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lionkor parent
the altimeter? Surely you would put three on there?
mattlondon
+1

They had the altimeter fail on the previous mission too. Seems like a fairly crucial component of a moon lander.

Armchair rocket scientist here, but if I were on that engineering team I'd lobby hard for less science payloads and more backups for critical instruments for the actual flight of the craft.

The rover and hopper and drill etc all sound cool yes, but worthless if you can't land. Again. For the second time. Because the same critical component failed, again. With apparently no backup, again.

Of course, it sounds so simple. I am sure there is more to it (e.g. perhaps they had backups and everything worked, but they just weren't fit for purpose?)

T-A
> They had the altimeter fail on the previous mission too.

Not really. They forgot to toggle the safety switch on before launch, so the laser could not be used:

https://spaceq.ca/simple-error-could-have-resulted-in-intuit...

JonChesterfield
Had two. One showed so much measurement noise they couldn't trust it, other kept cutting out. Not great.
lionkor OP
So three ones, two different models, one in a different location. These are like... basics, no?
ricardobeat
If you multiply every critical component by 3x there will be no room left for anything else.
pclmulqdq
2n + 1 is a basic minimum amount of redundancy for anything critical in a high-value space mission.
adastra22
This isn't a high-value space mission.
8 More Comments →
lionkor OP
Well the way they did it (twice) means they had space for other stuff, and of course also failed because they didn't have enough redudancy
uoaei
slippery slope fallacy. just do engineering good
bilekas
If I’m not mistaken there are three on commercial aircraft.. Seems like the bare minimum for a lunar lander .. I can’t imagine they’re THAT heavy
florbo
Heavier than you think, probably. I tried looking up laser altimeters suitable for moon landings and was met with a much higher than anticipated amount of complexity. One thing was clear: the higher the altimeter needs to work, the heavier.
adastra22
Every gram of weight is directly trading off payload.

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