NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: JAXA lunar lander precision navigation
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2024 Jan 20, 00:16 +0000
From: Peter Monta
Date: 2024 Jan 20, 00:16 +0000
A good effort from JAXA, and perhaps the electronics will survive until (and if) the solar panels are illuminated.
But, the important question: who or what will be the first to do a "reverse lunar", that is, an observation from the Moon's surface of angular distance between star and Earth limb? I doubt any of the landers over the next year or so will have anything like the needed optics, but with Starship able to set 100 t of payload onto the surface, surely they can spare a few kilograms for a sextant. :-)
JAXA wants to verify the precision of their landing, though, and that will take better-than-sextant accuracy. If the craft's retroreflector can see the Earth, then they're good. Otherwise, it will have to be a photo from one of the lunar orbiters, or perhaps DSN ranging if the craft wakes up and the comms are set up for that.
Cheers,
Peter
On Friday, January 19th, 2024 at 10:11 AM, NavList Community <NavList@fer3.com> wrote:
Any of you who happen to be up and about and looking at NavList messages, watch here (a technical "details" display, no video from spacecraft):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvXLt3ET9mEFrank Reed