Jump to content

RamjetFDO

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    5857
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    4

Posts posted by RamjetFDO

  1. image.thumb.png.2939eba6c4d01028a76373da83e0f832.png

     

    Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says the lander may actually be on its side? 

    Well.  That's not exactly optimal now, is it?

    On the plus side, if you look to the left of the lander, you'll see they've discovered water.

    • Haha 1
  2. EagleCam was a no-go during landing.

    Quote

    Due to complications with Odysseus’ internal navigation system — specifically concerning the software patch to navigation data to include NASA’s NDL (Navigation Doppler Lidar) payload, which is meant to ensure a soft landing — the decision was made to power down EagleCam during landing and not deploy the device during Odysseus’ final descent.

    However, both the Intuitive Machines and EagleCam teams still plan to deploy EagleCam and capture images of the lander on the lunar surface as the mission continues.

     

  3. Good question.  I honestly don't know, but why the design was made this way, as opposed to either a more top-mounted antenna or at least redundant antennae (at least two on opposite sides), seems like a pretty obvious oversight.  I don't want to accuse them of hubris by saying "we'll nail the landing orientation, shut up", but I have to wonder the decision process for having a clear alignment failure path like that.

  4.  

    Okay - whatever issues they had during landing will be uncovered, but if this is accurate (and I have no reason to believe it isn't), they'll be able to sort this out.  

    One possible issue might be orientation of the high-gain antenna.  Unfortunately, in this design, that antenna was not placed at the *top* of the vehicle, but rather on one side, requiring a precise alignment of that lander's orientation on the surface to optimize that high-gain antenna's visibility back to Earth.  It may very well be that it's off-axis enough to have degraded comms and this was the entire issue.  But, again ... until we know everything, I'm staying on the side of *cautious* optimism and not jumping to conclusions.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  5. I hope you're correct  ... but it's also an assumptive leap from the data we have.  For all we know, it could just as easily be a crumpled mass of junk with only the comms package bleeping out a dying heartbeat signal.

    Again - I hope that everything went well, but based on what we know ... we don't know the status or the situation until they have the data feed restored completely.

    • Like 1
  6. I *really* hope everything went exactly as planned (except for the comms outage), but I've seen SpaceX lower the bar on what they call "mission success" too many times to confirm that this is a true success until they can confirm everything.

     

  7. They're a little quick-on-the draw with the self-congrats.  Let's find out exactly *WHAT* landed and in what useful configuration before jumping up and down and patting themselves on the back.

    ... and goodness.  Bill Nelson looks like the Crypt Keeper.

  8. Unai.

    The team believes in him, therefore themselves. Shows that the right leadership can bring out the best talent in the same team.

    Kinda like Herman -> Sark.


    ....and fuck. After dominating the second half, Villa give up what is probably the match winner.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  9. I'm sure it's already been said somewhere in this thread, but since I recently (for "reasons") had to transition from my 2-pill-per-day (BP/statin) regimen to now NINE mf-ing pills every day, I've purchased and now fully embrace the ease of those compartmentalized pillboxes to place your daily allotment at the start of each week.

    Getting. Old. Sucks.

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 3
×
×
  • Create New...