[Gansan]

Kudos to ISRO, they made us proud!

I read that to avoid the glitches that occured at the last moment with Chandrayan 2 landing, AI was extensively used by the project director for Chandrayan 3 landing. I remember Mr.Sivan saying before Chandrayan 2 landing "the lander has to endure fifteen minutes of terror" and his subsequent tears. He must be a happy man now.

[DrVjy]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Its the reverse. 1 lunar day is 14 earth days. Also, a lunar year is same as lunar day if you consider revolution of moon around earth as its year

Well, that was a mistake of mine, thanks!

Day's reference: own axis. Time for a half revolution about it.
Year's reference: The sun. Time for a full revolution about it.

Have a good visualization of this here :

https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion...oons/overview/

A lunar year isn't the same as a lunar day, rather nearly equal to 365 earth days!

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Kudos to ISRO, they made us proud!

I read that to avoid the glitches that occured at the last moment with Chandrayan 2 landing, AI was extensively used by the project director for Chandrayan 3 landing. I remember Mr.Sivan saying before Chandrayan 2 landing "the lander has to endure fifteen minutes of terror" and his subsequent tears. He must be a happy man now.

Dont know if it was AI/ML. Could be rule based algorithms using sensors. They did have more collision avoidance and better position determination algorithms this time. More than anything they had more fuel to make sure corrections can be made and resulting delays will not result in running out of fuel to keep going.
But still a smooth operation and kudos to everyone

[Indian2003]

Being a hybrid Indian this make me very proud. This is feat all Indians should be proud of. I wished I could be there to take part in the celebrations
Slow and steady wins the race

[thehighwayman]

Massive achievement . We are truly over the moon! ISRO is a rare government organization that continues to punch above its weight. Sadly the same cannot be said about a few others especially the one in charge of catering to our defense needs. On wards and upwards from hereon.

[PreludeSH]

Some details copied from The Hindu.

[am1m]

Back when BESCOM was KEB, we had many power-cuts on summer nights in Bangalore. We still have many power-cuts, but more people can buy generators and UPS systems these days, so we don't notice them as much. Hardly any high-rises, most houses were one storey and had a nice terrace, barely any vehicles on the road after 8PM, and no chance of any KEB worker venturing out to fix the issue before the next morning. And whatever Greenpeace may say, Bangalore did get pretty hot in summer even 35 years ago. So, eventually most people would head to the terraces of their house to get some cool breeze. We talked, we played cards by candlelight, we read comics. We burnt the plastic hands of our sister's doll (or was that just me?!) We spied on the young couple next door, who used the cover of darkness to sneak out to their backyard and sneak a few kisses.

Mostly though, I looked up. Barely any ambient light meant a truly glorious night sky. I hardly look up these days. Well, mostly it's blocks of flats and flood-lit signboards that I see, so perhaps that's why. But back then, I used to spend hours watching the stars. No idea what star was what. No thought of becoming an astronaut. No plan to start an astronomy club and use that 'transformative experience' on a college or job application. No tangible 'gain' from watching. I watched because it was beautiful.

People will say a Moon probe was a waste of money. (What guarantee is there that the money would be used for whatever 'better' cause they come up with. And how do you change a rocket scientist's motivation from building rockets to doing something else?) People will also jingoistically toe the government line hailing this as an achievement for 'national pride', 'Indian brains' or whatever cause they subscribe to in their heads.

But I'll wager there are more than a few people in that control room who would have done this even if no one else was watching. Even if no one else cared. Even if they were working for a different country (for all the 'patriots' gasping at that statement, Wikipedia reference: Wernher von Braun; if he hadn't done precisely that, there would have been no Moon probe.) Because sometimes you just want to do something because it's beautiful. And that's what makes people look up.

For that, thank you ISRO. Thank you for making us look up again.

[BoneCollector]

ISRO has released the video of the Pragyan Rover moving out of the Vikram Lander.

Link

Link

[itisK]

Originally Posted by am1m

People will also jingoistically toe the government line hailing this as an achievement for 'national pride', 'Indian brains' or whatever cause they subscribe to in their heads.

Maybe I can't see the things as you do, but I really was not able to make sense of this.

Would you please tell me what exactly is this supposed to mean?

[am1m]

Originally Posted by itisK

Would you please tell me what exactly is this supposed to mean?

I meant people (me included) will interpret this achievement in whatever way they choose to. That's it.

[itisK]

Originally Posted by am1m

I meant people (me included) will interpret this achievement in whatever way they choose to. That's it.

That I understand.

What I wanted to ask was, how celebrating this as an achievement for national pride equates to showing jingoism and toeing the government line?

Because quite honestly, I am among those who think that it is a matter of national pride. But since when that became jingoism and toeing the government line?

Thanks.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by itisK

Because quite honestly, I am among those who think that it is a matter of national pride.

That's great! I do too.

But there may be other views too, right? That's all I meant to convey. There will be many different interpretations, but the one I wanted to highlight was the pure science/doing something amazing/beautiful aspect which I think trumps everything else. That is a personal view.

Let's leave it at that, because this is going off-topic and I'm pretty sure the mods will have cleanup to do.

[itisK]

Originally Posted by DrVjy

..

Thank you for providing these details. I did come across this image on ISRO website earlier too, but couldn't find a concrete answer for why they have calculated the lifespan of rover and lander to be of one lunar day only.

Now, if the solar panels survive the lunar night, we can expect the lander and rover to be functional after that?



Mods, since my posts need to be approved first, I can't merge this with my earlier post (if these two happen to be consecutive ones). Please do that if possible. Thanks.

[DrVjy]

Originally Posted by itisK

I did come across this image on ISRO website earlier too, but couldn't find a concrete answer for why they have calculated the lifespan of rover and lander to be of one lunar day only.

Now, if the solar panels survive the lunar night, we can expect the lander and rover to be functional after that?

There's a group dedicated to conceptualize all missions, called MPAD (Mission Planning, Analysis and Design). As the name says, MPAD people decide on the lifespan, payloads, etc., at least in concept. But here's the best part: ISRO has a cherishing organization structure where across groups, junior and senior scientists rub shoulders with no egos at work. So the MPAD's concept is fairly open for iterations by other groups. Indeed, every mission is the product of multidisciplinary ideas, not necessarily optimized though.

[Gordon]

An observation
The Apollo missions almost 50 years ago seem to have clear videos and images compared to what's onboard the Chandrayaan. And even recently the Perseverance missions had clear shots of the separation and the landing of the modules and continue to dish then out on daily basis.