But they tried to do that...no, really. The satellite called Chandraayan 1 carried a small impactor. While the main satellite stayed safely in orbit, the impactor was sent on a collision course to the Moon.
The 64 lbs impactor carred a laser altimeter, a camera, and a mass spectrograph to study what little air there is on the Moon. It crashed this morning (10:31 am Eastern time). They have not released any results yet, but early indications are everything went as planned. It hit the Moon at a speed of about a mile per second, so needless to say, it's not going to be sending back any more pictures!
However, it wasn't supposed to. If functioned as designed and I am Jonesin' for some pics!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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2 hours ago
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I think it's great that other nations are getting into space, but I can't help thinking that if we all could just get along and pool our resources on scientific fronts, that we'd be further ahead. Of course, that will happen when pigs fly. Perhaps some geneticists are working on that?
Yeah, I suppose for a space junkie like you hale, the first, fresh hits, I mean, pics, are the best. :)
I wonder who the Indians call for technical support.
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