If you're Russian to the Moon, expect traffic: Moscow's Putin a lander into orbit
- Reference: 1691994606
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/08/14/russia_luna_25_launches/
- Source link:
Russia launched its effort last Thursday when a Soyuz 2.1b rocket blasted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far east, carrying a lander named Luna 25.
The website of Russian space agency Roscomsos is currently hard to reach, but state newsagency TASS reports that Luna 25 launched without incident and is on a trajectory that will see it enter lunar orbit on August 16, then separate from its orbiter and descend 100km before landing on the 21st of the month.
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The lander – just a lander, not a rover – is intended to touch down at Boguslawsky crater.
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Russia hopes that Luna 25 successfully demonstrates advanced soft landing techniques, and if it works as planned the probe will be first to land near the Moon's south pole.
The lander bears a plethora of cameras and sensors that, in the words of TASS, "will look for natural resources, including water, and study the effects of space rays and electromagnetic emissions on the lunar surface."
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Note the mention of water – a substance essential to establishing a human presence on the Moon, as the stuff is too heavy to schlep into orbit. Water can also be split into hydrogen and oxygen, which can then be used as fuel.
Which is why Russia wants to visit Luna's south pole – the deep shadows there are thought to be a prime spot to find H 2 O.
Also en route to the Moon at the time of writing is India's Chandrayaan-3, which launched in mid-July on a less direct path and is scheduled to land on August 23.
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The craft entered lunar orbit on August 5 and sent home the following video:
[6]Youtube Video
Chandrayaan-3 is currently in a 174km x 1437km lunar orbit and will aim for a landing site that's also close the Moon's south pole, for similar reasons.
[7]We need to be first on the Moon, uh, again, says NASA
[8]Astronaut-menacing sunstorm spotted rippling across inner solar system
[9]NASA awards $150 million to prototype tech for humans on the Moon, and above it
[10]BepiColombo probe turns to the dark side … of Mercury
Three days after Chandrayaan-3 makes its landing attempt, Japan's [11]Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is due to arrive, if it can find a parking spot. Again, the aim of this mission is securing a safe landing – in this case using tech that lets the craft determine an optimal landing site.
The US and China are also targeting Luna with programs that hope to achieve crewed landings. ®
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[6] https://youtu.be/8NLcrcPmUko
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Can we just move on to warp drive already? The Vulcans in orbit are probably getting bored.
The Vulcans in orbit are probably getting bored
That is not logical, captain.
Star Trek style warp drive can never work
The speed of light is the limit. Your mass rises quickly when you get close to it. Pick your own practical limit: when your mass is the same as a planet, a star, or a galaxy. If you picked star conservation of mass requires that for you to have the mass of a star the mass of other things that used to have the mass of a star only have the mass you had before you accelerated to nearly the speed of light. Other people are going to be peeved if you do that to the sun. Luckily for you they will die quickly with no chance of catching up with you.
Warp drive cheats by distorting space. You use magical technology to make the distance along your trajectory shorter for the duration of your journey. The problem is that distortions in space travel at the speed of light. To create the required distortion near your destination the distortion has to travel the full distance through space before it gets distorted. To travel five light years in one year you have to start you warp engine over four years in advance so the distorted space is where you want it when you get there.
The first commercial enterprise on the moon
.. will be NPR setting up a parking lot.
https://xkcd.com/713/
Look at me!
The mission primarily serves Russian propaganda: look at us, we can still send rockets to the moon! But also, look we can still send ICBMs wherever we want. Russia gave up on science a couple of decades ago.
We have put a faster-than-light spacebase the size of Moscow on the moon. Except its invisible and has forceshields to block all detection - Russia.
This reminded me of the ending scene from Iron Sky...
Who'll reach the North Pole first, and mine for water successfully? The race is on.
Will a moisture harvesting farm be possible on the Moon (or Mars) some time in the future? If this happen, we should rename Mars to Tatooine.
Jabba is waiting.
Lovely Punnery
Keep it up, guys!
Is that a Tom Lehrer reference?
Who's next?