Japan Finally Reveals What Happened To Their Lunar Lander! And It Really Did Surprise me!
Vložit
- čas přidán 24. 01. 2024
- Wow!
JAXA's SLIM Spacecraft performed a near perfect lunar descent until the point it was hovering 50m above the lunar surface, at that point there was a huge engine failure and one of the nozzles breaks off.
The lander adjusts guidance and successfully lands anyway, but with too much lateral velocity to reach the correct orientation.
Thanks to Tony De La Rosa for translating the slides.
Original slides, images and video are here:
www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/slim/SL...
Follow me on Twitter for more updates:
/ djsnm
I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:
/ discord
If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon
/ scottmanley - Věda a technologie
Engine falling off during a controlled landing is the most KSP thing I have ever seen. We are in a simulation, and were kerbols lol
Fake the Japanese when it wasn't busy murdering an experimental Chinese citizen finally caught up to the fake race
Engine exploding I'd agree with. Engine falling off, not so much. In KSP, unplanned disassembly usually happens catastrophically, not bit by bit. I presume somebody at some point probably made a mod that had parts fall off randomly, but if someone did, I haven't come across it.
It definitely feels more like Kia than it does Toyota
The guy running the simulation is making our memes reality. That's very disturbing sense of humor.
check yo staging
Props to the engineer/team who programmed the thing to pull off ANY kind of landing while minus a nozzle.
Very impressive!
Yea agreed, absolutely amazing that it managed to land, and land relatively softly with an engine down!!😮😎
You might even call it..."highly sexual" as the machine translation says. XD
Very sexual ! 🤣🤣😁😁
Goes to show what can be achieved when one doesn’t let Boeing or Roscosmos write your firmware
Maybe the engineers could “fire” the engines to roll the craft. A little gas venting might do the job.
So:
- They lost the nozzle on one of the main two engines, and still managed to land.
- They managed to spit out those two more Kerbal than Kerbal, toy-like gizmos
- One of those gizmos took a picture of the main craft after it fell or its face and successfully sent it to earth
- There is still a decent chance that the main craft will reactivate in the "afternoon".
This is simply amazing. Great work, JAXA!
🏆
Could call it the ''Aftermoon''
More Kerbal than Kerbal 👍
No, it is more or less similar to a drop of 50 meters, and on the moon, it is like a drop of 7 meters.
If heaters work perfectly and maintain batteries temperature in -140degree I'm sure there's high chances it will wake up again
A comedy of errors and yet everything still works... sort of.
As a Japanese, though the lander is upside down like KSP, I am proud of this JAXA mission.
I really appreciate Scott's detailed explanation.
スコットありがとう
If it comes back to life in the sun, it is going to be absolutely legendary - the time when a spacecraft successfully landed on the moon after a nozzle fell off, ended up upside-down, and yet was still able to successfully complete its mission.
Something to truly be proud of! Getting lucky when nothing goes wrong is far less impressive than succeeding when things go very wrong!
Well of course it did, everything in China is upside down. 🙃
Congratulations to Japan on a wonderful mission! May there be many more!
You should be not many counties could do that and Scott did a great job I feel as well!
"Where should we land, Cap'n?"
"Next to the engines, Chief."
Gimme all she's got Scotty!
@@oldandintheway9805 "but captain, she'll blow apart"
Taking a programming class in high school, we had a Moon Lander program on the terminal. (Yeah, a long time ago....) You miss the landing (high impact velocity limit exceeded) and it gave you a size of the crater you caused, by the official physics meteor vs. crater-size formula. So of course we removed the fuel limitation in the program, reversed thrust, and continued until the calculated size of the crater = diameter of the Moon! Good times, and a great learning tool, two physics problems (landing, and craters) demonstrated.
