Wednesday, August 23, 2023

India is a lunar nation (for a fortnight)

Russia still has a LEO presence but no longer can get to the Moon. India, by contrast, has landed Chandrayaan-3. This is now the lander's mission, called Vikram.

I was holding off on comments-n'-gloats until now because space is haahd, including for India hence why this mission is #3. Now I'll get into what India has accomplished for our world. It's not just an also-ran! (Like the USA when it launched the second satellite into orbit . . .)

The site is 69.367621°S x 32.348126°E. That's the closest to a Lunar pole any Earther's ever landed (- and survived, sorry Pooty). The true polar-circles (more-exactly the shallow cups) are the 80s°S; sunlight is so consistently-horizontal here, especially south where there's a basin, that hydrates survive.

As Zim points out, the lander Vikram hasn't the juice to be a longterm base for rover Pragyan. This is a daylight mission only. The 80s°S should get permadaylight with a high antenna, but not 70°S.

To get there took India some forty days. The trajectory took repeated sweeps of high orbits over Earth. That means they didn't bother with thrust. This opened up a high-ISP manoeuvre. Tsiolkovsky allows to limit the propellant by firing out that exhaust, hotter.

I must, however, worry about shielding. So I recommend this for cargo-runs only and not for humans. I further would prefer that craft start from some midrange orbit, like with fuel-stations.

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