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Are we worse at Moon landings than 50 years ago?
BBC ^

Posted on 02/04/2024 3:29:14 PM PST by nickcarraway

Japan's Moon lander ended up on its nose when it made its historic touchdown on the lunar surface. A US lunar lander has "no chance" of making a soft landing on the Moon due to a fuel leak.

We've set foot on the Moon multiple times. So why all the recent mission failures?

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: moon
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To: Revel

10 to 1 Boeing’s troubles are due to MBAs with no technical chops running the game, not due to any deficit in today’s engineers. It’s an old, old story. Tech company gets big, and bean counters shove people with actual engineering and product development skills to the side, with predictable results.


21 posted on 02/04/2024 4:02:21 PM PST by Campion (Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - Little Flower)
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To: katana

Was gonna say that. When did the UK land on the moon?


22 posted on 02/04/2024 4:04:00 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: Campion

Boeing had Nikki Haley on the Board of Directors.

They gave her all the tough engineering and project management issues.

She told the workers if they did not perform better she would assassinate them all.

Lol.


23 posted on 02/04/2024 4:04:59 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Jan_Sobieski

LOL.


24 posted on 02/04/2024 4:05:07 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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or we’ve never been to the moon which would explain why we haven’t been back....don’t you know that technology goes backward?....that what was apparently accomplished 50 yrs ago is just too hard to do today....


25 posted on 02/04/2024 4:05:34 PM PST by cherry
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To: wildcard_redneck
Yep, not enough white guys.

White guys?

Everyone knows it was strong black women who got us to the moon! They even made a movie about it.


26 posted on 02/04/2024 4:07:05 PM PST by Drew68 (Never forget that every person responsible for the nation's COVID policies totally got away with it.)
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To: odawg

I’m guessing BBC means ‘humanity,’ by the ‘we.’ From a simple cost perspective, I’d say we’ve gotten better.

Both the original two players in the Moon race, the US and the Soviet Union had some significant failures.

The Apollo program had 32 total missions, and 6 successful landings. Corrected for inflation, it cost about $200 billion dollars, required a national effort, and development of new technologies.

The Japanese mission that ended up upside-down (but still somewhat functional) cost $120 million.

Anyone want to bet they’ll fail twice in a row?

The Indians just put a mission down successfully with a lander and a rover, and also got their propulsion module back to Earth orbit where it remains making observations with onboard instruments. That mission cost something like $90 million (it was supposed to be more like $75 but had overruns).

Anyone here doubt SpaceX could do it pretty easily if they cared to?

We’re in an era where it costs less to send a rover to the moon than it takes to buy an Airbus 320. Or buy 5% of a destroyer for that matter.

Heck, Wikipedia has a list of over 100 films that have lost more money than Chandrayaan-3 cost.


27 posted on 02/04/2024 4:10:52 PM PST by verum ago (I figure some people must truly be in love, for only love can be so blind.)
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To: nickcarraway

You need a lot of fuel to land on the moon. No atmosphere to slow you down.


28 posted on 02/04/2024 4:14:30 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Gus Grissom tried to blow the whistle on the Apollo program and he was killed. The other astronauts got the message. Most of the won’t do interviews to this day, and will not swear on a Bible that they landed on the moon


29 posted on 02/04/2024 4:14:58 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: nickcarraway

I wonder that about some of the technology we use in everyday life.

I am not a STEM person, so I can’t even begin to get my head around how complex and difficult it is to pull off a lunar landing. It is kind of like Mark Twain’s comment about a dog that can walk on its back legs: the marvel is not that it’s done well, but that it’s done at all.

I remember reading a rumor that the Soviets attempted a lunar landing before we made it, and the spacecraft flew past the moon.


30 posted on 02/04/2024 4:19:31 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: nickcarraway

Space X has a manned lunar landing scheduled this year


31 posted on 02/04/2024 4:20:43 PM PST by digger48
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To: ground_fog

People who ‘earn’ their jobs based on Kink, Kolor, or Kin tend to fail - their companies, their country and any concept of fairness or decency.


32 posted on 02/04/2024 4:21:42 PM PST by GOPJ ( Ashli Babbit's killer was given a promotion after the murder. Never forget.)
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To: nickcarraway

Yes.


33 posted on 02/04/2024 4:22:20 PM PST by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: Revel

Because they know so little they are afraid to act.


34 posted on 02/04/2024 4:22:47 PM PST by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: pfflier
Two reasons:

1) The missions now are unmanned. Too much reliance on automation and software and...

2) S#!t happens

More or less true. The Soviet Union achieved the first "soft landing" of an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the moon in February 1966 (i.e., Luna 9). The U.S. accomplished the same thing (i.e., Surveyor 1) in June 1966.

But there were failures along the way with these unmanned controlled landings, particularly on the Soviet side. It's not all that easy to do. But it was accomplished, multiple times, decades ago, albeit (as you alluded to) with rather different technological resources.

35 posted on 02/04/2024 4:23:38 PM PST by DSH
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To: Drew68

Is there anything that fat, angry, black women cannot do?


36 posted on 02/04/2024 4:25:52 PM PST by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
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To: digger48

Correction. Moved to 2025


37 posted on 02/04/2024 4:26:49 PM PST by digger48
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To: digger48

I hope Space X can get it done—but I think it is a lot tougher than they think it is.

Elon Musk is about to face his biggest challenge—dead bodies on the moon are really bad public relations.


38 posted on 02/04/2024 4:27:39 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Paladin2

I go back to 286s. Didn’t own one but used them at work. First purchased PC I believe was a 486.

Yes it is incredible what NASA accomplished with the tools at their disposal.

With proper management and a real focus on engineering instead of politics NASA could still be pretty good.


39 posted on 02/04/2024 4:28:25 PM PST by plain talk
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To: Campion

Don’t discount moving HQ to ChIraq.


40 posted on 02/04/2024 4:28:29 PM PST by Paladin2
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