Discussion
I bet they will have a good idea eventually of what went wrong. There will have been a whole heap of telemetry broadcast from the lander as it approached and going through that data might give them a good idea as to what happened. WHY it happened might be more difficult to find out.
The problem is that landing tends to be a very hectic period with all sorts of events crammed together in a fairly critical sequence. If any one of those events does not happen correctly or on time or at all, the result will normally be a hard impact.
The problem is that landing tends to be a very hectic period with all sorts of events crammed together in a fairly critical sequence. If any one of those events does not happen correctly or on time or at all, the result will normally be a hard impact.
Not unusual for these types of engines not to be pre-tested before flight. The Apollo Lunar Module ascent and descent engines were fired for the first and only time during their use on each actual mission.
There was a reason for this. The propellants used were hypergolic and so corrosive that the very act of pushing them through the pipe work, combustion chamber and nozzles meant that those components suffered corrosive damage and could not be used again.
I bet the engines on this Indian lander were of a similar type.
It does not mean such engines weren't tested on earth, it just means that the actual "flight" engines would not have been test fired before the mission.
There was a reason for this. The propellants used were hypergolic and so corrosive that the very act of pushing them through the pipe work, combustion chamber and nozzles meant that those components suffered corrosive damage and could not be used again.
I bet the engines on this Indian lander were of a similar type.
It does not mean such engines weren't tested on earth, it just means that the actual "flight" engines would not have been test fired before the mission.
The Indians have found Vikram on the surface.
Given that they're trying to communicate with it, Vikram didn't smear itself all over the landscape either.
Given that they're trying to communicate with it, Vikram didn't smear itself all over the landscape either.
eharding said:
The Indians have found Vikram on the surface.
Given that they're trying to communicate with it, Vikram didn't smear itself all over the landscape either.
I was reading the last known vertical velocity was in the region of 60m/s hence it's likely it went in pretty hard.Given that they're trying to communicate with it, Vikram didn't smear itself all over the landscape either.
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