About the translation😂: In this case the sentence was trying to say "possibility is high" which is written as【可能性が高い】, 可能性 meaning "possibility" and 高い meaning "high". Well, in the report the 可能性 word was separated 可能 and 性 at the end of the row. And google translate (which always has a hard time separating words from Japanese when they go on to next row), thought the part on the next row is a new sentence ( 制が高い) and translated it completely separately. Which can be translated as "the sexuality is high" 😂
I was hoping that it meant “very screwed”
@@brucebaxter6923 Was a possible outcome I suppose yes 😂
Thanks for explanation, I still like the way it came out. It allows me to tell when someone reads it or just scans it.
The hole thing has made me highly stimulated just thinking about it.
I though it meant, "That's what fvcked us"
"Any landing you can walk away from..." Congrats to Japan on the great success, and thanks for those amazing pictures!
They should edit it as walk or roll away from
@@jjeeqq Those two rovers rolled and hopped away.
Complete success in my opinion. Regardless of how you spin it, Japan will have a glorious upside down lander that will remain on the moon for a long, long time. A worthy landmark for future humans!
It's going to be a lunar tourist destination for sure
You're hilarious.
YES, THEY MADE THE KSP IMAGE ICONIC! This will forever be in the history books!
It was just showing off
Seems purposeful to me.
Only in certain states.
This usually means I have to make quick rescue mission to get Jeb off the surface.
I, for some bizarre reason obscura, thought, ummm it made me laugh because I saw the Graph.
Pulling a Kerbal Space Program is arguably far more impressive than sticking the landing, even taking in to account one of the little landers survived and was able to turn around and take a picture. This is art.
Peak “Task Failed Successfully”
There's also have photos confirming that the second rover deployed into its crawler configuration
Definitely falls within the Astra powerslide level of successful failures
The two landers are very adorable. One transforms from a ball, and the other jumps like a rabbit. They communicated with each other and sent data to Earth.😊
We've all done it in KSP... landing upside down with a broken engine and the solar panels pointed away from the sun! Now if they could just crash one of their rovers into it and tip it over, that would be spectacular.
Good on Japan for being quick to bring out what happened, and it is awesome that the failure was mostly obvious. And it is VERY impressive that the computer was able to land softly, if not perfectly.
Really unfortunate failure, but hats off to the engineers. The software program did a great job of dealing with the situation it was given, and the team did a great job of troubleshooting to get them in the best position to recover as much of the mission as they can. Spaceflight is hard, bravo Japan!
Absolutely right. The one thing we should be focusing on right now is to get the engineers to the moon itself to solve problems as they arise.
Where do I sign?@@PersonalityMalfunction
Or for the Engineers in charge of the landing, heads off!
Very amazing engineering and foresight by the team. Engineers thought of this scenario in advance, designed and tested software to handle a situation that would very likely never be used. By a stroke of bad luck, this lower priority software was called and function perfectly. The extra bits of effort beyond 100% defined success!!
Right, "Space flight is hard", that's why American president JFK said, in the early 1960's, "We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard!" :D
"Task failed successfully"
But in all honesty and all joking aside: Losing the engine nozzle and still softlanding within the pre-defined landing area as well as being well below the speed threshold is _very_ impressive.
Hope it'll come back to life once the sun comes around, that'd be very sexual.
I want to like this but it's at 69!
I think u stole the comment from the video by pewdiepie: ”can this video get 1 million likes” there is a popular comment thats the exact same on that video
@@ljushastighetNo, just no. That phrase is much older than that guy.
@@ljushastighet Hahaa! No I had no idea! That's funny though 😁
@@benejeneb Niiiice.
4:50 Yeah that sexual part is likely a translation error by the line break.
The original PDF reads "可能性が高いと考えている" means "considered it's very likely"
When you have a word break between 可能 and 性, that part reads "possible, the sexuality is considered high." That aligns to the beginning of the preceding line "It is possible..." which really should be "It is considered the possibility of..."
Nonetheless, this error sounds unintentionally VERY Japanese and I fkn love it.
Thanks, I had a feeling there was a better explanation out there!
