“I have often said that the middle class built this country and that unions built the middle class. On Labor Day, we honor that essential truth and the dedication and dignity of American workers, who power our Nation’s prosperity….”
“… I … hereby proclaim September 4, 2023, as Labor Day. I call upon all public officials and people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor the energy and innovation of working Americans….” (Joseph R. Biden Jr., Briefing Room, Presidential Actions, White House)
Unofficially, it’s the last day of summer: when many Americans take vacations and/or pull out of their lake places.
I expect to see a familiar boat or two parked in back yards next week.
This household doesn’t own a boat, or a lake place, or spend a week at one of Minnesota’s vacation spots. We’ve only had so many resources, and that sort of thing wasn’t a high priority: although I do have good memories of when my parents rented a cabin on a lake.
Anyway, my staying home during Labor Day weekend was business-as-usual. We just don’t, for one reason and another, travel.
I did, however, spend a few minutes on the front stoop Sunday afternoon, reading part of a chapter in “Alice Through the Looking Glass”. Early Sunday afternoon.
There’s a Heat Advisory out for this area.
And, although I don’t mind a little summer warmth, there are limits. Sunday afternoon was one of those times when I felt as if I could work up a sweat, just blinking my eyes.
Labor Day: A (very) Little History
Heat, last week’s Hurricane Idalia and this weekend’s Typhoon Haikui (Hanna?) are causing trouble.
But I haven’t run across anyone fuming about Labor Day not being on or near the first of May: or being an anarchist plot to subvert American values. I’ve said this before: I do not miss the “good old days”.
I thought of writing about labor movements, the eight-hour day, Second International, and other once-dire threats. But I’m probably still getting over last month’s monumental prescription SNAFU — and it’s been an overly-warm weekend.
So I’ll express a few opinions, add the usual links, and leave it at that.
This is not
The Gilded Age
Progressive Era
Roaring Twenties
McCarthy’s heyday
Sixties
Trade unions are no longer threats to The Establishment. They have, arguably, long since become part of the dominant social group. The folks who run unions have, at any rate.
Yes, I’ve heard of the current Writer’s Guild Strike. I don’t doubt that there are inequities, and think that folks who create content should be both recognized and compensated.
The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane’s Wikipedia page “has multiple issues”, mostly having to do with style, quotations and external links.
Like Hurricane Idalia, the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane hit Florida.1
My guess is that this is because hurricanes happen, the part of the world that Florida is in gets hurricanes: and that Idalia will, inevitably, become part of the current presidential election fracas’s fewmet-flinging.
Which I am not enjoying, and that’s another topic.
Anyway, I said there would be links. The common theme is a more-or-less-brief discussion of the Haymarket affair/riot/incident:
Litho. from Thomas Moran’s “The Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser basin, Yellowstone National Park”. (1874)
I started writing about Yellowstone, hazards, and science a few weeks ago.
Then life happened — there’s a link near the end of this post — something more timely came up, and now I’m back with a look at the area’s past, present and future.
Henry Wellge’s map of Yellowstone National Park for the Northern Pacific Railway Company. (1904)
The Yellowstone Plateau is one of North America’s beauty spots. A little over 3,400 square miles of it has been a National Park since 1872 and a World Heritage Site since 1978.
Folks have lived in the area for at least 11,000 years.
Folks who look a bit like me stumbled upon it about two centuries back. One of them, Jim Bridger, gave detailed reports of what he’d seen:
“…Bridger once described a petrified forest in Yellowstone that was home to ‘petrified birds that sang petrified songs’….
“…According to Bridger, there existed a lake of cool, trout-filled waters capped by a layer of hot water introduced from a nearby hot spring. When he needed a quick meal, Bridger would catch a trout and reel it in slowly, allowing time for it to cook as it passed through the overlying hot water….” “Jim Bridger: Yellowstone’s Spinner of Tall Tales“, Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey (June 15, 2020)
Small wonder serious Euro-Americans didn’t follow up on Mr. Bridger’s reports.
At least one local’s description, passed along to the Lewis and Clark expedition, likely didn’t encourage a side-trip to find the Yellowstone River’s source.
