Comment on Athena spacecraft declared dead after toppling over on moon

• Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Would it barely work, or would it always work?

  If they’re on the pole, at a high altitude, they could potentially have direct line of sight to the sun 24/7 all year round. From the ground, the sun would appear to travel left to right along the horizon, making a full circle over the course of a month. You just need your solar panels pointed to the sides, not up.

  However, if they aren’t directly on the pole, they could still plan their landing to be in a location that gets sunlight for 15 earth days straight, with 0 interruption. As that might be more than the necessary time period for their experiments, that’s probably perfect. And that doesn’t even require being at a high elevation.

  Also, being on the pole doesn’t result in dimmer sunlight than on the equator like it would on earth. No atmosphere means the poles get the same completely unfiltered sunlight.

  Look, the vast majority of lunar landers (and there have been quite a few) have used solar power, it’s the obvious choice in space.

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  • over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Nah, solar is the obvious choice in space near the sun, and by not borking it up by landing sideways in a crater on the south pole of the moon.

    Very limited scope for solar power, it don’t work after landing sideways in a crater on the south pole.

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    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      We are in space best the sun…

      Haha, no I didn’t account for lunar eclipses, but that lasts what, 2 hours?

      But yeah, not falling over definitely improves the whole mission. No argument there.

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• Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I don’t think it’d matter much. On earth the poles get less light, even in summer, because the angle of the sun is low so it has to pass through more atmosphere. This isn’t true on the moon, obviously. The angle will be really low on the south pole, but as long as it’s in sunlight it doesn’t matter where it is. There are locations on the poles of the moon that never get sunlight, but I suspect it wasn’t going there.

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  • over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It landed sideways like 250 meters away from the intended landing zone. Did you know the moon has way more craters than Earth?

    The thing ain’t got no sunlight yo, no power…

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    • Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect it to land sideways. Yeah, there are a lot of craters. They can be avoided. Check out how Firefly’s guidance system was able to change landing locations to avoid hazards.

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      • over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I don’t need to check Firefly’s guidance system. The Athena team should check into that though, apparently this is their second similar failure.

        Send them the email, not me, I’m just a nobody.

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  • over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Also, our next lunar eclipse occurs in the next 6 days, how the fuck they expect that to work on solar power in the first place even if it did land correctly?

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    • Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’m certain they were aware of that. They got to the fucking moon. They aren’t stupid.

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