@@defiantgtito add to this, 性 means sex or gender, but also nature, as in the innate features of something. It's often used as a suffix which basically means "the innate features of [thing]". As a suffix it's similar to -ty, -ity, -ness, and -cy.
I was hoping it was “really fucked”
@@Bobbias that sounds like a very romantic concept and characterization of sexuality in Japanese
My guess(having not read the original document) was something among the lines of: "I think its very weird.", except that the Japanese word for weird is one that CZcams probably blacklists automatically because it also means something naughty.
Yours is a lot more sensible though.
The fact they managed to land after having an engine nozzle fall off is absurd. That is extremely impressive software.
Honestly pretty happy ending, considering how many craft have impacted the moon (or lost in space) recently just because of weird failures and the inability to compensate. Got that feel good survival story of a little craft dealing with a catastrophe and coming out alive :) Have there ever been a craft that has had a major mechanical failure and still managed to land softly and continue operation before? This is kerbal in the best way!
If I remember correctly, the Galileo Jupiter atmospheric probe had its accelerometer backwards, and thus technically shouldn’t have ever deployed its parachute (the precise same issue that occurred on Genesis). However, the parachute deployed anyways a minute or two later than it should have, resulting in a successful mission.
Actually, you know what, the main Galileo probe also qualifies for an in-space equivalent, considering they couldn’t use the main antenna and had to switch to using the comically undersized backup antenna for data transmission.
Relatable. I remember my first Mun landing. I proudly planted my flag and posed for a screenshot as my rocket ever so slowly fell over and gently exploded in the background.
In KSP, rescue missions are the best missions 😉
In my first landing, we left the cameraman behind so he could record us taking off. No worries though, we gave him a space blanket and some MRE's. Havent heard from him since, surprisingly...
Reminds me of the time the face plate on my helmet fell off in exactly the same circumstances. Very spicy.
*_gently_* exploded. (!)
@@PersonalityMalfunction that is a spicy situation! glad to see you came through all right!
Good job JAXA! And, after all the failures blamed on software, it's very good to see software coping with a potentially catastrophic hardware failure, well enough to get the lander down in one piece, still able to take observations and send them home. 👍
So you’re telling me people here are disregarded…???
Were they Boeing engines? Did someone forget to put the bolts in that hold the engine on?
@@Thor_b No! I confess I don't understand what it was that came across as "disregarding people", but people are always more important and valuable than any hardware or software.
Right, it was American "Man-ware" that first got us to the moon, decades ago, right!! ;D@@marcusdirk
JAXA has just announced that it has resumed operations of the SLIM spacecraft that landed on the Moon, which was unable to generate power from its solar array panels due to an attitude anomaly at the time of the landing on March 20, but is now believed to have resumed power generation. Mineralogical observations of the Moon were also resumed.
The landing posture is not upside down, as it was originally planned to rotate 90° and land with the photovoltaic panels facing up.
SLIM was not in the planned position with the solar panels directly above the ground, but in a 90-degree tilt, facing west.
JAXA predicted that power generation would resume when the sun came to the west.
The prediction came true and power generation resumed, so SLIM began its work, although it is still collapsed by 90°.
good !!
Absolutely astounding that they had the foresight to program for making the best attempt even if some system failed. That is just really cool.
That's amazing that they plan for things that might happen! Who would have thought! Wow!
Ha ha. ;D. Yes, true, all/most space missions usually have a "plan B and C", that's why the saying "it's not rocket science", since that is something so complex to do right, first time, all the time, every time!! ;D@@Connection-Lost
This honestly makes the fact that it’s mostly still in one piece and deployed its rovers even more impressive! (it’s impressive IRL but in KSP it’s just a usually mission.)
THE ONEPEICE IS REAL!!!!