“…There is only one hint of volcanic phenomena which Clark seems to have obtained from any source other than the presumed conversation with Colter, mentioned below. This was an Indian tale, received after Clark’s return, but before Colter’s return, to the effect that at the head of Tongue River, a branch of the Yellowstone, ‘there is frequently heard a loud noise like Thunder, which makes the earth Tremble, they state that they seldom go there because their children Cannot sleep—and Conceive it possessed of spirits, who were averse that men Should be near them.’…” (“Colter’s Hell and Jackson’s Hole: The Fur Trappers’ Exploration of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park Region“, II. The Mystery of “La Roche Jaune” or Yellow Rock River, Merrill J. Mattes (1962, reprint 1970) via Gutenberg.org)[emphasis mine]
Can’t say I blame whoever told a foreigner about trembling earth, loud noises and reclusive spirits.
If I realized that outsiders were checking out my area, I might have encouraged them to stay away from a culturally-important place with natural wonders and good hunting.
Being strictly truthful, while giving an impression that the spot was geologically unstable and haunted to boot might seem like a good idea.1
Yellowstone: Hydrothermal and Other Hazards
Geysers in Yellowstone National Park.
About half of Earth’s active geysers are in Yellowstone National Park. They range from giants like Old Faithful and Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest (at the moment), to little one- and two-foot spurters.
A geyser is a manic-depressive hot spring.
Bipolar disorder is the current moniker for folks whose mood swings go from gloom to frenzy, and that’s another topic.
Anyway, hot springs happen when ground water goes through magma-heated rock on its way to an above-ground outlet.
We get geysers when heated ground water can’t flow out right away. Mainly because it cools off on its way to the surface.
Then we’ve got a (comparatively) cool plug of water keeping increasingly superheated water underground.
Sooner or later, there’s enough pressure to push the superheated water out. The pressure release lets the superheated water flash into steam.
That’s when a fountain of steam, water droplets, minerals, and anything else that has accumulated, shoots up in a, well, a geyser. The underground reservoir re-fills and the cycle starts again.
Some geysers, like Old Faithful and Grand Geyser, are predictable; but not very.
Old Faithful, for example, spouted every 66 and a half minutes in 1939. That’s 66 and a half minutes on average. Actual intervals were anywhere between 60 and 110 minutes.
These days, Old Faithful’s eruptions come every 92 minutes. Again, on average; with intervals ranging from 35 to 120 minutes.
There’s math describing relationships between how long an eruption lasts and how long it’ll be before the next one.2 But that’s not what I’m talking about this week.
Explosions and Boardwalks
Yellowstone Lake, showing depth and tectonic features, including Elliott’s Crater.
Every now and then, the outlet for a hot spring or a geyser gets plugged or throttled down, or underground pressures rises, or both. Like so much else in this world, it’s complicated.
Sometimes underground pressure gets too high, and whatever’s holding it back breaks.
That happened to Porkchop Geyser.
Up until 1984, it was a porkchop-shaped heated pool about 10 feet across that occasionally erupted — every few years or so. The eruptions weren’t spectacular, a few yards high, emptying the pool, which refilled.
In march of 1985, it started spouting continuously. Sometimes the escaping steam and water roared so loud, folks could hear it more than a mile away.
Four years later, at 2:40 p.m. local time, September 5, 1989, eight visitors were watching Porkchop Geyser from a boardwalk. Porkchop’s plume shot up 65 to 100 feet. Then the geyser exploded.
Rocks more than a yard across were uprooted. Smaller debris landed up to 200 feet from the vent. Porkchop’s pool became a crater about 30 feet across.
None of the eight visitors were hurt. Startled, I’d imagine, but not hurt. That’s why boardwalks for visitors are so far from geysers.
Small hydrothermal explosions like Porkchop’s happen a few times per century.
Large hydrothermal explosions in Yellowstone happen on average every 700 years, leaving craters upwards of 100 meters, 328 feet, across.
Then there’s Elliott’s Crater, under Yellowstone Lake: named after Henry Wood Elliott, artist, who was with the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.
About 8,000 years back, at least three “pulses” left a crater upwards of 900 yards across. Since then, much smaller explosions left craters inside Elliott’s Crater; and the area’s still hydrothermally active.3
Earthquake Lake and a 1959 Landslide
Quake Lake, Montana, formed after the 1959 earthquake.Quake Lake, Montana, formed after the 1959 earthquake.
Hydrothermal features like geysers and hot springs, and geothermal activity in general, happen when hot material from deep inside Earth has been pushed near the surface.
Moving masses of magma make for earthquakes. Or earthquakes make for moving masses of magma. Either way, where we’ve got geysers and hot springs, we’ve got tourist attractions: and earthquakes.
