# India launches moon mission **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 27, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707 "2019-07-27T13:02:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/21 "2019-07-30T10:03:40Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Does this mean the sacred cow is jumping over the moon? No, it’s landing there. Question: if we land enough cows on the moon, would all that methane turn the moon blue? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/22 "2019-09-06T20:06:58Z")
Reviving this thread because Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to land, I believe within the next hour. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/23 "2019-09-06T22:43:53Z")
Bad news; ISRO mission control lost contact with the lander when it was at an altitude of 2.1 kilometers. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/24 "2019-09-06T22:49:19Z")
The Doppler tracking [doesn’t look good](https://imgur.com/x0zG9Dl). The line should have continued in a smooth diagonal to the right as the craft continued its deceleration. Instead, it made some chaotic-looking motions at the end. Looks to me like they lost attitude control. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/25 "2019-09-06T23:03:04Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > No, it’s landing there. Question: if we land enough cows on the moon, would all that methane turn the moon blue? I don’t know about that, but we can finally start making that moon cheese I’ve been hearing about since I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/26 "2019-09-07T00:47:59Z")
I was watching live at work with a bunch of my coworkers when they lost contact. It was fairly grim on screen. Mission control is in Bangalore, not far from our office there. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/27 "2019-09-07T01:34:18Z")
Well, hell. Like I said in the thread for [Beresheet](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=873910) (the private Israeli Moon landing mission that _also_ made it nearly all the way to the lunar surface, but failed at the very last minute): _Everyone’s_ [list of Moon missions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon#Missions_to_date) includes failures. Lots and lots of failures. After all, it’s [del]not[/del] rocket science. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/28 "2019-09-07T14:51:42Z")
Kudos and condolences to the folks who worked on this mission. You done good, folks. Have a cry and then figure it out and try again; you were so close! ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/29 "2019-09-09T10:30:11Z")
I am sure the warlike spiders that thrive on the lunar regolith shot some gooey gel-like substance at the lander and caused it to crash. They are probably feasting on it now. 'Tis the reason the Apollo program was abruptly cancelled, right? They even made a movie about it, with original footage of mega-moon-spiders. Not knowing this, the mission controller burst into tears, thinking \*he \*had failed, and had to be consoled like a baby by the Prime Minister. In the 80s, the running joke in India was, ISRO should somehow help the fishermen who venture out to sea, since so many ISRO rockets regularly landed there. :eek: But today ISRO has some highly reliable launch vehicles. ISRO is a competent agency and will bounce back from this failure. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707/30 "2019-09-09T10:41:57Z")
Good news, everyone! [They found it](https://apnews.com/8533918d2dd348d6819057968182c6f4)! > [@](#): > > The lander module from India’s moon mission was located on the lunar surface on Sunday, one day after it lost contact with the space station, and efforts are underway to try to establish contact with it, the head of the nation’s space agency said. > > The Press Trust of India news agency cited Indian Space and Research Organization chairman K. Sivan as saying cameras from the moon mission’s orbiter had located the lander. “It must have been a hard landing,” PTI quoted Sivan as saying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-launches-moon-mission/837707.md?page=1)