayaan-2 Updates: Lunar Orbit Insertion and Lunar Orbit Maneuver
Chandrayaan-2 Launch: How to Watch First Mission to the Moon's South Pole Mon 20190722 @ 0913 UTC
Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole to Launch on Mon July 22 0913 UTC
India's Lunar Spacecraft Launches Sunday on First-Ever Mission to Moon's South Pole
India to Launch Combined Orbiter/Lander/Rover Mission
India's Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission Planned for 2018
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 03 2019, @01:56PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:20PM (1 child)
I'm still sort of surprised at how the positive spin issued by India at the time the probe contact was lost that they had kept stating that it had actually landed, and engineers are still transmitting commands so that when the time is ideal, the commands will already be on their way and science will continue as planned, etc. I guess they had to put on a brave face.
This was despite all of the growing descriptions and non-optimistic expectations set by other authorities that perhaps a hard landing (ie--crater making scenario with complete loss of lander due to said crater creation), the India space agency was just so... optimistic. I would be reluctant to let go, too, but I am more of a realist perhaps.
I was reminded very much of how various IT projects I have had the pleasure of being a part of (or was an unwilling participant) had some outsourced firms where the teams, when confronted with problems or changes... insisted nothing was late or behind or possibly in peril, even if the servers crashed as hard as this probe, the network was down, and holidays, vacations, or double booked engineers resulted in experienced people being unreachable.
The greatest of ambition and optimism is expressed, but sometimes, not always the best execution. Sometimes what was intended and worked just fine on a white board is entirely unlike what happened on the ground (or fell from space, as the case may be) and required actions not included in the assessments.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday December 03 2019, @05:49PM
You forgot the best part!
I was watching it and at the time the animation based upon their own telemetry (although it may of been an extrapolation it certainly looks like they were getting telemetry) showed the lander spinning and the course plot deviating from the planned course.
https://youtu.be/5xKJG00-S_c?t=366 [youtu.be]
Although my link starts at this point, as it's a Scott Manley video it's quite interesting to watch the whole thing.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.