I believe the approach is to shut down all nonessentials and run a heater to keep the battery above failure level during the night. This sounds simple but I'm pretty sure it's an absolute nightmare to design autonomous systems for, especially when you've only encountered those situations theoretically or in a controlled lab environment.
Space is hard. It hates us. It hates life. It hates any form of order and will actively attempt to destroy it. Trying to make things that survive in space is Difficult. It would have been easy to go "Lol india amirite", but the fact is, this is one of the hardest things humanity can do.
Especially for someone who never experienced anything lower than -5°C. Most cars wouldn't even start at -20°C if not equipped with a more powerful generator and battery from the factory. This is measly 20° difference.
Going up the mountain was surprisingly fine. I even had taken off both my jacket and was just wearing thermals as the heat I was generating working to go uphill was enough to keep me comfortable.
Unfortunately when we reached the top, we also ended up directly in the wind with no available cover. Within the ten minutes it took to transition to go downhill, I was nearly hypothermic. I can’t fully express how obscenely, unconscionably, and incomparably cold that was. I have never felt anything like it and I hope never to again.
The cherry on the cake of the experience was that you get into water that is 70+°F but every part of your body above the water line is exposed to -30°F winds. Fun!
But there were plenty of snowmobile riders in the area. Some of them who bundled up and attempted to ride at these temperatures learned that their lungs did not work well after a short time.
My most notable discovery was when I wanted to jump start my car, because the battery died due to the cold. I was about to bring out my jumper cables when my local friend told me to bring the cables inside first.
I didn't understand why and naively ignored what he said only for the rubber jumper cables to literally crumble in my hand, breaking as I tried to straighten them.
Mongolians are so resilient and have so much knowledge on how to survive in extreme weathers with a simple yurt and a livestock of 100 sheep goats and horses.
-200C in a vacuum is an entirely-different engineering paradigm as I understand it. Materials just don't behave the way we expect at regular temp/pressure.
The fuel freezes, the oil freezes, the rubber in the tires and gaskets becomes brittle, and basically nothing normal works. I recall it being similar-but-different to the SR71 modifications, where the parts are loose and continuously leaks fluids because the materials all change shapes so much in the environment they're designed for. And of course it all has to return to the initial state for (a safe) landing.
A couple years ago temps here went below -25° and there were a lot of cars which didn't go nowhere. Sure, some of them just had a battery too low from the usual urban minimal distance travel, but I heard enough rants from and about people who was forced to abandon their car and use the public transport or taxi. Diesels without an engine heater were among them.
> don't ask me how I know, you just need to know what you are doing
Ye, have an 'offline' (lol) charger for your car battery or have a 'kick-starter' kit. The thing is what the cars sold here are prepared for the winter conditions, yet many of them failed at a slightly lower temps - which again shows how a mere 5° difference can be way too much even for things what work otherwise just fine.
What exactly does depressing the clutch do as compared to not doing it and starting the vehicle in neutral? Is it to reduce the engine load further? Or something else?
If you are talking about ever increasing entropy, it applies to any environment. But keep in mind that the Moon itself is a manifestation of order. If it hadn't been the case we would have been observing a cloud of dust and gas where our Solar system is.
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_...
Above was paywalled, check this https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/151j6zw/isro_barc_joi...
Every time there's some positive news about India, you neanderthals come out of your caves to say the exact same things. Just go back into your cave and go back to f*cking your sister or whatever it is you people do.
I would urge you to ban these people first.
Of course I also hear your underlying point and understand your frustration.
I agree, it does not excuse my response. Thank you for doing the thankless job of keeping this forum running on track.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/uk-aid-worth-2-...?
That's a very big stretch of your imagination as its a legitimate argument and discussion to be had. Perhaps not amongst ultra Indian nationalist for which HN has many and your comment makes me feel you may be catering towards.
Glib comments on top of long and torturous histories regularly set opposing commenters off. Even if the vast majority of readers aren't provoked, there's enough area under the long tail to guarantee it. The responsibility is on you not to post something with that expected value (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...).
Understood and I appreciate the reminder.
1. Design goals. The program had a budget, and with that budget their goal was a 14 day target. Anything extra is icing on the cake. They could have used an RTG to ensure long term survival, but it would have exploded their budget.
2. If I remember correctly the probe is in the south pole of the moon. Most probes are closer to the equator. The poles get colder and I think in some circumstances have more night time
3. Experience. This is their first successful moon probe. Now they understand the parameters better, so maybe next one will do better?