8 Silicon chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au
While that’s a reasonable theory, the
official cause will be established (if it
can be determined) by a full engineer-
ing inquiry now underway.
The reason that the IMU is under
suspicion is that it was stated by con-
trollers that during the descent the
IMU “is not OK”. Then there was a
telemetry drop-out, for unknown rea-
sons, then a return of telemetry with
more drop-outs following.
After the apparent failure of the IMU
and failure to decelerate for landing,
a decision was made to do a full com-
puter system reset.
However, by that point, there was
not enough time for the computer to
reboot; the spacecraft was too low and
travelling too fast to slow down in time
to avoid crashing, even if the reboot
had been successful.
The final telemetry reading received
was with the spacecraft at an alti-
tude of 149m, descending at 134m/s
(482km/h) and with a ground (hori-
zontal) speed of 947m/s (3409km/h).
Despite the failure to perform a soft
landing, the XPRIZE Foundation still
awarded US$1 million to SpaceIL for
a “successful entry into lunar orbit
and for its attempt to land on the lu-
nar surface – both of which are ‘firsts’
for a privately-funded entity, marking
a new era in space exploration”.
On April 13th, there was an an-
nouncement by billionaire Morris
Kahn (the main funder for Beresheet)
that there would be a second landing
attempt called Beresheet 2. This mis-
sion is expected to carry more scien-
tific instruments and be completed
within two years.
Full telemetry data was published
during the live stream of the event
which can be seen in the video titled
“LIVE broadcast - Beresheet lands on
the Moon Fasten your seatbelts, we
are about to land.” at: https://youtu.
be/HMdUcchBYRA
There is also a very good video with
annotation titled “How Israel’s Lander
Crashed Into The Moon, And How Fal-
con Heavy Flew” at: https://youtu.be/
uH9aX5evxqU
Dr David Maddison,
Toorak, Vic.Replacement washing machine
controller wanted
I live in Darwin and we have one
of the highest incidences of lightning
strikes in the world.
Consequently, I currently have a
stockpile of washing machines with
blown control boards sitting in my
workshop. Manufacturers really know
how to charge for replacement parts.
They often ask for more than the ma-
chine is worth!
Would it be possible to use an
Arduino or similar and write a generic
program to replace the manufacturer-
specific control board?
The inputs and outputs are simple
as there is only water level switch, wa-
ter solenoids, pump and motor. The
touchscreen could fit over the exist-
ing controls.
Lloyd English,
Darwin, NT.
Response: We have considered doing
something similar in the past, but in
the end, it was easier to fix the failed
board than design a new one from
scratch. It would be tough to designemlogic.com.au
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