Congratulations @isro and all of India! You are there, safely and proudly on the Moon! pic.twitter.com/w3YCcVVDAj
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) August 23, 2023
BREAKING NEWS: India has successfully landed a spacecraft near the moon's south pole, becoming the fourth country to touch down on the lunar surface. https://t.co/lGLbGnbFpr
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 23, 2023
A brief happy detour from the Predictable Topic. Per Reuters:
An Indian spacecraft became the first to land on the rugged, unexplored south pole of the moon on Wednesday in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India’s standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed.
“This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal. This is a victory cry of a new India,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who waved the Indian flag as he watched the landing from South Africa where he is attending a BRICS summit, a group that joins Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Scientists and officials clapped, cheered and hugged each other as the spacecraft landed and people across India broke out in celebration, setting off firecrackers and dancing in the streets.
“India is on the moon,” said S. Somanath, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as the Chandrayaan-3 landed, making India the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon after the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.
ISRO shared pictures from the spacecraft showing the moon’s surface and the leg and shadow of the lander.
Rough terrain makes a south pole landing difficult, but the region’s ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions…
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated the ISRO on the landing.
“And congratulations to India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”…
Chandrayaan means “moon vehicle” in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed.
The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface…
Cheapest moon mission (The World Ranking):
1. Chandrayaan 3 – 615cr.
2. Luna – 1,650cr.
3. Chang'e – 2,476cr.
4. Apollo – 17,249cr.– ISRO has created history which will be remembered forever…!! 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/Ya9AUbUOq4
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 23, 2023
Baud
👍🇮🇳🌛
BigJimSlade
Very nice!
But we have a dilemma… how do we update the Gil Scott-Heron song?
For those not in the know – the key couplet is:
A rat done bit my sister Nell
And whitey’s on the moon.
narya
It is approximately 800 degrees in my living room. Okay, it’s really only 92.5, and it’s not a dry heat. At least this is only supposed to be a two-day heat event.
Gin & Tonic
@narya: Providence has not hit 90 at all this summer, and the prospects of doing so before mid-September are slim.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
So now we know who stole the planet’s good weather.
narya
@Gin & Tonic: Honestly, I’m only a little complainy about it. When I moved into this condo, I donated the window ACs that came with it–there’s one window in the bedroom, and I didn’t want to fill it with an AC that, realistically, I’d probably only need a handful of nights per year, and I hate what AC does to my electric bill. I have good fans, and I resign myself to a few nights each summer that are gonna be sweat-soaked and possibly sleepless. I will admit that I did not walk or run outside today.
Jinchi
Congratulations to India for landing on the moon, and I hope for many more…
But one of these things is not like the others.
SpaceUnit
I’ve always been interested NASA and the space program, but lately I’ve been having a change of heart. I wish they’d just leave the moon alone. I want to look up to the sky and forever see a place of stark exquisite beauty, of peace and perfect solitude.
It’s going to ruin it knowing there’s some billionaire fuckboi up there pulling his pud in a private moon mansion. We’ve got plenty of problems to solve down here
There, I said it.
TriassicSands
First, my least sincere imaginable condolences to Vlad “The Destroyer” Putin for his country’s recent moon landing failure. It couldn’t happen to a worse country or a more murderous leader.
Second, extremely limited acknowledgment to India and its Hindu-fascist regime. The world has enough religious strive, exporting it to the moon (in the form of self-congratulatory propaganda) would be a bad idea. However, congratulations go to the Indian scientists, who, I assume are dedicated to science and not religion or fascism. It would be a great thing if Indian democracy can outlive Modi. (And the Trumpublican Party in the U.S.)
Baud
@TriassicSands:
Turns out it wasn’t failure so much as Putin thought Prigozhin was on the spacecraft.
dmsilev
@Jinchi: One was faked by Stanley Kubrick?
TriassicSands
@narya:
My condolences. Heat sucks and humid heat is much worse. If you have a bathtub, I hear the humidity in a cold bath is quite tolerable. Even a cold shower can help.
Matt McIrvin
@Jinchi: The American equivalent of these would be Surveyor, the uncrewed landing program that immediately preceded the Apollo landings. I’m not sure how much that cost.
