Artemis 1 Cubesats, Ride-Along Robots |
Artemis 1 Cubesats, Ride-Along Robots |
Aug 27 2022, 08:24 PM
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#1
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10183 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
A new thread for a miniature (cubesat) moon lander. OMOTENASHI (a convoluted acronym which is also a Japanese word for 'selfless hospitality) is one of ten cubesats to be launched with Artemis 1, possibly as early as Monday, 29 August 2022 (two days away as i write rhis).
The lander has received little attention because it is really just a technology demonstrator of a method for getting very small objects safely to he lunar surface. Basically, let it come zooming in at 2 km/sec, slam the brakes on with a retro firing just above the surface and then let it fall to a hard but survivable landing. It's not totally dissimilar to the Soviet Union's Luna 9. Luna 13 landing method. Originally it included an airbag but that will not be used now. This landing demo does no science on the surface, though part of it will will collect some radiation data during approach. The only sign of a successful landing will be radio transmissions for a brief period. LRO may see evidence of the impact of the cruise module (which is not braked), though it will be small. The landing target is on the nearside limb south of Orientale at roughly 45 south, 75 west (285 east). 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 PD: 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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Nov 29 2022, 07:34 AM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10183 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Here are the three images from EQUULEUS (courtesy of JAXA and the mission) fitted together. They overlap very slightly, though a graphic posted by JAXA suggests they don't. EQUULEUS is is a big orbit around the Earth from which it will transition to an orbit around the L2 point above the far side. One of its tasks there is to image the unlit part of the far side to look for impact flashes, something which is routinely done from Earth for our side of the Moon.
And the two ArgoMoon images which overlap considerably, courtesy of the Italian Space Agency. ArgoMoon is in a large elongated orbit about Earth which will encounter the Moon from time to time, giving more imaging opportunities. The long crater chains were originally named after Soviet space research facilities when discovered in Zond 3 images. 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 PD: 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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Nov 29 2022, 07:55 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 14-January 22 Member No.: 9140 |
Beautiful stuff. The rays in the upper right corner of that ArgoMoon pictures have unusually sharp edges. Interesting to contemplate the circumstances that led to that.
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 4th June 2024 - 03:54 PM |
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