Service module of China's lunar orbiter enters moon's orbit

The service module of China's unmanned test lunar orbiter successfully decelerated, allowing it to enter an 8-hour orbit on Sunday, according to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

Following instructions from the center, the service module conducted the braking at around 3 a.m. and entered the 8-hour elliptical moon orbit with a perilune of about 200 km and an apolune of about 5,300 km.

The spacecraft has sustained balanced energy and is in a sound condition, according to the center, adding that the center exercised timely and stable control and tracing of the service module and relevant tests had been carried out smoothly.

The module will make its second and third braking in the early hours of Jan. 12 and 13 respectively to enable it to enter the target 127-minute orbit for tests to prepare for the next lunar probe mission, Chang'e-5, said center's chief engineer Zhou Jianliang.

"The first braking is the most crucial," Zhou said. "Precise braking must be performed at perilune to prevent it from flying away from the moon."

The lunar orbiter was launched on Oct. 24. The service module was separated from the orbiter's return capsule on Nov. 1, which returned to Earth on Nov. 1 after circling the moon during its eight-day mission.

The service module reached the Earth-Moon second Lagrange Point (L2) in late November and left the L2 point on Jan. 4 after completing all preset scientific detection tasks.

The orbiter is a test run for the final chapter of China's three step lunar program -- orbiting, landing and returning.

The obtaining data and validating re-entry technology will inform the development of Chang'e-5, which is slated for launch around 2017. 
[xinhuanet.com]
11/1/15
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Related:

• China's unmanned lunar orbiter returns home, first in nearly four decades

 

• Reusable moon lander 

• China releases photos taken by Chang'e-3

• Lander and rover ready to perform exploration tasks.

• Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

Reusable moon lander

China is preparing for the launch of an experimental recoverable moon orbiter, said the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense on Sunday.

The orbiter arrived in Xichang in Southwest China's Sichuan Province via air on Sunday and was transported to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, according to a statement from the administration.

The launch will take place before the end of this year. 

The plan is for the orbiter to be launched into lunar orbit and return to Earth. 

It is one of the test models for China's new lunar probe Chang'e-5, which will be tasked with landing on the moon, collecting samples and returning to Earth.

China launched the Chang'e-3 lunar probe with its moon rover, Yutu, in late 2013. Chang'e-3 successfully landed on the moon and Yutu operated well until its control mechanism failed in January.
Sources: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
11/8/14
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• China releases photos taken by Chang'e-3

• Lander and rover ready to perform exploration tasks.

• Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

China Loses First Lunar Rover

MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – China officially announced the loss of its maiden lunar rover Wednesday due to technical problems.

“China's first lunar rover, Yutu, could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected,” the state-owned China News Service said.
In December, the 140-kilogram lunar rover, whose name translates as Jade Rabbit, made the first soft landing of any probe on the moon in nearly four decades.

China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense reported on January 25 that the space vehicle had experienced a mechanical control abnormality because of the "complicated lunar surface environment."
The problem occurred shortly before the rover, which was meant to roam the lunar surface for three months while surveying natural resources, went into automatic shutdown for the two-week lunar night.

• The landing of the Jade Rabbit on the moon was hailed as a major success of the ambitious Chinese space program, which includes a permanent space station and manned flights to the moon and Mars.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20140212/187474430/China-Loses-First-Lunar-Rover.html
12/2/14
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Related:

• Abnormality found on China's moon rover (video CCTV)

• China releases photos taken by Chang'e-3

• Lander and rover ready to perform exploration tasks.

• Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

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• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

 

Abnormality found on China's moon rover (video CCTV)

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Chinese scientists are preparing to overhaul its moon rover "Yutu", after an abnormality was detected as it went dormant.

The information was revealed by the country’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence on Saturday.

It specified that the abnormity occurred due to "the complicated lunar surface environment", without giving further details. Chang’e-3 and the moon rover finished their work for a second lunar day, and both entered a lunar night mode. 

The abnormality emerged before the rover went into dormancy at dawn on Saturday, as the lunar night fell. Chang’e-3 successfully landed on moon on December 14th last year.
 cntv.cn
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Related:
 

• China releases photos taken by Chang'e-3

• Lander and rover ready to perform exploration tasks.

• Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

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• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

 

Lander and rover ready to perform exploration tasks.

video cctv

This was the fifth time the rover and the lander took photos of each since they arrived eight days ago. Scientists in Beijing have been processing them and say scientific tasks can now begin.

"Ten pictures have been taken at five spots so far, and all of them are better than we expected. The rover has moved in a semi-circle around the lander. Afterwards, they will begin to conduct scientific explorations of the geography and geomorphology of the landing spot and nearby areas, and materials like minerals and elements there. 


We will also explore areas 30 meters and 100 meters beneath the lunar soil. The exploration will continue longer than we planned, because all the instruments and equipments are working very well," said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China Lunar Probe Program.
 cntv.cn
22/12/13
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Related:
 

• Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

 

 

Full video: Journey to the moon: Yutu separates from lander (3 video)

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China's "Jade Rabbit" separates from lander 
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BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- 
China's first moon rover, Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, separated from the lander early on Sunday, several hours after the Chang'e-3 probe soft-landed on the lunar surface.
The six-wheeled rover touched the lunar surface at 4:35 a.m., leaving deep trace on the loose lunar soil. The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent to the earth.