@@honkhonk8009
Can we get much higher? (higher)
This is cool. I appreciate Japans transparency on this mission. I would point out that although the primary mission failed due to material failure there are several success points as well. They got there. The probe was in proper alignment ( the engine falls off). The seperation camera popped off successfully and was operational. Indications are if engine was intact on landing the craft would have performed as intended. All amazing achievements. Next iteration after lessons learned should work.
I can't properly express how much I love this. New desktop image inbound!
How well you predict possible sources of failure and how you prepare for them dictates how capable the craft ends up being. Cudos to the Japanese team.
After losing an engine, being able to soft land at all is amazing.
Outstanding work from Japan. Very novel design for a lander and it seemed to work really well overall.
If an engine fell off a jet you were flying in, would you say that's an overall success?
@@outlawbillionairez9780 If you got down safely, then Yes.
@@chrissouthgate4554 crash landed. Tumbled down a hill. Ended upside down.
@@outlawbillionairez9780 Well let’s see, Israel smashed into the moon and no data was sent from the surface. Russia smashed into the moon and no data was sent from the surface. India’s 1st lander smashed into the moon and no data was sent. This one soft landed, deployed 2 rovers, actually got data back from them, and then rolled over. Considering it was intentionally landed as the first of its kind to use that type of landing maneuver and was attempting to land on steeper slope than any other mission, yeah it’s a success. If the engine falls off my plane and we land safely, yes that’s also a success.
@@outlawbillionairez9780they achieved almost all of their objectives + extra points for the KSP meme
The fact that the other engine and guidance systems weren't thrown into chaos is incredible. I expected a cascade of over-compensation!
If the software were written by Boeing, it probably would've just exploded from being so confused.
I absolutely love how Scott is giving us an extremely detailed breakdown of the whole situation while sitting in his bathrobe. It just shows how great this community is and how everyone is just listening to him giving us the best information, with his vast knowledge! Keep it going!
5:12 "I think it's highly sexual."
Gotta reuse that line for future space accomplishments.
That goes on a t-shirt for sure
😂😂 I'm literally dead. RIP me 😂😂
Highly sexual = completely Fü(Ked
Rhino horn couldn't get it up, oh my!
Moonraker!
it is in fact very arousing to know nitty gritty stuff about a falling nozzle out of a moon lander
They used Boing employees!
The little lander that could. That image is priceless!
The nozzle floating in the middle of the navigation image got me :D
"yeah this aint supposed to be there"
After a bit of effort I bought a toy version of SORA-Q from Amazon Japan. After shenanigans with setting up an Apple ID in Japan, I downloaded the app....used another app to translate the instructions and.....I get to drive an honest to goodness lunar rover around my carpet. What's life without whimsy?
Scott Manley may get this, but it reminds me of Chorlton & the Wheelies.
With every failure of new-comers to space missions abroad it becomes more obvious how special the first manned lunar missions were.
i mean, it took the USSR and the USA also quite a while to land softly on the Moon and not just Lithobrake
And not forget the Bonus that Humans still more flexible than Robots
As always this was clear, interesting and very informative. The shot showing the falling nozzle was amazing.
The lander knows where it is at all times.
It knows where it is by knowing where it isnt
...It knows this because it knows where it isn't
it knows this because it is highly sexual
Those pictures are amazing. And successfully landing even after one of your engines asplode is remarkable. I do feel like they should take a hard look at those ceramic nozzles, though...
I am a bit desapointed they don't show the little Kerbonaute and his flag.
Yes, or at least a Pikachu! ;D@@Hope_Boat
You can buy the small robot that took the picture (not the moon version).
Goolge SORA-Q.
Well done Manly. The way you kept your composure during the translation error was truly masterful.
Hats off to Japan for getting as far as they did. The nav software sounds robust and well executed for it to save SLIM from total failure.
On a side note, Scott, if you actually make it this far into the comments - I've been watching your coverage of this landing, and just at the end of this one was the first time I realized that the intended final orientation for the lander was on its side. You probably said as much in another video, but I must have missed it?