NotMax
A
tacocurry truckonin everycornercrater.;)
Jinchi
@SpaceUnit:
Booooo…. /s
Eunicecycle
@Jinchi: I noticed that, too. Apollo with human beings shouldn’t be compared to unmanned missions.
SpaceUnit
@Jinchi:
I know.
I’m just sort of negative about humanity right now. As a species we ruin everything we touch.
Jinchi
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s what I was thinking, and I’m sure the Indian mission still gets the win as the cheapest of the bunch. I just thought it was weird they’d compare a single successful unmanned landing to Apollo.
Subsole
@narya:
@Gin & Tonic:
*Stares, stone-faced, as we slide into day 54 of 105+ degree temps
Subsole
@SpaceUnit:
Why do you think we’re trying to memewash the idiots into settling Mars instead?
Anoniminous
Nevermind. Brain fart
Baud
@Jinchi:
You’re surprised that people on the Internet exaggerate in misleading ways?
SpaceUnit
@Subsole:
Yeah. I’d be happy to see Musk fly his worthless ass to Mars and never come back. And I don’t typically sit on my porch at night looking up at Mars.
BethanyAnne
Congrats, India!
Jinchi
@SpaceUnit: I get ya.
Personally, I think our record is mixed and my view is that we’ve been at our best when we reach for the stars.
But I also don’t want to see Elon sipping champagne on Mars. Especially since he’d undoubtedly claim it and rename it “Planet X”.
prostratedragon
How about Sun Ra? “Walking on the Moon”. Congratulations to the team!
TriassicSands
@Baud:
That is almost believable. Putin will stop at nothing to erase opponents. He’s such a murderous POS that they could prove beyond any doubt that Prigozhin’s plane crash was caused by something other than Putin and Putin would still be seen as the probable cause. He’s earned his reputation. And, I suspect, he’s very proud of it.
On the other hand, Prigozhin is such a great guy that it wouldn’t be that hard to believe that he listed himself on the plane and destroyed it himself in an attempt to convince Putin that he, Putin, didn’t have to worry about him, Prigozhin, anymore. After all, for people like Putin and Prigozhin there probably isn’t any limit to how many people they will sacrifice to save themselves or improve their lot.
It’s amazing how horrible people breed conspiracy theories and people’s unwillingness to believe actual facts.
From the NYT (I read that after writing the above comment):
Sure Lurkalot
I think it would be the bees knees to have worked on such an endeavor and be in the room to see it all come to fruition. Congrats, scientists of India and staff!
TriassicSands
@Baud:
I’m shocked. SHOCKED I SAY! People exaggerate on the Internet?
UNPOSSIBLE!!!! That could never happen in 13.8 billion years.
Math Guy
Congrats to the Indian Scientists and Engineers. Well done.
Broke a heat record in the twin cities today. Sigh.
Anoniminous
@SpaceUnit:
In the light of current knowledge we can confidently say after a multi-year voyage in space Musk would land on Mars with a number of rare, novel, and interesting cancers from exposure to various cosmic rays.
SpaceUnit
@Jinchi:
Fine. Venus then.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: It’s 94 in Chicagoland at 6:13 pm.
Jay
@TriassicSands:
https://nitter.net/Stanovaya/status/1694454748093485425#m
https://nitter.net/VitalyBBC/status/1694441766018007245#m
TriassicSands
Problems on Earth? Name one that is more important than “some billionaire fuckboi up there [on the moon] being able to pull his pud in a private moon mansion.”
How about a little perspective.
I mean: A billionaire’s personal desires versus a livable environment on Earth? No contest.
SpaceUnit
@Anoniminous:
Yup. A trip to Mars isn’t going to be some Disneyland joyride.
SpaceUnit
@TriassicSands:
At least we ought to finish screwing up the Earth first. I mean we’re almost there.
TriassicSands
@Jinchi:
Personally, I love the idea of Elon sipping champagne on Mars. The sooner the better. As SpaceUnit points out, I’d greatly prefer he did his champagne sipping on Venus, but apart from the regret I would feel about the pollution of Mars (or Venus), having Elon tens of millions of miles away sounds like a damn good idea.
oldster
@TriassicSands:
Did Putin succeed in killing Prigozhin on the plane? Did Prigozhin fake his own death? We are unlikely to get decisive proof, tho I lean towards the first.
