• Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I think ‘age of the last moon landing’ is a pretty piss poor metric for how well a space program is doing. Remember two years ago when NASA landed the most advanced rover ever built and a friggin helicopter on mars? Remember how the helicopter was only designed to last a handful of sols and flights but is still to this day flying actual survey missions scouting for the rover?

    I’m sorry but I think your metric for what ranks various space agencies capabilities is absolutely hog wash.

    EDIT: You also seem to have missed in your assessment, the primary mission goal of the SLIM Lander. Japan was testing a landing technology that would allow vehicles to land ‘within 100 meters of a chosen landing site’. A goal JAXA achieved with this mission despite the solar panel issue. To give some context, up until now most landing sites are chosen for a margin of error up to several Kilometers.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah how recently did you do something completely new. Japan and India definitely get credit for moon landing, it’s difficult and impressive. But it’s also not pushing any boundaries anymore.