cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/15122127
Context: https://spacenews.com/im-1-lunar-lander-tipped-over-on-its-side/
Joking aside, it’s still pretty impressive. Landing on the moon is not easy. They landed softly, and the payloads are healthy, so overall I’d consider it a win.
Not precisely defense, and perhaps a bit too credible, but I thought some folks here might enjoy this. Feel free to remove if it doesn’t fit the community. Cheers!
It’s the money. Just at a surface level, if you compare the rockets that launched these missions (falcon 9, H-IIA, LVM3, Soyuz), theres just a lot less mass being sent to the moon with these landers, which means less margin for error. Apollo 11 was also predated by 10 test launches, including a full on dress rehearsal where they intentionally did the whole mission except the last 15 km of descent. Apollo also allowed itself to rely on human pilots to deal with the difficult problem of flying and landing a craft unlike any other in an environment unlike any other, which these machines have to do autonomously
Good point, I didn’t know about the dress rehearsals! Fascinating stuff.