JPL and whoever's behind engineering for the ESA have decades of experience on the Indian space program.
I believe the approach is to shut down all nonessentials and run a heater to keep the battery above failure level during the night. This sounds simple but I'm pretty sure it's an absolute nightmare to design autonomous systems for, especially when you've only encountered those situations theoretically or in a controlled lab environment.
Space is hard. It hates us. It hates life. It hates any form of order and will actively attempt to destroy it. Trying to make things that survive in space is Difficult. It would have been easy to go "Lol india amirite", but the fact is, this is one of the hardest things humanity can do.
Especially for someone who never experienced anything lower than -5°C. Most cars wouldn't even start at -20°C if not equipped with a more powerful generator and battery from the factory. This is measly 20° difference.
> It hates any form of order and will actively attempt to destroy it.
If you are talking about ever increasing entropy, it applies to any environment. But keep in mind that the Moon itself is a manifestation of order. If it hadn't been the case we would have been observing a cloud of dust and gas where our Solar system is.
1. Design goals. The program had a budget, and with that budget their goal was a 14 day target. Anything extra is icing on the cake. They could have used an RTG to ensure long term survival, but it would have exploded their budget.
2. If I remember correctly the probe is in the south pole of the moon. Most probes are closer to the equator. The poles get colder and I think in some circumstances have more night time
3. Experience. This is their first successful moon probe. Now they understand the parameters better, so maybe next one will do better?
By having some source of heat, for example, while the Chinese rover from a few years ago was solar powered, it had a radioisotope heater which used the heat produced by some plutonium-238 to keep the electronics warm enough to survive the night.
They use RTGs[1] as the power and heat source, I think CY3 was just solar powered and did not have thermal protection you get from RTGs for electronics.
thefurdrake|2 years ago
I believe the approach is to shut down all nonessentials and run a heater to keep the battery above failure level during the night. This sounds simple but I'm pretty sure it's an absolute nightmare to design autonomous systems for, especially when you've only encountered those situations theoretically or in a controlled lab environment.
Space is hard. It hates us. It hates life. It hates any form of order and will actively attempt to destroy it. Trying to make things that survive in space is Difficult. It would have been easy to go "Lol india amirite", but the fact is, this is one of the hardest things humanity can do.
justsomehnguy|2 years ago
Especially for someone who never experienced anything lower than -5°C. Most cars wouldn't even start at -20°C if not equipped with a more powerful generator and battery from the factory. This is measly 20° difference.
vc8f6vVV|2 years ago
If you are talking about ever increasing entropy, it applies to any environment. But keep in mind that the Moon itself is a manifestation of order. If it hadn't been the case we would have been observing a cloud of dust and gas where our Solar system is.
dgrin91|2 years ago
1. Design goals. The program had a budget, and with that budget their goal was a 14 day target. Anything extra is icing on the cake. They could have used an RTG to ensure long term survival, but it would have exploded their budget.
2. If I remember correctly the probe is in the south pole of the moon. Most probes are closer to the equator. The poles get colder and I think in some circumstances have more night time
3. Experience. This is their first successful moon probe. Now they understand the parameters better, so maybe next one will do better?
dotnet00|2 years ago
seatac76|2 years ago
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_...
shauryamanu|2 years ago
Above was paywalled, check this https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/151j6zw/isro_barc_joi...
pixl97|2 years ago
CommanderData|2 years ago
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