Japan Lands On The Moon.... Upside Down? Astrobotic's Moon Lander Lands On Earth?
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Published 2024-01-19
Firstly, Congratulations to Japan which has managed to soft land a spacecraft on the surface of the moon, this makes them the 5th nation to accomplish this feat. However it appears that they did not land on the spacecraft's feet and instead rolled, probably ending up inverted with the solar panels in the wrong orientation. However, the 2 rovers have deployed and we hope to see something from them in the coming days.
Secondly, Astrobotic's Peregrine lander returned to earth and burned up after suffering a propellent leak early in the mission, however the team managed to keep the spacecraft alive and operated a number of the payloads in deep space rather than on the surface of the moon for a few days before the spacecraft returned over the Pacific ocean.
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All Comments (21)
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As a KSP player, I know that a 10-degree slope means that you roll for several kilometers if you land on your side.
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landing it upside down without crashing is pretty impressive
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Imagine if the Australians had successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon upside down, they’d never hear the end of it.😂
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My respect to ISRO scientists and engineers has doubled since recent NASA and Japanese attempts.
Congrats to JAXA and am sure they will make successful landing and exploration soon. -
When you look at the Apollo missions against what is happening now, it is even more amazing that Apollo missions worked at all.
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*Note to self always put a couple •OPPS• small solar panels on bottom of any lander (body before the engine) I build.
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I’m a Japanese kid living in the countryside, so I’m no professor but it’s really nice seeing so many positive comments :) Thank you for cheering us on!! 🎌🎌🇺🇳🇺🇳
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As an Australian, I see nothing wrong with this landing. Congrats on Japan for this successful event!!
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It's a shame the lander had a rough landing, but engineers should be proud to get there in one piece. Welcome to the Moon Japan!
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Congratulations Japan 🇯🇵
Love from india 🇮🇳
🇮🇳🤜🤛🇯🇵 -
Congratulations to our Japanese friends on this success. Thank you JAXA for sharing telemetry and data with us! Impressive year for lunar landings. Nice to see more and more countries participating in this very difficult endeavor.
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Love and support from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳 ❤
I wish their all issues get resolved and mission is 100% completed.. -
Congratulations to Japan for again showing us puny humans that spaceflight isn't easy. Without occasional failures it is easy to forget just how amazing an accomplishment is any successful space landing .
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We can always rely on Scott Manley to bring us the analysis we need. Great job, Scott, as always!
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Congrats to JAXA and SLIM team! Fun fact, when I was visiting Tanegashima Space Centre in late Sept, they were selling replica LEV-2 as a drone. And yeah, TSC is amazingly beautiful, tropical island and white sands.
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This is the analysis I've been waiting all week for! I knew Scott would publish a review of the data. I was not disappointed! Thanks, Scott!
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It happened to me in the late '70s. Sincerely, anyone who has ever played Lunar Lander
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Upside down? Not if you look from the southern hemisphere!
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Good reporting. Straight forward.
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nice analysis, sir! All good wishes.
