China's Space Program News Thread

[Equation]

Nice photos Joshuatree! I bet base jumpers around the world are salivating to jump off and parachute off those towers.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

And the happy little bunny Is Dying a Slow Painful death!

China's ailing moon rover weakening: designer
English.news.cn 2014-10-10 22:35:48 More
BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's ailing moon rover Yutu has entered its 11th dormancy as the lunar night falls, with its functions degrading gracefully, its designer said Friday.

The rover is currently in good condition and works normally, but its control problem persists, said Yu Dengyun, deputy chief designer of China's lunar probe mission.

"Yutu has gone through freezing lunar nights under abnormal status, and its functions are gradually degrading," Yu told Xinhua at an exclusive interview.

He said that the moon rover and the lander of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission have completed their tasks very well. The rover's designed lifetime is just three months, but it has survived for over nine.

Chang'e-3 mission was the second phase of China's lunar exploration program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to the Earth. The program is scheduled to end around 2020.

The Chang'e-3 probe was launched on Dec. 2 last year and landed on the moon on Dec. 14..

The rover, Yutu, named after the pet rabbit of the lunar goddess Chang'e in Chinese mythology, separated from the lander and touched down on the moon's surface on Dec. 15.

Yutu's radar started working on Dec. 15 when the lander and rover took photos of each other and beamed them back to Earth.

The rover, as its name implies, was intended to roam the lunar surface, surveying the geological structure and substrate while looking for natural resources, but control problems emerged before the second lunar night fell on Jan. 25.

The lunar program authorities said the problem was probably caused by the "complicated lunar surface," including stones and dust, but this has not been confirmed.

"We hoped the moon rover would go farther, and we really want to find the true reason why it didn't," Yu said, adding that they can only try to deduce the cause via ground-based simulation.

Yu said the Chang'e-4 mission is under further analysis.

As the backup probe of Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4 will verify technology for Chang'e-5. The more sophisticated Chang'e-5/6 missions are aimed for tasks including unmanned sampling and returning to Earth.

China plans to launch an experimental recoverable moon orbiter before the end of this year to test technology vital for the success of Chang'e-5.

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[delft]

And the happy little bunny Is Dying a Slow Painful death!

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This will have given a treasure of experience to the designers.

 

[Quickie]

The next Chang'e launching this week? This is really on a short notice!

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New lunar mission to test Chang'e-5 technology
English.news.cn 2014-10-22 13:57:53 More




• China will launch a new lunar mission this week to test technology likely to be used in Chang'e-5.
• The experimental spacecraft is expected to reach a location near the moon and return to Earth.
• Spacecraft's speed will be slowed down so it can land safely at determined location during process.


BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- China will launch a new lunar mission this week to test technology likely to be used in Chang'e-5, a future lunar probe with the ability to return to Earth.

The experimental spacecraft launched this week is expected to reach a location near the moon and return to Earth, according to a source with the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense on Wednesday.

The test model is currently in normal condition and is scheduled to launch between Friday and Sunday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The mission will involve the spacecraft entering, exiting, and re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and landing on Earth, the source said.

During this process, the spacecraft's speed will be slowed down so it can land safely at a determined location, a key capability needed for Chang'e-5, which may return from the moon at a very high speed, according to the scientists' explanation.

The Chang'e-5 probe, expected to launch in 2017, will be tasked with landing on the moon, collecting samples and returning to Earth.

 

[broadsword]

Correct me if I am wrong. The test does not include landing on the moon.

 

[Quickie]

Correct me if I am wrong. The test does not include landing on the moon.

The probe is expected to orbit the moon for a number of days before returning to earth. Who knows, they may decide to land secretly at first, but to be revealed later, a separate module on the moon surface - a small module at that because the probe itself would take up most of the available payload possible for the Long March (3B?) rocket.

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by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Oct 22, 2014


Illustration of China's lunar return module. Artwork by Morris Jones.
China will launch its latest lunar orbiter in the coming days, state media said Wednesday, in its first attempt to send a spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth.

The spacecraft, which has not been named, will launch between Friday and Sunday, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

It is China's first lunar module capable of returning to Earth, which will require withstanding the high temperatures that develop when a probe re-enters the terrestrial atmosphere.

It is intended to test technology to be used in the Chang'e-5, China's fourth lunar probe, which aims to gather samples from the moon's surface and will be launched around 2017, according to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).

Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a marker of its rising global stature and mounting technical expertise, as well as evidence of the ruling Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

The military-run project has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.

China currently has one moon rover, the Jade Rabbit, on the surface of the moon.

The craft, launched as part of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission late last year, has been declared a success by Chinese authorities, although it has been beset by mechanical troubles.

A Xinhua report last week said that the Jade Rabbit had "entered its 11th dormancy as lunar night falls, with its functions degrading gracefully".

According to the Chinese Business View newspaper, the latest probe will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

"After flying around the moon for about one week, the spacecraft will return to earth, landing somewhere within our country's borders," the paper said.

"This will mark the first time in the work of the Chang'e series that a craft will have 'returned home' from the moon," it added.

 

[duskylim]

Correct me if I am wrong. The test does not include landing on the moon.

Yes from what I have read, that is correct.

Multiple lunar orbits are not part of this I believe.

What is likely to happen is that China will undertake the same solution as that of Apollo, the trans-lunar injection orbit.

Its actually easier to go around the moon in an orbit that performs an extended figure 8 looping around the far side of the moon at apogee and back and around the earth at perigee.

This orbit uses less fuel than slowing down the spacecraft with a long burn so that it falls into lunar orbit.

And you get to see the far side of the moon!

 

[Quickie]

Yes from what I have read, that is correct.

Multiple lunar orbits are not part of this I believe.

What is likely to happen is that China will undertake the same solution as that of Apollo, the trans-lunar injection orbit.

Its actually easier to go around the moon in an orbit that performs an extended figure 8 looping around the far side of the moon at apogee and back and around the earth at perigee.

This orbit uses less fuel than slowing down the spacecraft with a long burn so that it falls into lunar orbit.

And you get to see the far side of the moon!

The Chinese source in the article specifically mentioned about the probe orbiting the moon for about a week. So, if it's true, the mission is going to be even more challenging than the extended figure 8 maneuver.

"After flying around the moon for about one week, the spacecraft will return to earth, landing somewhere within our country's borders," the paper said.
"This will mark the first time in the work of the Chang'e series that a craft will have 'returned home' from the moon," it added.

 

[RCBarbosa]

The Chinese source in the article specifically mentioned about the probe orbiting the moon for about a week. So, if it's true, the mission is going to be even more challenging than the extended figure 8 maneuver.

Chang'e-5-T1 will be launched on a free-return trajectory and is not going to orbit the Moon.

 

[Quickie]

Chang'e-5-T1 will be launched on a free-return trajectory and is not going to orbit the Moon.

If that's the case, it won't be a more complete test of the Chang'e-5 systems because a return sample mission would require the lander/sample collector to fly back into moon orbit and rendezvous with an orbital module before flying back to earth. It's possible they're postponing that to a later test mission though.