Many aspects of this mission were disappointing to me. And they hype it as a success. First of all along with the engineering software for design and operation that we have had for decades, we also have project planning software. The planning software should have caught that switch. That manual interlock switch.
They used our military network space wifi for navigation/communication to the moon. And it worked very well from the reports. I would assume this is an array antenna. A stationary antenna that can be aimed electronically. And automatically.
After moon orbit, they switched on their moon navigation and that's when they found a dead navigation/landing system from that switch. That is a huge OOPS.
So they sent a patch to route another instrument for landing navigation. That patch did not try to integrate the landing cameras. They were left non functional. A proper integrated patch can be uploading after landing. Patch might not be needed after landing.
But the patch was not successful. And evidently there was some lateral motion upon landing.......tipping the craft over.
However there seems to be no shame in declaring the patch and landing a success.
How does the previous team of a few weeks ago feel about that? They made a "landing" too.
The job of a project manager is to confirm every detail. And confirm every contingency protocol.
And that was not done by man or machine. An interlock switch of all things. How many techs and engineers signed off on that procedure? Have you ever seen the documents of maintenance at a nuclear plant?
And why didn't the project software flag it?
Either there is was a lapse in the protocol(software error) or someone skirted the protocol.
I can only surmise with what I read. And I'm sure there are other undisclosed factors.
And I don't believe a celebration is in order. I judge it as a failure. But have no standing before them.
Yes you nailed... Failure passed off as a success.. That is what left a bad taste in my mouth. The Commentators constantly telling us that was a great call for everything that was going on... they where lying to us in real time ...that is fine their space craft their mission so in reality they did not have to let us tag along... but everyone on the live stream could tell something was going wrong and that is what bites about putting your information public... they started to censor at the end there.
As for the so called switch and the patch software.. First as a pilot, heck any pilot will tell you follow your checklist. This team should have had a before flight checklist and multiple people running through that check list before it was mounted to a boaster. So that was unacceptable.
That Software patch.. see they way I see that is if those laser where capable of a secondary function that program should have been loaded to the probe for she left Earth so that could be proven and tested as a reliable back up should something happen to the main range finder... So I don't give them the props everyone is giving them on that one..
Any programmer will tell you push something into production untested is a recipe for a bad outcome...
But hey this is space travel so I should be more forgiving.. But like you wrote... The hype pre and post is sickening...
Every one gets a trophy I guess.