And earthquakes plus tourists make for headlines. Which brings me to the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake.
The it-could-be-worse news is that only about two dozen folks died when part of a mountain slid onto Rock Creek campground and the Madison River, downstream of the Hebgen Dam. I’ve seen fatality estimates ranging from 19 to 28: possibly because some folks who were missing turned out to be dead.
Repairing Hebgen Dam took a few weeks. That was a concern. But it wasn’t the only one.
The landslide had also blocked the Madison River. Which is why the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to dig a stable outlet for the rapidly-filling Earthquake/Quake Lake.
Time passed.
When my parents and I visited the Yellowstone area, we saw where the landslide had left a gap in the Madison River valley’s side. The U.S. Forest Service’s Earthquake Lake Visitor Center opened in 1967. I’m pretty sure that’s after our trip.
It’s funny. For someone with a degree in history, my memory for dates is shaky at best. Except for things like “in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, and that’s yet another topic.
The 1959 landslide wasn’t, by far, the biggest in that area.
About 47,500,000 million years back, give or take, a whacking great chunk of limestone and dolomite went sliding across what we call the Bighorn Basin.4 And that’s yet again another topic.
Looking Ahead
Small hydrothermal explosions to caldera-forming eruptions: figuring the odds. (USGS)
If more caldera-forming eruptions started in Yellowstone, that would push even election-years headlines and op-eds off the front page. Well, off the front page’s banner at any rate.
The last I checked, the U.S. Geological Survey says there’s “no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future.”
I think they’re right. I also think they mean “foreseeable future” as in “the next few decades or maybe centuries”.
Films like “2012” notwithstanding, geologists have been learning quite a bit about how volcanoes, supervolcanoes and tectonics in general work. They’re also keeping close tabs on what’s happening on and under Yellowstone.
I don’t doubt that we have a very great deal left to learn. But I’m pretty sure that “they” don’t really know a supervolcano is about to cancel the next Super Bowl, and are selling tickets to an unsuspecting public.
Although that might make a good story. And I’m drifting off-topic again.
Now, about the Yellowstone Caldera. The last big eruption there happened about 631,000 years back. Before that there were two: about 1,300,000 years and 2,080,000 years back.
There may be another one coming, but there’s also a good chance that the Yellowstone hotspot is running out of steam. Magma, actual.
Taking the three known supereruptions and doing some simple math could tell me that we’re overdue for something that’ll put a crimp in presidential politics. But as the USGS points out, supervolcanoes don’t run on a timetable.5
That hasn’t stopped filmmakers from making screen spectacles.
Supereruptions: and a Film Clip
If, and it’s a big if, another supereruption is imminent — it wouldn’t be good for real estate prices in the American West, Midwest or South. At all.
But I strongly suspect that quite a few folks here would survive.
And, barring daft decisions, we might even keep our political units in operation. And that is still another topic or two.
My suspicions aren’t blind optimism. We’ve been through this before.
New Zealand’s Taupō Volcano blew about 25,500 to 25,700 years back. As far as I could tell after a quick check, it’s the most recent supereruption on Earth.
Some 69,000 to 77,000 years ago, a supereruption left Sumatra with Lake Toba. It had a measurable effect on Earth’s climate. Direct and indirect effects of the eruption probably killed a great many folks living in that part of the world. But many of us survived.6
I was going to talk about Yellowstone events, past, present and future; the Toba catastrophe theory; and why I take ‘science news’ with a pallet or two of salt.
But now it’s Friday afternoon. It’s been one of those weeks, and I got distracted.
So what’s (probably) ahead for the Yellowstone hotspot, and a little of my speculation, will wait until another time.
Bottom line?
Movies are movies, science is science.
Entertainment can be fine. But decisions? They’re better if there’s science in the mix. Or at least common sense.
I haven’t talked about geology nearly as much as I though I had:
Billy Sunday giving another rip-roaring performance. (1915)
Pope Francis criticized (some) Catholics in my country.
If I had any sense, and was trying to make A Catholic Citizen in America famous, influential, profitable or some combination of those qualities, I’d have long since picked an earnestly wacky political fringe position.
And, having picked my target demographic, I would now churn out a rant denouncing the pope for not being sufficiently American; for not supporting the civil rights of wombats — or whatever the Great Cause of the Month was.