But here is one thing I’m confident of: this was not the sort of event that will make Xi Jin Ping or Modi or other world leaders think to themselves, “Yes, Putin’s Russia is a very stable place where we can do business, and a country with which we would like to increase our diplomatic ties.”
On the contrary — no matter who killed who in that jet, this looks like an ugly, dysfunctional, lawless country. Because it is one.
So, it’s a black eye for Putin’s Russia. And that is good news.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We almost beat out the calendar. Cooler after Friday, hopefully.
Delk
@Dorothy A. Winsor: supposed to hit 103 tomorrow.
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m a half a block from the lake, and it is not, in fact, much cooler. Oh well. It usually is cooler, so I’m not gonna whine. I remember one summer in Hyde Park that was just miserable; a friend and I would pour a bottle of rose into a Tupperware quart bottle, tie a rope around it, and dangle it in the lake to keep it cool while we sat on the rocks near the Point.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@SpaceUnit: There’s little better than sitting on a porch gazing the stars and planets.
Jay
@oldster:
https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4QBS48asAE4FUw.jpg
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Indictment Day has made twitter more fun than it’s been in a while
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Elon will fix that.
SpaceUnit
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I agree. It’s awesome.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: No more fun of any kind!
jackmac
I had a flashback to days of my long-ago youth when spaceflight was new and feats like the the various U.S. manned spaceflights — starting with John Glenn’s orbits and topped by the Apollo moon landing — stirred excitement.
So I got a bit fired up following this morning’s moon landing and watching the reactions and delight on the other side of the world.
Congratulations to India, especially the scientists and engineers who pulled off this feat. Take a well-deserved bow.
Marc
When I worked at Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley during the late 80s, we had weekly poker parties with pretty much all of the black, Indian, and Bangladeshi engineers working there at the time. We could easily fit in a small apartment. More than one of the Indians related to me that they had thought of themselves as “white” until they got to the US, where they were quickly disabused of that notion.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You can have fun for an $8 monthly fee.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@SpaceUnit: He would undoubtedly paint a big black X on Mars if he ever wound up there anyway.
eversor
@SpaceUnit:
I say we shoot said billionaires into the sun! For research! We can fund it by pay perviewing and streaming them getting fried into charcoal. If these assholes want to go to Mars and Venus I say we fire them there, at high veloicty!
SpaceUnit
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Yeah, but he’d be out of our hair once and for all. In a couple of centuries we can send someone to collect his desiccated corpse.
oldster
@Jay:
Daria Dugina — chances are that she was killed by Kyril Budanov’s people, right? Until the US told them to cool it with that kind of thing?
Do you think there’s any chance that Budanov et co. were behind the downing of this jet?
Or do they just have in common their current dwellings in hell?
TriassicSands
@oldster:
I agree. Mostly. And I hope you are right.
But for some world leaders (like a certain home grown fascist currently running for U.S. president and from the law) all life is transactional. Leaders (and toadies) frequently underestimate what they can get away with. “Oh, we’ll cut ties before things get really bad.”
Famous last words?
Look at Biden. He thought he could run an international crime ring with his son Hunter. But now the super sleuths in the GOP, led by that incomparable genius, Kevin McCarthy, are hot on his trail. Sooner or later we’ll get the “airtight” impeachment case constructed out of whole cloth that proves beyond any doubt whatsoever that the Republicans are brain dead assholes. And that won’t register at all with most Republican voters.
The lesson? Who the hell knows!
SpaceUnit
@eversor:
I was going to say something about inventing a rocket engine that burns money but then I realized Musk already accomplished that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this, apparently, is real…?
Watch Giuliani Walk Into ‘2nd Chance Bail Bonds’ in Georgia
No word on if he’ll be holding a press conference there, but Many People Are Saying that he offered to do ads for them in return for a better rate
Roger Moore
@SpaceUnit:
For all his enthusiasm about space, Musk shows little interest in flying on his own rockets. I think he knows about the danger level and is more than happy to let other people pay for the privilege of risking their lives.
