On: Athena landed in a dark crater where the temperature was -280° F / -173° C

[russdill]

It touched down with a large horizontal velocity component

[PantaloonFlames → russdill]

That’s another thing that bothered me about this story. They said they knew where the craft was , relative to the surface of the moon. Wouldn’t that also mean they should know of any substantial horizontal (x/y) component of velocity?

[marcosdumay → PantaloonFlames]

I don't know if it's the case, but there's a difference between knowing something and calculating its derivative fast enough for it to be useful.

[gtirloni → PantaloonFlames]

Yes, through image analysis.