this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
142 points (98.0% liked)

Space

8815 readers
169 users here now

Share & discuss informative content on: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Planetary Science and Astrobiology.


Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

Picture of the Day

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula


Related Communities

๐Ÿ”ญ Science

๐Ÿš€ Engineering

๐ŸŒŒ Art and Photography


Other Cool Links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16378924

Sped up footage from Chang'e 6 lander descent

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Damn, that just feels surreal to me. I can't properly conceptualize the scale of the moon I guess

[โ€“] Ludrol@szmer.info 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Moon has fractal like surface. Big craters look like small craters and small craters look like big craters.

[โ€“] catloaf@lemm.ee 10 points 6 months ago

Yup. There are no human-scale objects as a reference.

There are a few landers, yes, but if you tried to use them to gauge distance to the surface, they're so small that by the time you pick them out, it's probably too late to decelerate properly.

[โ€“] Zron@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

Before Apollo 11, nasa spent a lot of time getting astronauts to try to navigate to a simulated lander out in the desert. They used explosives to make a scale version of a lunar field, dropped astronauts off, and had them try to navigate to the lander.

If I remember right, only a couple people were able to even identify where they were on the map, let alone find the lander again. Lunar surfaces are just so unnatural that human instincts about size and scale tend to get you in more trouble than not.