Sure Lurkalot
Damn, I was just getting used to being a pedophile and now I’m a savage animal.
kalakal
I think Musk should the commander of the B ark
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Well, if I recall correctly, Heinlein’s Delos D. Harriman never actually got into space until the very end of his life, when some randos with an atomic rocket they used for state fair joyrides took him to the Moon and he died there. So if that’s the model…
SpaceUnit
@Roger Moore:
Sounds about right.
oldster
Question about the landing of Chandrayaan:
I saw a clip of its landing, and the lander itself looked… like a SpongeBob animation?
Like, very fake, as though what I was watching was not actual footage, but a visual representation intended to show the landing.
Which also made me wonder: if it is real footage, what is filming it, and from where? Do they have a second probe, maybe in orbit, that is steady enough to provide that footage?
Did it look weird to anyone else? And is there an answer as to what other device is filming it?
I’m not saying I doubt the landing, but I did wonder whether we were seeing something other than real footage, like maybe just a graphical representation of the landing as reconstructed by telemetry?
BigJimSlade
@Marc: I guess they could’ve tried the Indo-Aryan card, if applicable… but probably wouldn’t get too much mileage out of it. American prejudices can be pretty basic – “I can see you’re different. I’ve gotcha all labelled and categorized up. No discussion necessary, or desired.”
Roger Moore
@oldster:
I’m pretty sure the video you saw was an animation, which explains how they can get video from outside the spacecraft.
Jay
@oldster:
Daria wasn’t the target, her Dad was. He had created an extremely viral version of Russian and Pan-Slavic nationalism, that had started to attack Putin from the right and was popular in the PMC’s and Russian Military. The FSB story, where a heroic single Ukrainian mother commits the crime in company with her young child, then evades the entire Ruzzian Security State, by driving a red Lada all the way to Estonia?
Really?
Aleksandr Dugin had many more enemies inside Ruzzia than out.
Budanov had coyly announced there would be “big news” from the SVU on Ukrainian Flag Day, but I think it was the Op to get a Ruzzian Pilot to defect with his helo, and the successful extraction of his family before hand, a 6 month operation.
Footage of the wreckage shows the typical shrapnel damage across many surfaces from a SAM strike, along with witnesses claiming two explosions.
As we all know, Ruzzian Air Defenses are crap against most enemy military aircraft and drones, but highly effective against commercial passenger aircraft.
Yup. Wagner is making revenge noises, and both Ruzzia and BeloRuzzia are taking various security actions against Wagner.
Ken
@Jinchi: We could have done it a lot cheaper except Kennedy insisted on “and return him safely to Earth”.
Ken
I suppose it’s too late to try to direct them to counter-Earth?
oldster
@Jay:
On any other day, the defection of that copter pilot — complete with working Mi-8 and possibly a cargo full of spare parts — would have been big news, and a real coup for Ukraine. I agree that is probably what Budanov referred to.
YY_Sima Qian
A great accomplishment!
Matt McIrvin
@oldster: ISRO had a fairly low-res computer animation that they used to show the position of the spacecraft. The TV networks used to do this with models on sticks back in the Apollo days.
oldster
@Matt McIrvin:
That must be what I saw. And, fair enough. As you say, it’s what we used to do in the old days, too.
Matt McIrvin
@oldster: With these missions, especially the robotic ones, there’s often the problem that when you’re reporting in real time there’s nothing to see for long stretches. So any visual aid helps.
One of my heroes when I was starting out in computer graphics was James Blinn, who made JPL’s animations describing the Voyager 1 and 2 missions. They were absolutely groundbreaking for the time though now they look a bit quaint.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
William Safire wrote a very moving speech for Nixon to give if the astronauts were trapped on the moon. It also includes plans in addition to the speech, including phoning the “widows-to-be” before the speech and details of the funeral services to be given after NASA shut off communications.
Anne Laurie
Noted British writer Peter Dickinson wrote a fantasy/mystery related to this, back in 1973 — The Green Gene. I should dig out my copy and look at it again…
gene108
@TriassicSands:
Indian democracy survived Indira Gandhi’s Emergency declaration. Modi hasn’t tried anything close to it.
The BJP has lost some local and state elections recently.
gene108
@oldster:
Both the failed Chandrayaan-2 and successful Chandrayaan-3 missions have an orbiter and landing craft sent together. The orbiters have cameras.
bjacques
“Brahmin on the Moon”?
Seriously, though. Well done!
VOR
Congratulations to the Indian space program on a job well done. They should feel proud of their accomplishment.