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Old June 12th 09, 02:05 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Rick Jones[_3_]
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Posts: 587
Default Japanese Moon probe to impact tomorrow

In sci.space.policy rhw007 wrote:
It seems inconceivable to me WHY would the Japanese INTENTIONALLY end
the imaging mission by impacting the spacecraft WITH the science
instruments on it. Japan could have done a VERY similar mission and
crash ONE of the relay satelites, OR...simply launch and blast an
"impactor" to actually hit the Moon WHILE the Kaguya was overhead with
the FULL instrument suite ON and looking...close-up...for NEW data.


This was mission suicide and makes NO sense. In addition, the amount
of PUBLICLY available data from this HiRes mission is miniscule for
the amount of time it was on-orbit and in operation.


Modulo propellant to maintain the orbit, my understanding from the
peanut gallery is that (most) lunar orbits are not terribly stable and
the probe is going to impact the Moon at some point. At least this
way they had some control over when and where to enable some final
data.

rick jones
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