Well, the end is near for Peregrine.

Thw lunar lander (which is carrying human remains*) will be deliberately crashed into our atmosphere today, to burn it up.

* - DNA and 'human remains' (ash I would guess)

Update has just come up on BBC TV news while typing this.

Destruction will occur over New Zealand and it should be visible with the naked eye.

No mention on what 'data' they were able to get from the various missions on it though.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 07:45 am: Edit

https://boingboing.net/2024/01/17/star-trek-starfleet-insignia-spotted-on-mars.html

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 03:19 pm: Edit

and so the Japanesse land on the Moon....but the landers Solar Panels seem to have an issue.


The craft has battery power.... but for how long, they don't know.

No doubt the craft will try various things (saving power by not turning on all it's missions for example) - and so it may correct the problem.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 04:42 pm: Edit

It really IS rocket science!

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 08:08 pm: Edit

word

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 08:46 am: Edit

Japan's Slim Lunar Lander.... has been put to sleep, to save what power it had left.

They are hoping that in about 2 weeks time, when the Moon's position should allow it's Solar Panels to collect solar energing in the 'Lunar Afternoon' - as they are beleived to be facing 'Westwards'.

I would guess if the Solar panels do collect enough energy, it will turn back on automatically and adjust it's solar panels (if it can??) to more effeciently collect Solar Energy to re-charge it's batteries?

If it can't - it might be 100% dead or only operational for limited time periods in the Lunar Afternoon?

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 10:50 am: Edit

Given that the moon only rotates on its axis every... What? Seven hundred plus hour or so?

The Slim Lander can, if it's only powered up at the high point in the afternoon, still be said to be running twenty four hours a day.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 11:06 am: Edit

Jeff

Report I read said it takes two weeks to flip between the useable solar engergy coming from the East to coming from the West - so 700 hours to do a full rotation sounds about right

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 07:46 am: Edit

Inflatable module.
https://boingboing.net/2024/01/22/huge-inflatable-space-station-module-bursts-in-test-video.html

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 09:45 am: Edit

Caught that on a news cast the other day....


The test was a success, since that was really what they wanted to find out, whether it would meet the specs laid out....
Twenty-Seven % above spec, and 3x what the operation pressure would be......

By Tom Lusco (Tlusco) on Thursday, January 25, 2024 - 08:56 am: Edit

JAXA managed to get an image off their transformer-bot that shows the SLIM nose into the ground. Apparently a thruster malfunctioned during the descent. Still, they got a soft landing and within tolerance of their intended site.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, January 25, 2024 - 10:22 am: Edit

Tom

I read that too.


The question is can the solar panels be rotated to in effect update upside down (as intended)?

Two Mini-rovers ARE working - one took the picture and transmisted it short range to another mini-rover which could transmit it long range - so certain aspects of the mission are working.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, January 29, 2024 - 02:31 am: Edit

It's alive!

THe Slim Lunar Lander has powered back up as it has received some enerey!

The Solar cells are now receiving energy due a shift in sunlight (I am guessing the Lunar Afternoon has now started) - if it is upside down, not sure how that will effect the overal mission and what it can do?

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 - 04:41 pm: Edit

The Slim Luinar Lander is still working.

However it might not have long to operate - the Lunar 'night' (which lasts 14 days) will kill it - the Lander wasn't protected fron the cold that will occur.

No doubt, they are happy with the data it is now providing.... after it's nose landing!

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 - 09:29 pm: Edit

It's my understanding that overnight lows on the Moon can reach some two fifty below zero. I don't know if that's in Fahrenheit or Celsius, but given the problems with batteries we've recently seen here on Earth, I have to agree with you, Paul.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 - 11:06 pm: Edit

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon is a great accomplishment. Not as good as it could have been, but way better than 150+ other countries have managed. Japan becomes the 5th country to land something intact on the moon.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - 07:36 am: Edit

I dunno why batteries can be a problem. We've had stuff in outer space/ on the moon/ Mars/ on the way to infinity, for a LOOOONG tome. That should be something already solved.

By Tom Lusco (Tlusco) on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - 09:12 am: Edit

Mike, most of those things on the way to the great beyond use RTGs as power source. Everything we send to the inner solar system uses solar+btty in some combination.

That said, you alude to a real shortcoming in material science and technology development, and that is that battery technology has generally lagged other areas. Its only been with the massive investment in electric vehicles that battery technology development has really picked up. Still a laggard, but we've at least come up with some new stuff in recent years.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - 09:51 am: Edit

I am guessing from what JAXA said, the Lunar Lander was just not 'built' for the cold as they probably expected it's life expectancy to be fairly short anyway.

Extra weight to protect key components or different batteries was just not worth it!

No doubt if their next missions is intended to have a longer life*, it will be capable of surviving the cold.

* - As SVC noted, alot more probes/landers have had a nice warm firey or 'pancake' end, than a cold death!

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - 10:03 am: Edit

I don't know anything about this mission, but it's also possible that they may have planned to use the battery to survive the cold, they could use electical heat from the battery while in darkness to keep critical components (including the battery itself) warm enough to survive.

Remember that there's no air convection to help cool in space, vacuum is a pretty good insulator (as is lunar regolith), so you don't need all that much power to retain temperature.

But you do need some power to retain temperature, and they might have planned on starting the night with a fully charged battery and not been able to achieve that. Or they may just have settled on "if we get 14 days out of it, that's good enough".

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, February 26, 2024 - 05:37 am: Edit

It's Alive!!!

The Lunar Lander has 'survived' the Lunar night.... as JAXA have sent a boot up message and a response was received.

Will be intersting to see what the Lander can now do.


Also the Odyssues Moon Lander has also safely soft landed - the first Private lander to safely land on tbe moon.

Fingers crossed it's mission is succesful too!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 26, 2024 - 06:30 am: Edit

Odysseus fell on its side, so I heard.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, February 26, 2024 - 08:44 am: Edit

Thats interesting! Two for Two on falling over.

I am guessing the probes don't have any ability to 'put an arm out' - and the sensors immediately before impact/landing are not good enogh to work out it needs to land differently to avoid tripping over?

i.e. if you slip down a step, your arm goes out to to stablise your self - and you don't fall over.


So either 'arms need to be added (and some form of light thrust (from a moveable nozzle) used to tilt the craft back upright (as not much thrust should be needed it it's a 45 degrees say) - or it needs a method to test the ground alot better, to get a stable footing?

Not a Space Techie - which is easier?

By Matthew Lawson (Mglawson) on Monday, February 26, 2024 - 09:30 am: Edit

We should probably just send someone up there to flip these things right-side up.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, February 26, 2024 - 11:06 am: Edit

Raven, my guess is that the problem is the lift/launch vehicle gave them a hard-and-fast limit to how much the probe can weigh, they didn't think it'd fall over, and thought the weight of, "An unnecessary system," would take away from weight available for an experiment.

Just a guess, though. It makes sense (to me), but could be wrong.