He did say it in his first video, but it's definitely possible to miss because it's such a weird way to land
Scott, you didn't give yourself enough credit. You nailed it with your last video on this spacecraft! You said it landed upside down, and when I saw this photo last night I jumped up and yelled 'Scott Manley nailed it! it really did land upside down!' And now we know why. Another reason you are my favorite space you tuber, keep up the great videos!
The spacecraft was supposed to land, nozzles down and then tip over 90 degrees such that its solar panels were facing up. Instead, it looks like it ended up tipping over (rolling) 180 degrees ending up with its solar panels facing outward at 90 degrees to the surface of the moon.
It did not land upside down.
@@ArnaudMEURET Who knows how "it landed". The end result of it coming to rest upside down (if one identifies the bottom of the spacecraft being where the thrusters are) is clearly shown in the photo of it on the Moon's surface, however, with the thrusters sticking straight up. The spacecraft was designed to come to rest on "its side" with the solar panels facing up, wasn't it?
Same thing with his Starship analysis. He pinpointed the LOX leak as having something to do with the failure of the second stage just one day after the flight (we now know it's a purposeful vent, but he was largely spot on)
Erm, the telemetry showed it ended up upside down. All you had to do was look at it and believe it.
Nailed it
nice job staying with the "highly sexual" theme! :)
@@jeffmartin-g8r😂
I think you're right to think that the fuel/oxidiser ratio may have contributed to the nozzle failure. If the same thing happened in an internal combustion engine, i.e. too much air and not enough fuel, then the lean mixture would burn hot and possibly result in a burnt valve or holed piston.
Smear some RTV silicone around the air intake boots next time and it'll be fine..
"internal combustion engine, i.e. too much air and not enough fuel, then the lean mixture would burn hot"
...well...actually.. :-)
Slightly rich is greatest power output and highest temperature.
Highest NOX emissions as well, but rich also helps lower NOX emission by catalytic converter if fitted.
Lean is lower temp and greatest efficiency with lower NOX but increases detonation vs uniform combustion. Running rough and knock should be avoided unless you urgently need every bit of fuel efficiency and don't care about engine life. The components can handle the temperatures but not the detonation.
The range between rich and lean in IC engine operation is more like between rich and progressively less rich, the step into truly lean is steep.
IC or rocket engine, actual fuel lean is generally bad for engine life.
Thank you scott, once again a wonderfully concise video packed with information.
Love your content Scott, thanks for all your hard work
Just got kerbaled
Average safe and successful landing in KSP
moment I saw the photo this morning I thought instantly of a KSP style landing.
@@albr4 moment I saw the photo this morning I looked closer to find the Kerbonaute and his flag.
Yet again, another great assessment here Scott. Thanks
Ya know what I see? An intact vehicle on the lunar surface! It might have gone a little wonky but I still count it as a win
First as a KSP player my question is why don't they try to use the RCS thrusters to at least point the solar panel straight up? Secondly kudos to the autopilot that managed to land the whole thing in one peace even after the loss of the engine, which brings me to my third point they really must redesign those bloody engines!
Real spacecraft don’t have magic reaction wheels and kilonewton level RCS thrusters, the RCS on SLIM is probably tens or maybe a couple of hundred Newtons each. It likely has insufficient thrust to make a difference, and insufficient fuel to try.
If i had to guess, and I'm guessing, maybe they don't want to risk damaging something else, or they're low on rcs fuel after using more than expected on the way down? Also rcs is pretty weak
@@jimmymcgoochie5363More likely, they don't want to risk doing more damage to the spacecraft and/or they can't restart the RCS system.
If it was powerful enough to oppose the asymmetric thrust of one main engine almost off and the other likely firing at full power to compensate, then it would definitely have enough power to at least make it fall to one side instead of sitting almost upside down.
