Google Lunar X Prize |
Google Lunar X Prize |
Mar 28 2008, 08:53 PM
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#1
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10229 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Am I completely out of it, or is there no GLXP thread on here? I couldn't find one. Anyway, things are moving on it, so I thought we ought to have one.
For the record, I just turned down my second invitation to join a team. I'm staying as an interested observer on this - for now, anyway. There is a forum at the GLXP site as well as team info. There are a lot of people with half-baked ideas of how to go about it. The real professionals are not doing much on the forum, just working behind the scenes. At LPSC two weeks ago, Bob Richards of Odyssey Moon invited people to propose instruments to carry on their rover - targeted to a pyroclastic deposit, probably Rima Bode or Sulpicius Gallus. And I see they have now signed an agreement to carry Celestis's lunar burials to the Moon. Richards will be here next week, and I'll be spending some time with him. This whole thing is going to be interesting. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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May 5 2008, 10:35 AM
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#2
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Jeez... ...thanks, ILB!
I'm sure that none of the proposed landers will use a descent engine even a hundredth as powerful as the LM's, but it damn sure is another consideration in this debate. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 5 2008, 11:57 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
I'm sure that none of the proposed landers will use a descent engine even a hundredth as powerful as the LM's, but it damn sure is another consideration in this debate. A way to mitigate this would be for example the use of airbags so you cutoff descent engines at some point above the ground. In any case, we're talking really fine dust here and when the engine nozzle gets down low enough to significantly blow dust everywhere (in a vacuum, any exhaust is significantly underexpanded so it basically exits the nozzle in a hemispherical pattern, though most of the exhaust mass flow is downward-pointed), that's when terrain configuration becomes really important - a smallish hill could provide significant shielding to distant objects. Even at higher altitudes, terrain would play a big role, I imagine dust particles that get accelerated the most would be travelling radially away from "ground zero" so would have the greatest chance of re-impacting the ground soon. Also, keep in mind any small rover landing several hundred meters from an Apollo site would produce less sandblasting than the LEM ascent stage did (apart from effects suffered by the descent stage itself, of course which just got blasted by severe exhaust). -------------------- |
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May 5 2008, 12:35 PM
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#4
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Also, keep in mind any small rover landing several hundred meters from an Apollo site would produce less sandblasting than the LEM ascent stage did (apart from effects suffered by the descent stage itself, of course which just got blasted by severe exhaust). Good analysis, Gordan. I don't think it's a show-stopper at all for GLXP, and of course TB and the other sites have to be pretty sandblasted from the ascent events, but I consider that to be part of the history of each site. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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