First soft landing on the moon in 37 years. Exciting stuff!
Excerpt from abc.net.au
A space module carrying China's first lunar rover has landed on the moon, marking a major step for the country's ambitious space program.
Scientists burst into applause as a computer-generated image representing the spacecraft was seen landing on the moon's surface via screens at a Beijing control centre, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed.
Hours later the rover was deployed, with China's Aerospace Control Centre saying it had "touched the lunar surface".
The rover will spend about three months exploring the moon and looking for natural resources.
abc.net.au Article (initial report of landing)
news.com.au Article (Video animation and further coverage)
abc.net.au Article (Discussion on next planned rover landing - Chang'e-4)
space.com Article (More images and detail)
*Images: FPV view tweeted by CCTV, Artist's impression from wikipedia
Comments
To take nothing from the guys pushing for Mars. the Moon seems like the next logical step after the International space station for a token colony to glean technology in a real time environment because of the distances evolved.
Jack has a point. Is China the next "Sleeping Giant?" To stir up the "Doubters ""When the new Moon is 3 days old on a crescent if you look right on the edge you can see light reflect off the lander with a 12 inch Newtonian reflector 1000 mm focal length 4mm eyepiece 2X barlow looks like a point of light reflecting off a cars wind shield. you have about 4 minutes . As the Moon continues to fill it gets brighter and brighter and eventually all the detail gets washed out.With this set up you can "pan" across the moon as if you are looking at a wall through a soda straw.Think of the new use full stuff that will be invented. remember the last trip? "Moon Boots ,etc."
It's a highly political issue. We make fun of Chinese for letting their people build houses in the middle of a freeway & pollute the air, yet this completely unregulated system is putting robots on the moon & astronauts in low Earth orbit while the highly regulated systems in the west can't even afford a launch pad.
@John Moore,
I totally agree with you. When private individuals and even hobbyists are gaining the capability to put payloads in orbit, the fact that some nation just put a robot surveyor on the moon (37 years after the last soft landing) is kind of ho-hum.
Putting a robot surveyor on Mars is the real challenge now (as the Russian know) and we have put three of them there already.
I suspect that NASA would have put a robot surveyor on the moon if there was ROI to be had, but I think chose to do surveying by an orbital payload.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
John,
One good reason:
http://www.space.com/13247-moon-map-lunar-titanium.html
Yawn... the Moon's been done.
Barcelona Moon Team shifts launch date for the lunar mission to June 2015 – Press Release. 2013.09.12
Barcelona Moon Team reviewed its technical milestones calendar to include the integration of the propulsion system in China.
The Barcelona-based company, Galactic Suite, leading the industrial conglomerate, Barcelona Moon Team, announced June 2015 as the new date to launch the Spanish robot to the Moon in itsattemptto win the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE.
The Google Lunar XPRIZE, the largest incentivized competition offered to date, challenges people from across the globe to build and launch a privately funded spacecraft to the moon. Once landing on the moon, the spacecraft must also complete a series of exploration and transmission tasks. The Google Lunar XPRIZE is one of three active competitions from XPRIZE Foundation, a leading organization solving some of the world’s biggest challenges by creating and managing large-scale, global competitions that stimulate investment in research and development, often worth far more than the prize itself.
Mr. Xavier Claramunt, Galactic Suite president and Barcelona Moon Team leader, and China Great Wall Industry Corporation officials signed an amendment to the launch service contract that formalizes the agreement through which the Chinese company that will provide launch services to the Spanish team.
“The shift to June 2015 updates the Barcelona Moon Team schedule according to the technical development of the lander module, which will be assembled partially in Spain and partially in China”, says Claramunt.
Most of the lander systems are developed and assembled in Spain, except for the propulsion sub-system, a critical part that will be provided by CGWIC. This process requires the lander to be shipped to China and back to Spain with a considerable complexity due to technology export issues.
“The assembly of the propulsion system in China requires modifying our technical calendar” added Claramunt, “but considering the benefits of using the Chinese propulsion technology, it definitely pays off”.
The original contract was signed in August 2012 and states that CGWIC provide the services of a Long March 2C launcher with an upper stage CTS2 for insertion into the lunar transfer orbit. The launcher will carry the Spanish lander module that, once released, will make the correction and deceleration operations for insertion into lunar orbit before landing on the lunar surface.
For the partners of the space industrial consortium, the success of the mission will mean developing qualification of technology and capabilities in complex missions resulting in a competitive advantage for the future.
http://www.barcelonamoonteam.com/barcelona-moon-team-shifts-launch-...
Bryan - I can't see how China visiting the moon is going to bring anything new to the table to satisfy those who believe the moon landing was faked. CCTV could tweet a steady stream of images from Jade Rabbit confirming the presence of any of the many items remaining up there, and people would still have their doubts.
There is plenty of information available for people who might wish to make their own investigations. Problem is, this type of detail is perhaps of little use to those interesting only in seeking out things that reinforce a pre-determined view.
I hope the rover makes it over to the US's Lunar lander site to finally shut the conspiracy theorists up about landing on the moon!
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