Starship Asterisk*

SLIM Lands on the Moon

Explanation: New landers are on the Moon. Nearly two weeks ago, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) released two rovers as it descended, before its main lander touched down itself. The larger of the two rovers can hop like a frog, while the smaller rover is about the size of a baseball and can move after pulling itself apart like a transformer. The main lander, nicknamed Moon Sniper, is seen in the featured image taken by the smaller rover. Inspection of the image shows that Moon Sniper's thrusters are facing up, meaning that the lander is upside down from its descent configuration and on its side from its intended landing configuration. One result is that Moon Sniper's solar panels are not in the expected orientation, so that powering the lander had to be curtailed and adapted. SLIM's lander has already succeeded as a technology demonstration, its main mission, but was not designed to withstand the lunar night -- which starts tomorrow.

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The blurb seems a little out of date! AS of yesterday, 29th Jan, Japan regained contact with SNIPER:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/29/asia ... index.html

John

Does anyone know about the first missiles that were launched at the Moon and did not hit the target, is the direction they took known and where they would be heading depending on the position of the Moon at that time?

Maybe the small rover should go and bump into Moon Sniper (a nudge, not a destructive bang/collision) so that it stands on it's feet (thrusters touching ground) normal ? Worth experimenting instead of letting it lay there in "vegetable state".. just wondering..

It can't be both on its side and upside down. If it's upside down, then it's on its back. Elsewhere I've seen it described as being on its nose. Which is it?

ptahhotep wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 7:05 pm It can't be both on its side and upside down. If it's upside down, then it's on its back. Elsewhere I've seen it described as being on its nose. Which is it?

It's between being upside down and on it's side (with the thrusters directed horizontally). On it's side is the position it was designed to be in.

For lack of a sorely needed consolidated SPEC sheet, I cobbled together this from https://www.jaxa.jp/projects/files/yout ... ment03.pdf and https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/slim/SLIM/index.html

And I used a free online pdf translation tool (https://www.onlinedoctranslator.com) to translate the first PDF.


Note the 1000x mass difference between the main lander and the larger rover (LEV-1), and the 10000x mass difference between the main lander and the smaller rover (LEV-2), and the intended horizontal direction of the thrusters upon a successful landing of the main lander on the right. That's the main reason they can't use one of the rovers to slam into the main lander and fix its orientation. The other is they were not designed for that!

Sa Ji Tario wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 1:44 pm Does anyone know about the first missiles that were launched at the Moon and did not hit the target, is the direction they took known and where they would be heading depending on the position of the Moon at that time?

"Missiles"?

shaileshs wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 3:53 pm Maybe the small rover should go and bump into Moon Sniper (a nudge, not a destructive bang/collision) so that it stands on it's feet (thrusters touching ground) normal ? Worth experimenting instead of letting it lay there in "vegetable state".. just wondering..

There's a 1000x mass difference between the larger rover and the lander, and it wasn't designed either to travel fast enough to impart enough momentum or to engage in collisions.

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 9:58 am The blurb seems a little out of date! AS of yesterday, 29th Jan, Japan regained contact with SNIPER:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/29/asia ... index.html

John

It is back! See the New Scientist report https://www.newscientist.com/article/24 ... _Launchpad

That includes a picture of the probe, on its side, as opposed to the first pic that showed it upside down. Have the controllers in Japan used side thrusters to turn it? OR, is the second pic AI/Photoshopped?
John

JohnD wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 2:10 pm

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 9:58 am The blurb seems a little out of date! AS of yesterday, 29th Jan, Japan regained contact with SNIPER:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/29/asia ... index.html

John

It is back! See the New Scientist report https://www.newscientist.com/article/24 ... _Launchpad

That includes a picture of the probe, on its side, as opposed to the first pic that showed it upside down. Have the controllers in Japan used side thrusters to turn it?
Slim Moon first pic.jpg

SLIM MOON 2nd pic.png

OR, is the second pic AI/Photoshopped?
John

That's an artist's rendering according to the caption on it that you can see here: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/busi ... t/3316748/