China's Space Program News Thread

[xiabonan]

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Very confusing! A lot of stories this morning about Yutu being dead.

If the problem was the solar panel didn't close that gives the rover protection during sleep mode then they shouldn't have to need it to close to do it. More moving parts needed just means it's more likely to break down. So if they designed the solar panel to serve for that dual purpose, that's just bad. I guess we'll have to wait to see if they can get operating normally.

Apparently a state media in China posted the "early death" information and was quoted else where. But this turned out to be false info. Mind you that the official Weibo account for Yutu has already come back to use, and it says something like it's still alive but the glitch is still there, unsolved. And men on the ground are doing whatever to save it.

I believe what happened is that the Yutu actually made through the Lunar Night with the glitch.

 

[Lion]

Obviously, China is playing a trick on the naysayer. They purposely link out some rumour of yutu dead and the slayer will quickly jump on the bandwagon and claim made in China crap. Only to get disappointed when they are rebutted.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Interesting that the sites I've been reading headlining Yutu is dead have remove all their stories from their front page. Some of these more niche sites have stories posted at least a day or more until new stories push it out. Yahoo sometimes annoys me with the same stories on top of their front page for days sometimes. The news that the rover was still communicating appeared and now is nowhere without doing a search.

 

[Hytenxic]

Good to hear that there still may be hope though I suppose some failures are inevitable as it is China's first rover mission. On the other hand the comments on the yahoo article are cancer-inducing. Are people really that dumb or are they just trolling?

 

[Quickie]

I wonder the Chinese scientists thought of hiding Yutu in some moon rock crevice. This would help to retain some of the heat during the lunar night.

 

[broadsword]

It seems it is only the mechanical parts that are giving problems and not the electronics.

 

[Quickie]

It seems it is only the mechanical parts that are giving problems and not the electronics.

The electronics is very sensitive to extreme cold and would without protection against the cold probably just crack up. The workings of mechanical parts are critical in that it's part of the Yutu mechanism to cover the rover and retain some of the heat during the lunar night.

 

[Franklin]

There maybe a resurrection of the jade rabbit.

Down but not out: Jade Rabbit comes back from the dead

Reports of Jade Rabbit's demise may have been premature.

China's first lunar rover had stopped functioning, state media reported Wednesday, but signs are emerging that Yutu, as it is known in Mandarin, may be up and running again.

Following technical malfunctions Xinhua said that the lunar rover had lost communication with mission control but on Thursday the state news agency said that the rover was "fully awake" and had returned to its normal signal-receiving status.

"Jade Rabbit has fully resurrected and is able to receive signals, but still suffers a mechanical control abnormality," China's lunar program spokesman Pei Zhaoyu told Xinhua.

"The rover entered hibernation while in an abnormal state. We were worried it wouldn't be able to make it through the extreme cold of the lunar night. But it came back alive. The rover stands a chance of being saved as it is still alive."

Xinhua also posted a screenshot of the Chang'e-3 Moon Probe's Sina Weibo account, which, at 8.49am Thursday morning local time, asked: "Is anyone out there?"

The rover has over 300,000 followers on the Chinese Twitter-like social media site, some of whom celebrated the lucky robot's resurrection.

One Weibo user said that the rabbit was "waking up for the [Chinese lantern] festival" which starts on Friday.

Another took a cynical view, commenting that some countries would "be disappointed" at China's space program's ability to come back from the dead.

An amateur website dedicated to monitoring radio signals from space also reported on its Twitter account that it had detected "pretty good signals" from the device.

The lunar rover's end seemed near when it signed off at the end of January with a poignant message: "Goodnight humanity."

The device had been out of action for two weeks following a technical malfunction, and media around the world filed its obituary late on Wednesday after a short statement on Chinese state media alerted the world to its apparent terminal failings.

"China's first lunar rover, Yutu, could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected," the report stated.

However, the robot has given its fans in China and around the world hope that it will resume its planned three-month mission and continue examining the moon's surface for potential resources.

The deputy chief designer of the Chang-e probe system told China National Radio the technical team is still trying to determine the source of problem and work on the plan for repair.

Should Jade Rabbit make a full recovery, it would cap another success for space exploration, which has seen NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, currently exploring the red planet, far outlast its expected lifespan.

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[Jeff Head]

There is no such distinction as commercial and military GPS satellites. They are all the same set of satellites.

Actually, the US military, the EU, Russia, and China all have separate Global Navigation/Positioning satellite constellations. So, while the official NAVSTAR GPS satellites operated by the US Air Force are the same, there are also others.

I should have been more specific. Outside of GPS, additionally there are in fact both Military and Commercial Satellites (not necessarily GPS satellites) They have many similar functions that overlap, but they are also different and have varying capabilities in terms of movement/adjustment.

A few examples of the different ones (which is by no means exhaustive):

Examples of Military Satellites:

WGS - Wideband Global SATCOM, 6 satellites to date (USAF)
KH - Key Hole Reconnaissance Satellites Versions 1-13, Over 200 Satellites (NRO)
NAVSTAR - GPS Satellites Block I-IIF, 62 satellites to date (USAF)
NOSS - Ocean Surveillance SIGINT/ELINT, 47 satellites to date (US Navy)
DMSP - Meteorological (Weather) 14 satellites to date (USAF)
ORION, TRUMPET, JUMPSEAT - ELINT, 12 satellites to date (est,) (NRO)
GALILEO - Global Navigation/Positioning, 8 satellites to date (EU)
GLONASS - Global Navigation/Positioning, 24 satellites to date (Russia)
BEIDOU/COMPASS - Global Navigation/Positioning, 16 satellites to date (China)

Examples of Commerical Staellites

INTEL - Communciations, 52 satellites yo date (Intelsat Company)
ASTRA - Communications, 16 satellites to date (SES SA)
RADIOSAT - Communications (Radio), 6 satellites to date (Sirius XM)
SIRIUS - Communications, 4 Satellites (SES SA)
TIROS/ITOSS - Weather, 45 satellites to date (US Weather Bureau, NOPAA, RCA)

This was more my meaning. I should not have responded and generalized to GPS alone.

As to the destruction of satellites...many of these constellations are in significantly different types of orbits, and at different altitudes above earth. So it is not accurate to say that destroying a few will destroy them all. Although for specific constellations of Global Navigation/positioning satellites, if they are in the same orbit, inclination, etc....if you get some it is likely that you will get the others.

 

[solarz]

There maybe a resurrection of the jade rabbit.

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Excellent news!

They must have used Energizer for its batteries!