SLIM landing today 10:20 ET

Advertise with us
rocket sok
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
At the press conference JAXA is saying that the landing was successful.
However the solar cell is not generating electricity so it is operating solely on batteries right now.
Spokesman said the battery power will last for several hours.
Hopefully they can fix the solar cell problem.
 
Spokesman is now saying that they are probably going to maintain the status quo rather than trying to fix the solar cell problem and possibly make things worse. They are hoping that when the sun reorients relative to the lander then the solar cell can catch some light and re-energize the batteries.
 
kuririn said:
Spokesman is now saying that they are probably going to maintain the status quo rather than trying to fix the solar cell problem and possibly make things worse. They are hoping that when the sun reorients relative to the lander then the solar cell can catch some light and re-energize the batteries.
Click to expand...
Nice thought but most of the time when the batteries drain the cold gets to them and it's game over.

But landing intact is a huge achievement! Congratulations JAXA!
 
I haven't heard any recent updates after the press conference. I understand at least one of the mini rovers was deployed and they were hoping to get pics of the lander to explain lack of solar cell power. Presumably the landers batteries have drained by now. Any news on what they learned?
 
Watching it live, it appeared to hit hard. After evaluating the video data frame by frame. SLIM hit the lunar surface at 1.5 lunar g's, 2.43m/s^2. Both OME engines registered 134% thrust. Eight of the side thrusters registered between 186% - 268% thrust. The pitch and yaw gyros went full range followed by the roll gyro. What caused these anomalies is unclear. Comparing the IMU accelerometer readings to the model, it appeared that the guidance system assumed there was a greater distance to the lunar surface. Something could have interfered with the surface radar in the last few meters and sensing imminent contact it fired all the thrusters, but too late. Another possibility is that SLIM drifted over or impacted a large lunar rock. After the thrusters shutdown, SLIM was in an uncontrolled tumble across the lunar surface. The tumbling direction, from the gyro data, changed direction before SLIM came to rest.

SLIM appears to be in a vertical upright position, the IMU accelerometer reads 1.63 m/s^2 one lunar g, resting on the propulsion unit with the solar panels pointed across the lunar regolith and not towards the sun. If SLIM was tumbling across the lunar surface, I would expect that the solar panels were damaged and not usable. Another possibility is that the panels are pointed at a shadow area.
 
Read an article a couple of days ago entitled "Why is it so difficult to do the moon landing in these modern times?"
 
@Spacedog49Krell Thank you for your detailed analysis of what you saw during the landing. Since I was on camera for a work call I could only furtively peek at a small screen with the readouts, and I wasn't sure what some of them were since the screen was small and I didn't have much attention to give to it at the time.

Hopefully JAXA will release an update soon with their interpretation of the landing. It's amazing, if the SLIM tumbled as we suspect, that they were able to remain in contact.

Time will tell.
 
Marc_G said:
@Spacedog49Krell Thank you for your detailed analysis of what you saw during the landing. Since I was on camera for a work call I could only furtively peek at a small screen with the readouts, and I wasn't sure what some of them were since the screen was small and I didn't have much attention to give to it at the time.

Hopefully JAXA will release an update soon with their interpretation of the landing. It's amazing, if the SLIM tumbled as we suspect, that they were able to remain in contact.

Time will tell.
Click to expand...
According to Scott Manley it has a powered pitch over manuever.


 
It's unclear to me how the LEVs communicate with Earth. My baseline assumption is only the actual SLIM lander would be powerful enough to broadcast like that. But I think on the article it said something about LEV2 communicating via LEV1.

Did anybody get a better sense?

"This image was transferred to the ground via LEV-1, and it was confirmed that the communication function between LEV-1 and LEV-2 was operating normally," JAX"
 
SLIM is in better shape than I thought. I expected to see torn gold foil and nozzle bells bent. My attempt to simulate SLIM's landing gyrations using one of my IMU's didn't work well. It did indicate that it was in an upright position, just the wrong end up. The solar panels are pointed in the wrong direction. I hope that LEV2 can maneuver around SLIM for more pictures. SLIM has also returned, at least, one picture of the surrounding area before shutting down.
 

Similar threads

lakeroadster
Incredible Moon Video Maps Exact Apollo Landing Sites
Replies
2
Views
111
astronwolf
astronwolf
Marc_G
Chinese booster lands near house
Replies
13
Views
761
K'Tesh
K'Tesh
Lord Rory Gin
Intuitive Machines IM-1 to attempt landing on Feb 22.
2 3 4
Replies
91
Views
3K
NTP2
NTP2
Peartree
Russian Moon Lander Crashes
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
Antares JS
Antares JS
stevemco
For Sale 4" Fiberglass Nosecone with Tracking Bay $20
Replies
0
Views
441
stevemco
stevemco

Latest posts

Back
Top