Rather than go all “IRL it really works this way” I’ll just ask if you’ve played RSS (real solar system) mod -the bodies in the Kerbol system are much less massive than IRL solar system, something like 1/3 IIRC. So how many of your KSP craft could do a bunny hop with half thrust or bare RCS if gravity was 3x ? That’s without Realism Overhaul mod and more modest ISP for all engines and lower reliability of RCS
What qdaniele97 said.
I love that translation, I saw it just before you mentioned it and I was also cracking up.
I game with a bunch of Japanese players... That translation might just be accurate!
This is so impressive, and more Kerbal than most Kerbal Landings. Full Props to them for absolutely nailing a landing after losing one engine. Thats incredible
Please keep us informed more about this mission🙏
Congratulations to Japan and JAX. Well done, well done.
I say that picture of a real life "Mun or Bust!" rocket makes this project already well-worth the money and a huge success.
I think it's incredible they even have any telemetry given they lost an engine. It's enough damage and enough of a bad landing that we all would've reloaded a save on KSP, but they've salvaged the situation and have some functional hardware on the Moon. Which is not something every space agency can say. Definitely a win for JAXA.
I want to see the unit tests for that guidance software. Nice job Jaxa!
Great video, very impressive and successful mission, artful photography, first class translation error. I give this series of events a 10/10.
Only halfway through the video, the computer software on this craft is incredible! Especially when comparing it to other spacecraft that failed from relatively small software issues
nicely explained, many thanks.
As others have partially noted, that entertaining bullet on page 14 ACTUALLY reads: "Based on the above, the project [team] believes that there is a high possibility that some external factor other than the main engine itself affected the minus-X side main engine."
Congrats on Japan making a successful landing on the Moons. Despite being Kerbal, still Kounts.
Computers are very cool, and this (the spacecraft landing even with a catastrophic failure of a vital component) is why good software is so important and so powerful.
Its great that the little rover was able to take a picture confirming what happened to the spacecraft.📸
Even before the report I had my suspicions that the failure was highly sexual. Good to see that confirmed, hope they figure out a solution in the future
The latest is that they have reestablished communication with the lander.
One of my thoughts was whether they could use the RCS thrusters to help right the craft but I realized they are probably too weak to do much as they are meant to adjust the craft while it is in space.
thank you for the informative and enjoyable video!
I knew those Apollo 17 backdrops would come in handy
It wasn't mentioned explicitly in the video but the report says:
"The cause of [the loss of the -X engine nozzle] is currently under investigation and will be announced once the details are known."
Since it was the X (rated) nozzle, perhaps that why the translation used the term s3xual
Turns out that an employee hired from Boing Corp left off four bolts. Damn,,, not again!
Tremendously impressed / relieved to see a photo of the lander from one of Japan's rovers this morning. I want to be from a country that lands on the Moon!
Like India?
@@aliskiron4778 I'm not sure I can be "from India" even if I applied. But yes, "like India" - in as much as doing the kind of stuff that results in a moon landing.
If your country is part of Project Artemis, it's definitely possible in the future!
Sorry guys but What we just watched ''the landing'' is just a module landing simulator. Nothing more, n less.
Put simply they could encounter earlier landing's itself moment problems and just coverup the rest.
I meant considering all the evidences shared so far with us by Jaxa and the sample of AI they used with this posting.
Saying that the ''simulator'' is the proof of SLIM soft-landing on moon surface is rubbish.
Where is your dignity Jaxa? Please show some respect to us Jaxa when posting.
But yet rightness is to wait for escalation of matter and see what other proofs Jaxa has to us in time because we are not it's sponsors.
Summarising Jaxa,
thanks for your trash disposed on the moon.
and
''Break a leg Jaxa, I'm sure your performance will be great'', and without deceiving people.
CB.
29/01/2024
Great investigation, Scott!
Thanks for the update. It looks like they have identified their weak link which is always useful in developing your next craft. Hope to see more from Japan space exploration in the future
The next Japanese mission to Moon is likely to be LUPEX, joint mission with India providing the lander and Japan providing the rocket and rover capable of drilling upto 1.5 meters deep into Southern Polar Region's regolith.