I don’t, happily, have that sort of “sense”. But I do think this deserves a brief response:
“…Francis made his comments on Aug. 5 in a private meeting in Lisbon with members of the Jesuit order, of which he is a member, during his trip for World Youth Day. They were published on Monday by the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.
“In a question-and-answer session, a Portuguese Jesuit said that during a sabbatical in the United States, he was saddened that many Catholics, including some bishops, were hostile to the pope’s leadership.
“‘You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude. It is organised and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally,’ the pope responded.
“Religious conservatives in the United States often have aligned with politically conservative media outlets to criticise the pope over a host of issues such as climate change, immigration, social justice, his calls for gun control and his opposition to the death penalty….”
Being Catholic, and American
Political cartoons of yesteryear: 1896, 1912.
To begin with, I’m “A Catholic Citizen in America”, like the blog title says.
In other words, I’m a Catholic.
I live in America. I’m a citizen.
But I am not a [liberal/conservative/libertarian/whatever] Catholic Citizen.
I’m a Catholic, and I take my faith seriously.
Since no political party reflects the values and behaviors that come with being Catholic, I can’t reasonably give unyielding, unwavering, unthinking allegiance to any political party.
I probably wouldn’t, even if by some miracle there was a political clique that was a good match, and that’s another topic.
I’m not utterly apathetic, so I do have views that correspond to political platforms.
[Not] Fitting a Political Pigeonhole
A few years back, I took a few of those ‘what are your political beliefs’ online (and free) questionnaires.
I learned that I was conservative, liberal, and — in one case — libertarian.
Results depended on what questions the questionnaire asked.
Now, about what Pope Francis said.
I think the Pope is Catholic, and that he’s right: some folks in this country who say they’re Catholic, and may sincerely believe that they’re the only ‘real’ Catholics left, act a great deal like the wacked-out and very Calivinist-Protestant radio ranters of my youth.
There may be loony left Catholics who are convinced that the Church oughta be more firmly supportive of voting rights for pigeons, or whatever the current cause is.
My guess is that the ‘Jesus was a liberal’ faction doesn’t make much noise, at least not in a religious context. And that’s yet another topic. Topics.
There. I’ve talked about Pope Francis and making sense.
India’s Vikram lander successful descent and touchdown near Lunar South Pole. (August 23, 2023)
India became the fourth nation to land on Earth’s Moon this week. And the first to land near the Lunar south pole. This is a very big deal.
So, in a different way, was the “abnormal situation” that turned Russia’s Luna-25 lander into an impactor.
Humanity is returning to the Moon. I think this is a good thing.
I woke up in time to watch ISRO’s coverage of Wednesday’s historic touchdown near Manzinus crater. Folks in mission control showed more enthusiasm than I did, here in central Minnesota. But they’re all younger than I am: so that’s no surprise.
I was and am delighted at ISRO’s successful Lunar landing. And even more pleased about the Indian Prime Minister’s upbeat words.
The degree to which today’s “Russia” is distinct from the old “Soviet Union” is — another topic.
The Soviet space program was rebranded as Roscosmos in the early 1990s, and is an organization I’m profoundly glad isn’t part of my personal experience.
“… ‘Russia’s Cold War legacy will be just that — a legacy — unless they can actually do this themselves,’ said Victoria Samson, the Washington office director for Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the peaceful exploration of outer space….”
“… More than a dozen other countries also have plans for moon missions in the coming years, including the United States’ ambitious Artemis III, which could land astronauts on the lunar surface as soon as 2025.
“‘I think it … speaks to how much the cost of space exploration has dropped,’ Samson said. ‘It’s still not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s gotten a little more reasonable. … I think that’s why more countries are able to (attempt) it.’…”
Folks working for Roscosmos have not been having a good time. The outfit has been re-organized and underfunded several times since the Soviet Union fizzled.
Having someone decide that both restarting the defunct Luna program and aiming for a south polar landing did not help.
“…Because orbital dynamics make the south pole difficult to reach, it hasn’t been as deeply explored as other areas. That gives Russia and every other nation with lunar ambitions a key reason to go: There is clear scientific — and strategic — interest.
“…But [Duke University’s Space Diplomacy Lab founding member, Robert] Pearson questioned why Russia chose to head straight for the south pole for its first lunar mission in nearly 50 years.
