India's pride, the world's first lunar landing probe on the south pole of the moon, carrying the lunar rover "Pragian", recently came with the news that it was scrapped on the moon. It was scrapped without performing a single task, and I can only say that it was expected and reasonable about this matter.
You may not know the gold content of the south pole of the moon, which is currently the only place on the moon with natural solid water, according to the space operation design planning of China and the United States, it will become the construction site of the first lunar base of mankind; So both China and the United States are planning to explore the south pole of the moon, but the work is quite complex and requires a high level of technology, and both countries are currently in the preparation stage.
However, at this time, the Indians publicly stood up and said that we were going to land directly on the south pole of the moon, so they sent Chandrayaan-3 up.
At the time, I thought that this success would most likely become a troubled event, after all, we can look at India's moon landing lineup.
First of all, in the way of landing on the moon, India does not have enough thrust of the rocket, so it adopts a very primitive way to land on the moon, that is, let the rocket slowly circle around the earth after liftoff, and every time it goes around the perigee of the earth, it ignites and pushes itself, lifts its apogee orbit, and slowly circles until it enters the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.
This leads to the need to carry a lot of fuel in order to ensure that the rocket can operate in space for a long time, which creates huge problems for the already unrich load of Indian rockets. Therefore, in order to ensure the launch of the rocket and the smooth landing of the lunar vehicle, the Indians can only reduce the lunar landing equipment.
For comparison, we use Chang'e-3 to make a comparison, which carries a number of scientific instruments such as moon-based optical telescopes, extreme ultraviolet cameras, panoramic cameras, lunar radars, infrared imaging spectrometers, and particle excitation X-ray spectrometers. The lunar rover Jade Rabbit weighs up to 137 kilograms and can work on the moon for three months, and finally worked for more than two years, exceeding the task, and Jade Rabbit II is still working today.
The Indian Chandrayan-3 brought only two X-ray detectors and laser detectors, and it was gone. The weight of the lunar vehicle is only 26 kilograms. It's simply the monkey version of the monkey version.
The results of cutting corners on the lunar landing car are now also visible. If the Indian lunar rover that cut corners can wake up on the moon, it is the biggest mockery of China's space industry.
The environment above the Moon is much harsher than on Earth. The Moon has no atmosphere, with a temperature difference of up to 330 degrees Celsius between day and night, direct sunlight during the day, temperatures as high as 130-150 degrees Celsius, and can drop to minus 190 degrees Celsius at night. So keeping warm is a very important thing. Not to mention precision equipment, conventional metals can not stand such temperature differences.
China's Jade Rabbit is directly involved in a nuclear-powered heating device through which the lunar vehicle ensures a constant temperature of the body. Let its temperature be controlled between minus 50 degrees Celsius and 70 degrees Celsius. At the same time, in order to keep the equipment from being frozen, the mast, directional antenna and 4 cameras on the mast can be retracted, and the right solar wing can be used to further insulate the equipment after folding. There are also multiple layers of thermal insulation components on the outside of the rover to minimize the impact of the lunar environment on the inside of the probe.
It can only be said that in order to spend the night on the moon, many of the more than 100 kilograms of weight are used in thermal insulation equipment. The Indian lunar rover, no heat source, no thermal insulation, no protective facilities.
Therefore, if the Indians, a lunar rover with nothing, can spend the night on the moon, then it seems that the Chinese spacecraft that is so well prepared is like a group of fools.
Why should such a discerning person know that the lunar landing project with a high probability of failure should be promoted by the Indians? The reason is simple, political influence.
China landed on the moon to build a lunar base and then better explore space, while the Indians landed only to increase international influence.
After the end of the Cold War, only China successfully landed on the moon, and other countries such as Israel, Japan, and Russia failed to land on the moon; In this case, if India can become the second country in the world to successfully land on the moon, it will be a huge benefit to India's international prestige.
It is precisely because the Indian Space Agency's mission is just to throw the lunar landing equipment on it, so the Indian government does not approve much money. The cost of Chuan-2 is about $140 million, and the cost of Chandena 3 is only $75 million. And in order to further improve the news of India's lunar landing, India even chose the most difficult point on the moon for landing activities.
It can only be said that such a project to catch ducks on the shelves. Failure is normal, success is unexpected.