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Hut on the Moon

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Alain Fournier

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Dec 11, 2021, 8:10:16 PM12/11/21
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You probably heard about the "Hut on the Moon" that China's Yutu 2 rover
has spotted. I don't think the hut itself is interesting but what I
don't understand is why the image provided by China is so blurry.
earthsky.org/space/mystery-hut-yutu-2-rover-far-side-of-moon-china/
The hut is supposed to be about 80 m away. At that distance a hut should
be easy to see. Maybe the thing is very small and the image in the press
releases is a blow up of a small portion of the actual image. But then
calling it a hut would be a strange name for it. If it is really very
small, calling it a die would make more sense.

Then there is also the fact that they say that it will take 2-3 lunar
days (months) for the rover to get there. That would be an average speed
of about 5 cm per hour. I know rovers can be slow, but that is a little
ridiculous.

So does anyone know at which speed Yutu 2 can roll and what resolution
its cameras have? Does anyone know that there has been some kind of
error in those news releases?


Alain Fournier

Snidely

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Dec 12, 2021, 5:07:29 AM12/12/21
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Alain Fournier explained on 12/11/2021 :
I don't have the Yutu 2 specs, but consider that on November 08, 2020,
from Sol 2933 to Sol 2936, Curiosity had driven a straight line
distance of about 123.14 feet (37.53 meters), bringing the rover's
total odometry for the mission to 14.47 miles (23.29 kilometers).

/dps

--
Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013

Snidely

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Dec 12, 2021, 5:10:52 AM12/12/21
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Snidely scribbled something on Sunday the 12/12/2021:
> Alain Fournier explained on 12/11/2021 :
>> You probably heard about the "Hut on the Moon" that China's Yutu 2 rover
>> has spotted. I don't think the hut itself is interesting but what I don't
>> understand is why the image provided by China is so blurry.
>> earthsky.org/space/mystery-hut-yutu-2-rover-far-side-of-moon-china/
>> The hut is supposed to be about 80 m away. At that distance a hut should be
>> easy to see. Maybe the thing is very small and the image in the press
>> releases is a blow up of a small portion of the actual image. But then
>> calling it a hut would be a strange name for it. If it is really very
>> small, calling it a die would make more sense.
>>
>> Then there is also the fact that they say that it will take 2-3 lunar days
>> (months) for the rover to get there. That would be an average speed of
>> about 5 cm per hour. I know rovers can be slow, but that is a little
>> ridiculous.
>>
>> So does anyone know at which speed Yutu 2 can roll and what resolution its
>> cameras have? Does anyone know that there has been some kind of error in
>> those news releases?
>
> I don't have the Yutu 2 specs, but consider that on November 08, 2020, from
> Sol 2933 to Sol 2936, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about
> 123.14 feet (37.53 meters), bringing the rover's total odometry for the
> mission to 14.47 miles (23.29 kilometers).

And more recently:
"On Sept. 12, 2021 (Sol 200) Perseverance drove 175.15m in a single sol
setting up for the entry into Séítah after going as far as time
available for driving would allow. After an 8m segment to build the
initial terrain map, the remainder 167m of the drive used AutoNav – the
farthest any of our Mars rovers have driven autonomously in a single
sol. "

<URL:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/status/342/driving-farther-and-faster-with-autonomous-navigation-and-helicopter-scouting/>

/dps

--
"Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself
is a good thing to do, You may be a fool but you're the fool in
charge." -- Carl Reiner

Alain Fournier

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Dec 12, 2021, 6:21:01 AM12/12/21
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So 175m in a sol is about 150 times faster than 80m in 2-3 months. Since
Yutu 2 doesn't really need auto-pilot capabilities and can be remotely
controlled from earth, I really don't see why it should be so slow.

Of course, the hut might very well be a very low priority objective.
Maybe they can roll 80m in 10 minutes, but they are going to do science
on the way and take a few detours to check a few other things before
going to the hut.


Alain Fournier

Otto J. Makela

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Jan 20, 2022, 10:32:40 AM1/20/22
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Alain Fournier <alai...@videotron.ca> wrote:

> You probably heard about the "Hut on the Moon" that China's Yutu 2
> rover has spotted. I don't think the hut itself is interesting but
> what I don't understand is why the image provided by China is so
> blurry.
> http://earthsky.org/space/mystery-hut-yutu-2-rover-far-side-of-moon-china/
> The hut is supposed to be about 80 m away. At that distance a hut
> should be easy to see. Maybe the thing is very small and the image in
> the press releases is a blow up of a small portion of the actual
> image. But then calling it a hut would be a strange name for it. If it
> is really very small, calling it a die would make more sense.

It was blurry, since it was zoomed in as much as the image could allow.
Was anyone really surprised it turned out to be just a boulder?

https://www.sciencealert.com/three-guesses-what-that-mysterious-hut-found-on-the-moon-turned-out-to-be

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Sylvia Else

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Jan 21, 2022, 10:11:30 PM1/21/22
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The "hut" has been clearly identified as a rock.

Sylvia.

Snidely

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Jan 22, 2022, 4:48:30 AM1/22/22
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Watch this space, where Sylvia Else advised that...
How many days did it take to get close enough to confirm that?

/dps

--
"I am not given to exaggeration, and when I say a thing I mean it"
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain

Alain Fournier

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Jan 22, 2022, 10:52:28 AM1/22/22
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The EarthSky article
https://earthsky.org/space/mystery-hut-yutu-2-rover-far-side-of-moon-china/
I referred to was dated Dec 10, 2021. The Science alert article Otto J.
Makela referred to
https://www.sciencealert.com/three-guesses-what-that-mysterious-hut-found-on-the-moon-turned-out-to-be
was dated Jan 10, 2022. So that is a 31 day gap. The new image is still
blurry so I would guess still taken from a distance.

More interestingly, in the Science alert paper, they say that Yutu has
driven over 1000 meters since January 2019. So the rover seems to be
speeding along at the high speed of about 1 meter per day. I think the
slow speed is for the ground penetrating radar they are using. Chasing
rocks, even rocks that have strange shapes is lower priority than using
the ground penetrating radar.


Alain Fournier
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