“‘All they had to do was land (somewhere on the moon) and they would have shown the world that they were in the space race,’ Pearson said of Russia. ‘They took a desperate measure — in my opinion — when they should have picked a safer option.’…” Jackie Wattles, CNN (August 22, 2023)
There’s quite a bit going on in that CNN article. For one thing, the “experts” had names. It’s been quite a while since anonymous “experts” became a news media embarrassment, which isn’t what I was talking about.
One point I wanted to make is that landing on the Moon is anything but easy, particularly when the spacecraft has to pass safely over the polar regions.
Another, and this is why I dragged the Russian effort into my look at Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram landing, is that we’re living in the early 21st century. Not the decades between World War II and 1991.1 Things have changed. A lot.
But not everything.
“…The Sky is Not the Limit”
Chandrayaan-3’s path to the Moon. ISRO via Sky & Telescope, used w/o permission.
I’d planned on talking about Chandrayaan-3’s design, particularly the systems that piloted it down to a safe landing.
But I didn’t find descriptions with the sort of detail I like. I did find pictures that show what’s where on the propulsion module, lander, and rover.
Problem is, ISRO is part of India’s government: and someone decided that their intellectual property rights required detailed discussions. I’m pretty sure that what I had in mind comes under “fair use” definitions, but I’m not sure.
So I’ll put links to resources on the ISRO and Wikipedia websites, and leave it at that.2
If I knew more about Indian law, culture and customs, then maybe I’d realize that using those ISRO illustrations was okay. But I don’t. So I’m playing it safe. Moving along.
“…This Success Belongs to All of Humanity”
First image Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram, after safe landing. (August 23, 2023) ISRO via Sky and Telescope.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the ISRO team via video conference in time to watch Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing.
I’m pretty sure he had remarks prepared for an unsuccessful event. But Vikram touched down, safely and smoothly. So here’s part of what Modi said:
“Our moon mission is based on human-centric approach. Therefore, this success belongs to all of humanity” “PM joins ISRO team via VC to witness landing of Chandrayaan 3“, Prime Minister’s Office, Press Information Bureau, Government of India (August 23, 2023)
“Time is not far when the children would say ‘Chanda Mama ek tour ke’ i.e. the moon is only a tour away” “India is proving again and again that the sky is not the limit” “PM joins ISRO team via VC to witness landing of Chandrayaan 3“, Admin, Narendra Modi (August 23, 2023)
I know: both sources have the same title. I don’t know why, but that’s how it was on the government of India website, so that’s what I’m showing here. There’s more, by the way, particularly on Narendra Modi’s page.
My notes from the video conference have different words for that “…belongs to all of humanity” quote.
Probably because I’m an American, and remember what’s on the Apollo 11 plaque: “…We came in peace for all mankind”.
Apollo 11’s slogan echoes part of the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act:3
Sec. 102. (a) The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind….”
I’m not virtue signalling for my country’s self-described best and brightest, so I’ll skip the conventional bitter self-recriminations.
I don’t know where Prime Minister Modi’s “…this success belongs to all of humanity” phrase comes from. Maybe there’s something in India’s history that parallels that 1958 U.S. federal statute.
But it’s nice, hearing echoes from one of my country’s better moments.
“… ‘The Moon is Only a Tour Away'”
Successful Lunar landings: NASA map showing Moon’s near side, mentioning a successful farside landing.
I’ll say it again. India’s successful Lunar landing was and is a very big deal.
Just getting a spacecraft to the moon is a noteworthy accomplishment. Although not as much as it was, back in the 1950s.
Back then, just hitting the Moon with an impactor probe was a big deal. Take my country’s Ranger program, for example. The first two didn’t get off Earth. Of the next four, all had mission-ending equipment failures and two missed the Moon entirely.
I haven’t heard news about Roscosmos since Luna-25’s alternatively-successful landing. And I hope that Yury Borisov doesn’t experience a fatal accident, like another Russian whose behavior was inconvenient for the powers that be. Which is yet another topic.
Anyway, exploration of the Moon peaked in the 1960s, went off the radar in the 1980s, and got its second wind in the 1990s.
Decade
Lunar Missions Launched
Sponsors
1950s
13
USA, USSR
1960s
63
USA, USSR
1970s
23
Japan, USA, USSR
1980s
0
—
1990s
7
Japan, USA
2000s
12
China, ESA, India, USA
2010s
12
China, private, USA
2020s
19
China, Italy, Japan, Korea, private, Russia, UAE, USA
The 1980s weren’t exactly a “lost decade”, since we’d collected massive quantities of data by that time. And I am not going to get distracted by a history of Lunar research.
