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thewayneUnfortunately the NY Times article is paywalled for most people.
The Slashdot summary:
""As the sun rose on Friday over the lunar plateau where India's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover sit, the robotic explorers remained silent," writes the New York Times:
The Indian Space Research Organization, India's equivalent of NASA, said on Friday that mission controllers on the ground had sent a wake-up message to Vikram. The lander, as expected, did not reply. Efforts will continue over the next few days, but this could well be the conclusion of Chandrayaan-3, India's first successful space mission to the surface of another world...
The hope was that when sunlight again warmed the solar panels, the spacecraft would recharge and revive. But that was wishful thinking. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan were designed to survive a long, frigid lunar night when temperatures plunge to more than a hundred degrees below zero, far colder than the electronic components were designed for. The spacecraft designers could have added heaters or used more resilient components, but that would have added cost, weight and complexity...
The mission's science observations included a temperature probe deployed from Vikram that pushed into the lunar soil. The probe recorded a sharp drop, from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface to 10 degrees just three inches down. Lunar soil is a poor conductor of heat. The poor heat conduction could be a boon for future astronauts; an underground outpost would be well-insulated from the enormous temperature swings at the surface. Another instrument on Vikram, a seismometer, detected on Aug. 26 what appeared to be a moonquake... The Pragyan measurement suggests that concentrations of sulfur might be higher in the polar regions. Sulfur is a useful element in technologies like solar cells and batteries, as well as in fertilizer and concrete.
Before it went to sleep earlier this month, Vikram made a small final move, firing its engines to rise about 16 inches above the surface before softly landing again. The hop shifted Vikram's position by 12 to 16 inches, ISRO said. "Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!" ISRO posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 2. "Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."
"Efforts to establish contact will continue," ISRO tweeted yesterday..."
The probe and rover was landed inside a crater at the south pole to search for signs of water on the surface of the moon. India is the fourth country to successfully land a rover on the Moon, following Russia, America, and China. The Indian rover was not intended to last a long time, it was put to sleep before the crater went into shadow in hopes that it could be woken up, but there no optimism that this would be a long-term project. We shall see if they can wake it and we'll hope for the best.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/science/india-moon-landing-chandrayaan-3.html
https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/09/23/0627226/indias-moon-lander-has-not-replied-to-its-first-wake-up-call
The Slashdot summary:
""As the sun rose on Friday over the lunar plateau where India's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover sit, the robotic explorers remained silent," writes the New York Times:
The Indian Space Research Organization, India's equivalent of NASA, said on Friday that mission controllers on the ground had sent a wake-up message to Vikram. The lander, as expected, did not reply. Efforts will continue over the next few days, but this could well be the conclusion of Chandrayaan-3, India's first successful space mission to the surface of another world...
The hope was that when sunlight again warmed the solar panels, the spacecraft would recharge and revive. But that was wishful thinking. Neither Vikram nor Pragyan were designed to survive a long, frigid lunar night when temperatures plunge to more than a hundred degrees below zero, far colder than the electronic components were designed for. The spacecraft designers could have added heaters or used more resilient components, but that would have added cost, weight and complexity...
The mission's science observations included a temperature probe deployed from Vikram that pushed into the lunar soil. The probe recorded a sharp drop, from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface to 10 degrees just three inches down. Lunar soil is a poor conductor of heat. The poor heat conduction could be a boon for future astronauts; an underground outpost would be well-insulated from the enormous temperature swings at the surface. Another instrument on Vikram, a seismometer, detected on Aug. 26 what appeared to be a moonquake... The Pragyan measurement suggests that concentrations of sulfur might be higher in the polar regions. Sulfur is a useful element in technologies like solar cells and batteries, as well as in fertilizer and concrete.
Before it went to sleep earlier this month, Vikram made a small final move, firing its engines to rise about 16 inches above the surface before softly landing again. The hop shifted Vikram's position by 12 to 16 inches, ISRO said. "Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!" ISRO posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 2. "Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."
"Efforts to establish contact will continue," ISRO tweeted yesterday..."
The probe and rover was landed inside a crater at the south pole to search for signs of water on the surface of the moon. India is the fourth country to successfully land a rover on the Moon, following Russia, America, and China. The Indian rover was not intended to last a long time, it was put to sleep before the crater went into shadow in hopes that it could be woken up, but there no optimism that this would be a long-term project. We shall see if they can wake it and we'll hope for the best.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/science/india-moon-landing-chandrayaan-3.html
https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/09/23/0627226/indias-moon-lander-has-not-replied-to-its-first-wake-up-call
no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 07:29 pm (UTC)I read in a comment on Slashdot that apparently no on uses radioisotope power sources on the moon for probes. I'm guessing because of international treaties or other agreements? I agree it would be useful, but perhaps they don't want the risk of contamination since everybody hopes that there will be bases up there one day. Considering the number of probes that have encountered unscheduled rapid disassemblies, it might be a good idea.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-26 06:35 am (UTC)They expected it not to work? :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon
no subject
Date: 2023-09-26 08:45 pm (UTC)India rated it as highly probable that the rover would not reawaken after a lunar night. The temperature on the surface of the moon swings over SIX HUNDRED DEGREES F from -387F to +260F! It's a very hostile environment to keep things working, that's one of the reason why the manned Apollo missions were carefully timed to be entirely during the day: they only had to worry about cooling, not heating AND cooling! No, India got a week's worth or so out of their rover, and that's about all they expected. Anything more than that would be pure bonus as the cost to extend its life would have added greatly to its weight and complexity and greatly increased the risk of complete mission failure.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-28 07:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-30 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-01 12:59 am (UTC)They landed, they got data, they are content. A win for the India space program. More would have been better, but also riskier, they decided to trade results vs risk and got results.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-01 02:00 am (UTC)