Posted on 07/14/2023 11:31:18 AM PDT by libh8er
NEW DELHI: Just days before the Chandrayaan-3 launch, Isro chairman S Somanath has given three main reasons that led to the crashlanding of the Vikram lander on September 6, 2019 just minutes before the touchdown. The Isro chief said the “five engines of the lander generating higher thrust, limitation of the software to detect errors and the small landing site” were the three primary causes for the crashlanding of the lander. “In a nutshell, we can say the (our) ability to handle parameter variation or dispersion was very limited,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the India Space Congress, being organised by SIA India in Delhi, on Monday, Somanath said, “This time we have loaded the lander with more fuel, provided a slew of safety measures and kept a bigger landing site to ensure a successful landing. This time we have a very clear image of the landing site as the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter’s camera (OHRC) has provided us with high-resolution images of the entire Moon. Unlike last time when we were dependent on lander images to see the landing site, this time we know the site well in advance as all boulders and craters have already been mapped,” he said.
The Isro chairman said, “The primary issues were: One, we had five engines which were used to reduce the velocity (called retardation). These engines developed higher thrust. When such a higher thrust was happening, the errors on account of this differential were accumulated over some period. All the errors accumulated, which was slightly higher than what we expected. When it (lander) started to turn very fast, its ability to turn was limited by the software because we never expected such high rates to come. This was the second issue. The third reason for failure was the small site of 500m x 500m for landing of the lander.”
Rectifying those mistakes this time, the Isro chairman said, “This time we have kept an area of 4.2 km (along the track) x 2.5 km (width) for the landing site. So, it can land anywhere, so it doesn’t limit you to target a specific point.” Isro has chosen a site near the south pole for the landing operation, where hardly any country has ventured till now.
Somanath said “instead of a success-based design, Isro has this time opted for a failure-based design” and focused on what all can fail and how to protect it and ensure a successful landing. “We looked at sensor failure, engine failure, algorithm failure, calculation failure. So, there are different failure scenarios calculated and programmed inside. We did new test beds for simulation, which was not there last time. This was to look at various failure scenarios,” he explained. The Isro chief said the Vikram now has additional solar panels on other surfaces to ensure that it generates power no matter how it lands.
Flew too close to the Nazi moon base and got shot down.
I guess they did not steal the correct code.
With certain types of landings, power sources are not an issue.
Speed too fast, brakes failed....................
American engineers prefer the term "Fail-safe design".
In a couple of years Indian citizens will be running almost all of our major computer systems, because of the H1B program. So there is that.
Ah, the India-based Chinese Fire Drill...
They didn’t hire Stanley Kubrick to document it
Indians write a lot of code, often its crap. End of story.
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