Images brought back from the Mun's first orbiting satellite, Celestia VIII, were the deciding result of Celestia IX's landing site. The staff at KSP decided that the large craters, or 'Great Lakes', were of interest enough for Celestia IX to pay a visit there. The lander carried an array of equipment that bumped the weight up to 656kg, which is a hefty amount compared to Celestia VII, the first probe to successfully land on the Mun, which weighed in at only 75kg.
Celestia IX awaiting launch in a good close up of it's Union A-2A launch vehicle
The chosen site was Stagnum Recordationem (translated to the Lake of Remembrance) next to Sedna Crater, which is one of the larger sub-craters found in the lower-left of the 'lake'. These 'lakes', which are actually thought to be enormous craters, are visible from Kerbin with the naked eye and are likely to be visited by Kerbal astronauts one day. So Celestia IX paves the way for future manned missions.
An image of the Mun from Observer and the highlighted landing site of Celestia IX
After landing on the edge of Sedna Crater, images from the Celestia IX lander showed that the crater is not a flat as first thought, and actually reveals the Mun's surface to be a plethora of rolling hills and steep mountains. This has been expected since the images returned from Celestia VIII revealed a much more uneven surface than those captured from the Kerbin-orbiting Observer satellite.
An image from Celestia VIII in orbit around the Mun of the 'Mare Recordationem' crater hints of a bumpy landscape
Although not obvious from this image from Celestia IX, the hills captured here are actually the peak of the very mountainous area of Sedna Crater
Celestia IX captures an image of it's own landing pad, which is sunken beneath the dusty surface of the Mun
With the lander being significantly larger that the pioneering Celestia VII, the vehicle was able to carry it's own fuel supply. This allowed for a much less complex landing system. The lander carried it's own on-board thrusters which were used to decend the probe down to the surface instead of relying on an additional motor system. The lander also used a direct approach to the Mun, instead of the more conventional orbital maneuver that had been used so far.
'It offered less complications,' one of the lead engineers stated. 'Instead of having to make an orbit around the Mun, we just headed straight for the face of the Mun. Once we were fifty kilometers above the surface, the S2-4B booster made a braking maneuver that slowed the craft down to 200 meters-per-second. Then the booster was jettisoned and the craft made the rest of the journey down on it's own engines.'
A painting of Celestia IX on the surface of the Mun
Although a success, the lander experienced a problem. The jolt experienced during touchdown caused one of the antenna's to retract. Luckily, the antenna's are dual-redundancy (meaning there are two) and one is still healthy and transmitting. Which is fortunate, because if both had failed then all communication with the prove would be lost.
Celestia IX will be transmitting temperaturea and gravity data back to Mission Control for the next few months.
No comments:
Post a Comment