Awkward Offworld Landings

Not that long after news of another moon lander probe not making it there (the number of failed attempts from “small teams” mixed in with Chinese and Indian landers can leave me wondering), I heard a report of a Japanese probe managing to touch down only to be in immediate difficulty. When I followed up on that, I saw reports that the SLIM lander’s solar cells weren’t in sunlight and its battery had run down after a few hours. Wondering just how that worked, I did also notice reports micro-rovers carried with the lander were working and decided to wait to see if any specifics would be provided from them.

Then, I did get pointed to a picture from one of those rovers, showing the lander perched on its small end with a rocket engine pointing into space. There was the unfortunate temptation to see something amusing about that, but I didn’t quite get around to getting my thoughts together right away. After that, though, the front page of Wikipedia itself reported the Ingenuity mini-helicopter had made its last flight; the article itself explained a rotor blade had been damaged landing. This felt a bit more unfortunate, but I told myself that so far as I know Ingenuity hadn’t wound up struggling against a worn-out battery or bearings, at least not to the point of crashing and breaking into pieces. Maybe the way it landed counts as a more honourable retirement.