Private Intuitive Machines moon lander fell over inside crater at lunar south pole, photo reveals

[Admin]

For the second time in two years, a private Intuitive Machines lander fell over on the moon.

Private Intuitive Machines moon lander fell over inside crater at lunar south pole, photo reveals : Read more

 

[FatBear]

So tall, narrow spaceship lands on rough terrain and falls over. Surprise? (No.) So what do they do? Try it again with their fingers crossed? As someone who has operated vehicles on uneven terrain I could have predicted this outcome and, in fact, I did when I first saw the thing. Wanna know what will probably happen on their third attempt (probably with fingers AND toes crossed)?
Meanwhile, a short, wide lander plops down just fine - still stable even though one of it's landing pads is apparently suspended above the ground. Now the big question is "how are they going to ensure that the extremely unstable HLS will remain upright when it lands bearing human astronauts? "

 

[Joexo]

I wonder if they still got paid

 

[billslugg]

... I could have predicted this outcome and, in fact, I did when I first saw the thing. .

Please provide documentation.

 

[FatBear]

Please provide documentation.

You mean, like my wife nodding her head and saying "he did"?

 

[billslugg]

You mean, like my wife nodding her head and saying "he did"?

This is an acceptable form of verification. I already have one wife pissed off at me, the last thing in the world I need is two.

 

[BT2024]

Unfortunately Athena couldn’t restart the rocket motor and/or thrusters to right itself. Maybe an added back door could have released the bouncing rover Gracie.

 

[alfmagne]

Send Elon up there to set it upright again.

 

[billslugg]

Musk is the guy who sent a Tesla into outer space. Don't give him any ideas.

 

[Wonder Wart Hog]

>>> Now the big question is "how are they going to ensure that the extremely unstable HLS will remain upright when it lands bearing human astronauts? "

Two failures in as many attempts. This fiasco should be a wake up call to NASA and SpaceX that they need to rethink their tall, skinny Starship based lunar lander. Firefly Aerospace got it right the first time with their short, squat Blue Ghost lander. In their webcasts they even talked about modeling certain aspects of their lander design (like the footpads) after the successful Apollo LM. Time to consider alternate designs like the Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander.

 

[JoshuaAJones]

So tall, narrow spaceship lands on rough terrain and falls over. Surprise? (No.) So what do they do? Try it again with their fingers crossed? As someone who has operated vehicles on uneven terrain I could have predicted this outcome and, in fact, I did when I first saw the thing. Wanna know what will probably happen on their third attempt (probably with fingers AND toes crossed)?
Meanwhile, a short, wide lander plops down just fine - still stable even though one of it's landing pads is apparently suspended above the ground. Now the big question is "how are they going to ensure that the extremely unstable HLS will remain upright when it lands bearing human astronauts? "

Eventually, they will fill the crater with broken robots and one of their rovers will navigate over the wreckage.

 

[Rob77]

Musk is the guy who sent a Tesla into outer space. Don't give him any ideas.

Speaking of Teslas in space - is that one being tracked? Curious as to its current location?

 

[COLGeek]

Speaking of Teslas in space - is that one being tracked? Curious as to its current location?

I looked at a couple tracker sites. Info about it can be found, but not the actual orbit (at least where I looked). Maybe SpaceX is tracking.

 

[bolide]

"He's no fun--he fell right over!"

 

[georgerdavis]

So far NASA has invested $62 million in this company's failed missions. And what's their ROI? A picture of an upside down lander...