One thing that’s new about the current wave of Lunar missions is both the number of different countries involved and an increasing number of private-sector outfits.4
Robert Goddard, Opel-RAK, and Missed Opportunities: Another Digression
Urukami Roman Catholic Cathedral, Nagasaki, Memorial service. (November 23, 1945)
Private-sector spaceflight is another rabbit hole I’ll (mostly) leave for another time, but here’s a twenty-five cent tour.
Which I see is now a fifty-cent tour. Huh. Inflation, I suppose. In my father’s day it would have been a nickel tour, and I’m wandering off-topic. Again.
In an ideal world, the decades leading up to 1914 would have seen European leaders accept that the 18th century was over: and not setting up interlocking treaties which pretty much guaranteed something like the First World War.
But this is not an ideal world.
One assassination triggered a global war. When it was over, upwards of 17,000,000 folks had been killed; and rulers of the winning side decided that punishing the losers, particularly Germany, was a good idea. Which it was, if they wanted to go through the same thing again.
Anyway, a professor on one side of the Atlantic flew the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 and was roundly ridiculed for imagining that rockets could work in space.
Meanwhile, on the other side, a division of Opel, Opel-RAK, was experimenting with rocket-propelled land and air vehicles.
Then the Great Depression started, Americans got fed up with Prohibition, Germans got fed up with reparations, and a few years later survivors were digging out from occasionally-radioactive debris.
Somewhere along the line we forgot that individuals and businesses had been doing basic research and development for first-generation spacecraft.
Then outfits like Scaled Composites and SpaceX started making headlines:5 giving some serious thinkers conniptions.
I don’t see a problem with folks who aren’t government employees developing new technologies and services. And that’s — you guessed it — yet again more topics.
LVM3, Chandrayaan-3 —
Indian Space Research Organization illustration: LVM3 launch vehicle and Chandrayaan-3.
“India’s space agency has released images of the far side of the Moon as its third lunar mission attempts to locate a safe landing spot on the little-explored south pole.
“The pictures have been taken by Vikram, Chandrayaan-3’s lander, which began the last phase of its mission on Thursday.
“Vikram, which carries a rover in its belly, is due to land on 23 August….”
India’s LVM3, Launch Vehicle Mark-3, used to be called GSLV Mk III: Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. It’s a higher-payload version of the older GSLV.
It can lift 22,000 pounds, 10,000 kilograms, to Low Earth orbit; or 8,800 pounds, 4,000 kilograms, to a Geostationary transfer orbit. That makes it a medium-lift launch vehicle, at least by NASA standards.
ISRO’s LVM3’s main job is putting communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit; but it’s been used for the Chandrayaan-2 and -3 missions, and is slated for a crewed version of their Gaganyaan space station.
One more item. ISRO says that “Chandrayaan” means Moon (Chandra) and yaan (vehicle) in Sanskrit and Hindi.6
I checked with Google Translate — which says Moon in Hindi is चंद्रमा, chandrama, and vehicle is वाहन, vaahan; in Sanskrit शशांक and वाहनं.
I figure folks who actually speak a language are more reliable translators than an online auto-translate function, so I’ll go with ISRO’s version.
Which, finally, gets me to “Vikram”, the Chandrayaan lander’s name.
— and Vikram Sarabhai
Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
Folks at ISRO named their moon mission’s lander after Vikram Sarabhai.
He’s from a family that figured in India’s independence movement, became a physicist and astronomer, got India’s space research and nuclear power started — those, I gather, are the main points.
It’s as if one of Thomas Jefferson’s kids founded Fermilab, jump-started NASA — and I knew I forgot something — Vikram Sarabhai also founded India’s Physical Research Laboratory. That was in 1947.
Small wonder folks in India and elsewhere think highly of him. So far, his name’s on a lunar crater (Sarabhai), a rocket engine (Vikas), a privately-built rocket (Vikram S) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Maybe more: those are just examples I found.
And, of course, the Vikram Lunar lander. Which, last I checked, has sent back video of the mission’s Pragyan rover “moonwalking” onto the surface.7
Chandrayaan-3 and Smart Robots
PTI illustration: ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 after Landing Module reduced its orbit to 25 km x 134 km.
“ISRO on Monday said a two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and Chandrayaan-3’s Lunar Module has been established.
