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Moon Exploration: Unmanned Missions

Lord Lucan said:
I had a squiggle done by him when I was 5. It was a hippo with a daisy in it's mouth. Also met the original Miss Pat (Pat Lovell - producer of Picnic at Hanging Rock).
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It was Miss Jane in my day....
 
RaM said:
hope he has a ground floor room
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No worries - just here.
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RaM said:
One of the leading scientists on the Russian moon prob as been admitted to hospital, hope he has a ground floor room
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Do you have a link for that? I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere. Thanks.
 
Ascalon said:
Indeed, it is a roaring success and all the plaudits are fully deserved.

Well done India!

In other news...
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1694341770883022950
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Oh dear, did the Russian astronomer stray too close to a high window (or drink some dodgy tea)?
What a contrast between the rapidly developing superpower of India and Putin's vile pariah state swirling around the plughole.

If the Indian spacecraft detects big reserves of frozen water at the Moon's south pole, that would be a huge boost for establishing a Moon base, so I expect Musk and Bezos are following the results very closely.
 
Much applause and congratulations to the British-funded Indian space industry!
 
The UK has sent about £2.3bn of 'aid' to India since 2016 (more in fact as these figures only go up to 2021).
link to independent report

"The Chandrayaan-3 cost was sent to the Moon at a cost of about 6.15 billion rupees, or $75 million, according to Reuters. That is less than the cost of most blockbuster space films."
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/chandrayaan-3-budget-moon-landing-interstellar-b2398483.html

So the amount of 'aid' sent from the UK could actually cover the cost of something like 30+ Indian moon missions.

Not that we can link the 'aid' to the moon mission. I'm sure the 'aid' money was spent on deserving projects, and the government used entirely their own tax payers money for the moon mission.
 
Trevp666 said:
The UK has sent about £2.3bn of 'aid' to India since 2016 (more in fact as these figures only go up to 2021).
link to independent report

"The Chandrayaan-3 cost was sent to the Moon at a cost of about 6.15 billion rupees, or $75 million, according to Reuters. That is less than the cost of most blockbuster space films."
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/chandrayaan-3-budget-moon-landing-interstellar-b2398483.html

So the amount of 'aid' sent from the UK could actually cover the cost of something like 30+ Indian moon missions.

Not that we can link the 'aid' to the moon mission. I'm sure the 'aid' money was spent on deserving projects, and the government used entirely their own tax payers money for the moon mission.
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OK, so no evidence at all then.
 
Trevp666 said:
Not that we can link the 'aid' to the moon mission.
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So, no - there is no proof that the moon mission was British-funded. Unless there were strings attached, or the aid was ring-fenced for other uses; like taxes, it all goes into the nations treasury, and any funding for public projects comes from that.
 
I wonder if they would have gone ahead with their moon mission had they not received any aid over the years?
 
Sillyhuron said:
Using that logic, can the US say they're responsible for Britian's post WW2 aerospace industry because of Lend Lease?
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Pretty much yeah I would say.
A shame we don't really have an aerospace industry left any more apart from a few small companies and some larger corporations which only manage to work by joining up with even larger companies.
 
The first commercial mission to the moon has run into problems.

Peregrine lander: Technical hitch threatens US Moon mission
Published
1 hour ago

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Media caption,
Watch: Vulcan rocket sends Moon mission on its way

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
The private US Moon mission launched on Monday has run into technical problems.

The Astrobotic company behind the project says its Peregrine spacecraft has experienced an "anomaly" that has stopped it from pointing its solar panels stably at the Sun.

Without the ability to charge its battery, the mission's plan to land on the Moon is in danger.

Astrobotic said engineers were working on the issue and would provide updates when it had more information.

The 1.2-tonne lander was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Vulcan rocket.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67915696
 
Listening about this on the radio this morning.
There seems to have been a problem with the propulsion system.
I wonder if their work is insured? Will NASA get their money back or will they hear the big business version of "Sorry, guv. It was working when it left the garage. You must've done somethin' to it when you drove away."
 
Slight update here from BBC News...

Peregrine lander: Time running out for US Moon mission​

The American company that launched a mission on Monday to try to soft-land on the Moon says it may not be able to control its spacecraft for much longer.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is fighting a fuel leak from its Peregrine lander, which is making it hard to maintain stable pointing of the spacecraft.
Mission life could now be measured in just hours, the firm said.
Certainly, a touch-down on the lunar surface - the first for the US in half a century - is no longer possible.
"At this time the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its Sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power," a statement from Astrobotic read.

Sad and unfortunate.

Space stuff is hard.
 
There was a great programme on the Hubble on BBC Four last night. That went up broken and had to be fixed in space.
 
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