Jhon B: I suspect two reasons for the low resolution.

1. This is from a lander camera on Vikram, which was optimized to provide the best information for landing the spacecraft, not for doing high resolution research.

2. The main purpose of this entire mission is engineering, not science. While it has scientific instruments that are gathering data, even there the goal is to test the engineering so that future science-based missions can be designed properly.

Just guessing here, but maybe because it is streaming from THE MOON. We – and I include myself – are ridiculously spoiled.

Bob Wilson: You might want to watch that long interview of the co-founder of Skyroot (an Indian rocket startup) posted in yesterday’s Quick Links. It suggests that this brain drain is not as serious as you think, and in fact, India is in a very strong position to achieve great things in the coming decades.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/31/india-moon-landing-brain-drain/

Opinion The unsung heroes of India’s moon landing offer a lesson on brain drain

India needs more heroes like Sreedhara Somanath than it needs entrepreneurs like Satya Nadella.
Did I hear you say, “Who?”

No offense to Nadella, the otherwise brilliant Hyderabad-born chief executive of Microsoft. But it’s the low-key Somanath, under whose leadership India achieved its historic moon landing, who should be a role model for Indians. He represents a generation of gifted scientists who chose not to emigrate — and achieved just as much, if not more, in challenging circumstances.

Somanath will never own a cricket team or show up on any Fortune or Forbes lists. He will probably never be called to dine at the White House. And he earns a fraction of what Indian Americans such as Nadella do. But spending just 30 percent more than Nadella’s annual salary, he took India to the moon.