Very happy for our friend Japan. Congratulations and respect from India 🎉🎉
For those less nerdy types, the importance of too rich in oxygen is a matter of increased combustion temperature. Cutting torches are made to be oxygen rich and the effect is the same for nozzles and nozzle throats.
You were absolutely correct that it was upside-down 😊
Thank you, Scott! Another very entertaining and informative session! No doubt: You sure are among the 3 foremost space commentators ( or...2 or...1???;-))
Love your deep analytical/investigative videos 👏
I'm just glad we have more countries and companies looking towards the moon. Last year we had Russia, India, already this month we had Japan and 2 US companies, and soon we'll have Artemis and the Chinese manned mission too!
They'll all fail, yet people will continue to insist that boomers played golf on the moon over half a century ago 😂
@@MattyEngland NASA succeeded with manned moon landings because they had the backing of the entire nation and were given an actually reasonable budget in the 60s but that all went away right when they realized that the commies wouldn't be able to catch up. With the same amount of money the US is sending to Ukraine and Israel nowadays, NASA could have a budget *10 times* what it currently has.
@@MattyEngland 'They'll all fail' - India has landed, Japan has landed (though not quite as planned), China (literally returned lunar samples onboard Chang'e 5), NASA have done may missions, RosCosmos also did many missions etc. Not to mention all the orbiters as well.
I meant the future ones, obviously.
@@MattyEngland Could I ask why they would fail?
I'm sure someone else has asked the same question but.... can the reaction control thrusters still be used to reorient the craft?
I think they could, with the low lunar gravity, or at least they could make it fall to one side completely (which would already be a huge improvement for the solar panels).
But it's very likely the RCS system is not designed to be restarted and/or out of fuel.
And even if it was able to be restarted I don't think they will risk doing even more damage to the lander by trying to fire the RCS at ground level if they can still do some science and get some power in the current orientation
Appreciate the response@@qdaniele97. It would be cool to see them try once the mission winds down and all they can collect in science date is complete.
Hi Scott!
Land safe!
It is always great getting in the box!
Real translation: "I think it's f***ed"
That’s the s3xual part.
I've had this problem a dozen times in KSP. I wonder if they could use RCS to roll the craft and expose the panels.
Probably the issue is that that would require fine control and precision, which is difficult given the huge signal latency. So instead they would need to design software to accomplish that automatically, and test and simulate the software before uploading it. I trust that they would do a good job at that though, as they have already proven.
@@R2Bl3nd Before the craft goes dark for good, give the keyboard one last faceroll to see what random rcs bursts can do. I'm tellin ya, it's not my first rodeo.
@@Rich4098 okay, you should be the one to tell them
Thanks Scott! 🙂😎🤓
Scott, thank you for updating the situation with the Japanese lunar lander. Great that we got at least a snapshot of the main lander from the little rovers.
Do you think they could use the side control thrusters to attempt to spin it around or pivot it a little to better align the solar panels towards the sunlight?
It may have vented the remaining props after landing
This may be attempted if power is regained. After unusual orientation on landing, focus was prioritized to downloading data and securing the lander. Images where not available, and had not been analyzed until haver SLIM went into deep sleep.
Odds of not freezing are on SLIM's side for the next 1-2 weeks, as it's in sunlight, not the cold lunar darkness.
If possible I'd reach out to David of the channel Usagi Electric as Japanese translation of technical documents is his day job. He's a great retro electronics and computer channel
Posted on his discord server.
This is exactly why space research is so fascinating- the weirdest things happen and always at the worst possible time. It is the ultimate puzzle for the ultimate engineer!