“‘ “Welcome, buddy!” Ch-2 orbiter formally welcomed Ch-3 LM. Two-way communication between the two is established. MOX has now more routes to reach the LM,’ the national space agency said in a post on ‘X’.
“ISRO said on Sunday the lander module of Chandrayaan-3, the third lunar mission of India, is expected to touch down on the surface of the Moon around 6.04 pm on August 23….”
This is where I was going to talk about Chandrayaan-3’s control system. But it’s been one of those weeks: topped off by a power outage Friday afternoon. My taking more time than I maybe should have, trying to find detailed information, didn’t help.
So here’s a very abbreviated version.
Chandrayaan-3 includes upgrades from the Chandryaan-2 lander. It’s got four variable-thrust steerable thrusters, but not Chandryaan-2’s fifth constant-thrust unit. The Chandryaan-3 lander’s four legs are beefier than Chandrayaan-2’s.
Maybe the Chandrayaan-3 lander’s Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) is something new, maybe not. I wasn’t able to pin down that detail.
In any case, the LDV tells the lander’s AI which way it’s pointed on all three axes. “Velocimeter” in the name strongly suggests that it tells the AI how fast it’s going, too.8
Calling Home
AFP photo: a Hindu priest performs a special prayer for the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission next to a model of the spacecraft LVM3-M4. (August 20, 2023)
“The distance between the Earth and Moon is more than 238,855 miles (384,400 km), it could take approximately 2.6 seconds for two-way radio communication to travel that far. That’s the kind of lag that the ISRO Mission Operations team at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, would be facing while transmitting and receiving signals to and from the Chandrayaan-3 lander that’s circling the Moon.
“Given that India has the advantage of having two crafts—Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module—circling the Moon, ISRO would be using one of them as a backup/emergency communication link.
“ISRO has designed and developed the Chandrayaan-3 ‘Vikram’ lander in a way that permits the lander craft to directly communicate with the stations back on Earth. In fact, the 26-kg Pragyan rover would also be depending on the lander craft for all its communication with the ground stations back on Earth….”
That two-and-half-second delay is why having a smart lander matters.
Setting down, softly, on an unprepared field means that there’s no time for a controller with a joystick back on earth to see a hazard and steer away from it.
I talked a bit about that sort of thing a couple years back, in reference to NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.9
Again, I couldn’t find much detail on the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s control systems. Maybe I was looking in the wrong places. I’ve been rummaging through NASA and related websites long enough to know my way around. And that’s still another topic.
Space Missions, Prayer, and Being Catholic
Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury, London, had a hawan for successful landing of Chandrayaan-3.
I don’t remember reading about Americans getting together to pray for the success of Apollo 11, New Horizons, or other missions.
Maybe it’s due to my country’s odd attitudes about science and religion, a decision by mainstream news media that such events weren’t newsworthy, or something else.
In any case, folks in at least two places were praying for the success of Chandrayaan-3.10
So how come I, as an American and a Christian, am not having fits over a hawan in Kingsbury and a Hindu priest’s prayer next to a model of the spacecraft LVM3-M4?
Well, partly it’s because the rabid radio preachers of my youth encouraged a strong distaste for (self?)-righteous rage.
But mostly it’s because I’m a Catholic, and take my faith seriously.
I became a Catholic because I’m a Christian, and finally realized who currently holds the authority our Lord gave Peter. I’m a Christian because I’m convinced that Jesus is — who he said he is.
Now, about folks who prayed for the success of Chandrayaan-3? The ones I read about weren’t Christians, but like I said, I’m a Catholic.
Recognizing Divisions, Accepting “Us”
There are divisions within humanity.
But I do not see humanity as “us and them”.
Since I’m a Catholic, I recognize divisions, but see us as — us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 839-845)
“…Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things,[Acts 17:25–28]) and as Saviour wills that all men be saved.[1 Timothy 2:4]…” (“Lumen Gentium“, Pope Saint Paul VI (November 21, 1964))
And that’s all I have time for this week. Eventually, I’ll talk about why the Moon’s south polar region is so important. Maybe next week, but more likely later. I’ve got a few other items lined up that could go first.
Something new each Saturday.
Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
I live in Minnesota, in America's Central Time Zone. This blog is on UTC/Greenwich time.
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Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
Heat, last week’s Hurricane Idalia and this weekend’s Typhoon Haikui (Hanna?) are causing trouble.
