SpaceIL lunar lander mission - 2019 |
SpaceIL lunar lander mission - 2019 |
Sep 13 2018, 06:21 AM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10159 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
I'm setting this up in preparation for the launch of SpaceIL's lunar mission, probably early next year. They have arranged a rideshare with Spaceflight Industries on a Falcon 9 launch early in 2019. Earlier they were saying launch in December, land on the Moon in February, so now I assume the landing might be delayed until March. This mission was originally going to be part of the Google Lunar X Prize, but that of course is now gone. It might be rekindled with a different sponsor (though I doubt it).
SpaceIL is the first of the GLXP teams to actually make it to a launch. For what it's worth, I expect Astrobotic to fly as well, and I think Team Indus and PTScientists may also get off the ground. I'm hearing things about Moon Express which cause me to doubt its chances. More on landing sites shortly. 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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Apr 15 2019, 03:44 AM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10159 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
"https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/bd34il/hi_my_name_is_ben_nathaniel_i_work_on_the_team_of/"
Reddit has this 'ask me anything' with a spaceIL team member. Among other things it confirms that the Hypatia image was taken 4 hours before the landing attempt (2 orbits earlier). I suspect that the Lacus Mortis image was taken on that orbit or the next. I don't think it can be from the descent, so I don't think a path can be mapped from the image location to the landing site. The time of image release is not indicative of when it was taken. The Reddit does say that there is another image not yet released, possibly from the actual descent. It also appears that there is some magnetometer data taken and probably on the ground. 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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Apr 15 2019, 06:19 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 31 Joined: 24-February 17 From: California Member No.: 8127 |
"https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/bd34il/hi_my_name_is_ben_nathaniel_i_work_on_the_team_of/" Reddit has this 'ask me anything' with a spaceIL team member. Among other things it confirms that the Hypatia image was taken 4 hours before the landing attempt (2 orbits earlier). I suspect that the Lacus Mortis image was taken on that orbit or the next. I don't think it can be from the descent, so I don't think a path can be mapped from the image location to the landing site. The time of image release is not indicative of when it was taken. The Reddit does say that there is another image not yet released, possibly from the actual descent. It also appears that there is some magnetometer data taken and probably on the ground. Phil I agree. I found Beresheet's orbit telemetry which was updated up to the point where Beresheet flew over the lunar north polar area on April 11, before the descent sequence started. Here is the link (browser OpenGL support required to view the animation): https://live.spaceil.com/ When you play the simulation, the simulation at the end stops on April 11. It is also obvious that Beresheet was west of the lunar north pole on April 11 when it came into view from Earth. Given that Beresheet's polar orbit passes approximately 8 degrees west of the lunar north pole as seen from Earth, there is no way that the selfie shown during the live broadcast could have been later than the photo of Hypatia which was shown earlier during the live broadcast. Thus it seems that the selfie photo shown live must have been taken at least a few to several orbits before the Hypatia image was taken. I don't know why SpaceIL chose to show these two photos during the live broadcast since everyone assumed that these photos were live from the spacecraft, in particular, the selfie photo. |
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