Rather than 'oops it fell on its nose', this fine explanation paints the mission as a success; navigation accuracy was excellent, the craft made a pin-point landing MINUS an engine (amazing!), science data was returned, the landers worked and the imagery has been great. Hats off to the engineering and software teams that have built a capable and apparently very fault-tolerant device. Let's hope she wakes up when the sun comes round 👍
Can attitude control thrusters be used on a landed lander? Perhaps there's not enough heft in those things to get it to roll to the correct orientation. Also, lots of regolith will be kicked up, I think it's fair to assume.
Presumably yes, but if the remaining fuel is at the “top” of the tank (that is, the “bottom” in the current orientation) it will not be in contact with the exit piping and thus the engine would only be able to expel the pressurant gas. It might be worth a try anyway.
@@williamhanna4823 yes. worst case is that nothing happens because they don't get enough thrust out of it. Best case would be a (more or less) correctly positioned lander. Seems like a highly advantageous risk/reward ratio.
Is it possible to reorient the Lander using any of the Thrusters, and would the Risk/Reward analysis warrant such a maneuver to the overall success of the mission?
I would love to see them try after exhausting all opportunities to collect data in the current orientation. With the rover watching 😊
No chance. RCS thrusters just don't provide the kind of thrust needed to move something against gravity. For an analogy, you could move a person a little by poking them with a finger, but you're not going to lift them that way.
Thanks I've been wanting to see a photo and know what's going on.
Mr Manley hope you are working on a follow-up with recent developments. No rush your explanations worth a wait.
1:11 The landing cannot be more kerbal than that🤣🤣🤣 Maybe they played a little too much KSP. :D
Can SLIM's RCS thrusters be used to tip over the lander exposing the solar panels?
I was wondering the same thing.
My guess would be, that - being pressure fed - the fuel pipes are now on the wrong side of the tanks, so activating the thrusters would just release the remaining pressurant but no actual fuel/oxidizer. On the other hand, that itself might produce enough thrust to tip over the probe. And since the thrusters aren't needed for anything else anymore, I'd say they should definitely give it a try. The worst that can happen is that nothing happens.
Like the Apollo spacecraft, it has both a "Stable 1" and "Stable 2" landing orientation. This was an amazing result in the face of a failure like this!
Great analysis as always Scott. Silicon nitride is very good for high temperature applications and good abrasion/corrosion resistance as required in a nozzle but its brittleness can be challenging. Having a second ceramic nozzle drop of a Japanese spacecraft maybe more than coincidental.
In retrospective, being a Japanese craft, a tentacle-related incident (a kraken attack unattaching the nozzle) was a kinda probable explanation.
R34 suggesting jokes aside, congratulations to the team of the craft, with special honours to the software & control team(s?), as, and I'm not trying to throw shade at a very difficult task, it's far more common hearing about bad software losing a craft than good software actually saving it. おめでとうございます!
Isn't it possible to push the lander slightly with a rover to put it in the correct position?
Probably it will be very much outside of the rover capability.
@@GiovanniEsposito5 I guess you're right
There was a question like that in the conference. Basically, LEV-1 is a hopper and too many unknown factors on the impact. LEV-2 is too small to do anything meaningful.
The lander's thrusters still have a tiny bit of propellant left and possible to nudge itself. However, it was able to conduct some limited science before the battery goes saving mode. JAXA will likely to keep it in this position and do as much science if/when it wakes up.
@@MistSoalar Thank you for your answer. It would have been cool if that had been possible. However, I also understand that such a maneuver could possibly damage research equipment.
@@MistSoalarImagine the rovers can rock the lander just a little bit. Set the timings of a sequence of bumps right you might just get a resonance....
Great overview. There was success and we will learn from this and fail forward. Well done. Alain Faber
@11:00 Akatski means dawn or morning light (appropriate for Venus, the morning star). Pronunciation tip for Westerners: Japanese (like most east Asian languages) has no stress whatsoever on any syllables. A close approximation for English natives who have a hard time with that is to stress the very first syllable, resulting in the bulk of the word being fairly even.
Kaguya (their other orbiter) is a moon goddess, and a popular girl's name. Rough equivalent of Diana/Selene.