The transfer mechanism with Yutu aboard unlocked at 4:06 a.m. with one side reaching the moon's surface, allowing the rover to descend to the surface following a ladder mechanism.
After the separation, the rover and lander will take photos of each other and start their own scientific explorations.
Chang'e-3 landed on the moon's Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, at 9:11 p.m. Saturday, making China the third country in the world to carry out such a rover mission after the United States and former Soviet Union.
In ancient Chinese mythology, Yutu was the white pet rabbit of the lunar goddess Chang'e. The name for the rover was selected following an online poll that collected several million votes from people around the world.
 http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20131215/100540.shtml
15/12/13
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• China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

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  • Chinese lunar rover lands on moon. -The mission makes China the third country to carry out a rover mission after US and former Soviet Union.

China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, state media reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat.

Scientists burst into applause as a a computer generated image representing  the spacecraft was shown landing on screens at a Beijing control centre, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed on Saturday, 12 days after Chang'e-3  blasted off on a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

Landing was the "most difficult" part of the mission, the Chinese Academy of Sciences had said in an online post written on the official Chang'e-3 Weibo page.
The probe, which was fitted with shock absorbers in the legs to cushion the impact of the landing, performed a "free-fall" for the crucial final few metres of descent.

"Chang'e-3 is completely relying on auto-control for descent, range and velocity measurements, finding the proper landing point, and free-falling,"  Chang'e-3's microblog said before the landing. "At this stage, the Earth base is effectively powerless, and there is only about 10 minutes to finish the process."
Ambitious programme...............http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/12/china-first-lunar-rover-set-touchdown-2013121454636469941.html

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China launches probe and rover to moon (video cctvnews)

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XICHANG, Sichuan, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China launched the Chang'e-3 lunar probe with the country's first moon rover aboard early on Monday, marking a significant step toward deep space exploration.
The probe's carrier, an enhanced Long March-3B rocket, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 1:30 a.m.
Chang'e-3 is expected to land on the moon in mid-December to become China's first spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
It is also the first moon lander launched in the 21st century.

The probe entered the earth-moon transfer orbit as scheduled, with a perigee of 200 kilometers and apogee of 380,000 kilometers.
"The probe has already entered the designated orbit," said Zhang Zhenzhong, director of the launch center in Xichang. "I now announce the launch was successful."
"We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," he said.
Amid efforts to promote lunar probe campaign among the public, the Chinese Academy of Sciences opened a microblog account for the Chang'e-3 mission, attracting more than 260,000 fans who continuously posted congratulatory comments.
The probe's soft-landing is the most difficult task during the mission, said Wu Weiren, the lunar program's chief designer. "This will be a breakthrough for China to realize zero-distance observation and survey on the moon."
More than 80 percent of technologies and products of the mission are newly developed, he said.
The Chang'e-3 will lay a solid foundation for manned lunar orbit mission and manned lunar landing. China has not revealed the roadmap for its manned mission to land on the moon.
So far, only the United States and the former Soviet Union have soft landed on the moon.
Chang'e-3, comprising a lander and a moon rover called "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit), presents a modern scientific version of an ancient Chinese myth that a lady called Chang'e, after swallowing magic pills, took her pet "Yutu" to fly toward the moon, where she became a goddess, and has been living there with the white rabbit ever since.
Tasks for the moon rover include surveying the moon's geological structure and surface substances, while looking for natural resources.
A telescope will be set up on the moon, for the first time in human history, to observe the plasmasphere over the Earth and survey the moon surface through radar.
The lunar probe mission is of great scientific and economic significance, said Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the lunar probe.
The mission has contributed to the development of a number of space technologies and some of them can be applied in civilian sector, he said.
Chang'e-3 is part of the second phase of China's lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to the Earth. It follows the success of the Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 missions in 2007 and 2010.
After orbiting for 494 days and intentionally crashing onto the lunar surface, Chang'e-1 sent back 1.37 terabytes of data, producing China's first complete moon picture.
Launched on Oct. 1, 2010, Chang'e-2 verified some crucial technologies for Chang'e-3 and reconnoitered the landing area. It also made the world's first lunar holographic image with a resolution of 7 meters.
Currently, Chang'e-2 is more than 60 million km away from the Earth and has become China's first man-made asteroid. It is heading for deep space and is expected to travel as far as 300 million km from the Earth, the longest voyage of any Chinese spacecraft.
China is likely to realize the third step of its lunar program in 2017, which is to land a lunar probe on moon, release a moon rover and return the probe to the Earth.
The moon is considered the first step to explore a further extraterrestrial body, such as the Mars.
If successful, the Chang'e-3 mission will mean China has the ability of in-situ exploration on an extraterrestrial body, said Sun Huixian, deputy engineer-in-chief in charge of the second phase of China's lunar program.
"China's space exploration will not stop at the moon," he said. "Our target is deep space."
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third country after Russia and the United States to achieve independent manned space travel.
Despite fast progress of the lunar mission, China is still a newcomer in this field.
The former Soviet Union first landed its probe on the moon on Jan. 31, 1966, while the United States first sent human beings to the moon in 1969.
About a day before the launch of Chang'e-3, India's maiden Mars orbiter, named Mangalyaan, left the Earth early on Sunday for a 300-day journey to the Red Planet.
Chinese space scientists are looking forward to cooperation with other countries, including the country's close neighbor India.
Li Benzheng, deputy commander-in-chief of China's lunar program, told media earlier that China's space exploration does not aim at competition.
"We are open in our lunar program, and cooperation from other countries is welcome," he said. "We hope to explore and use space for more resources to promote human development."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-12/02/c_132932922.htm
2/12/13 (asia time)
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Related:

• China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

  
  

   

China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe early Monday (video cctvnews)

A mission to land the first spacecraft on the moon’s surface in over 40 years is set to begin on Monday. China will send its Chang’e-3 probe at around 1:30am local time, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

It’s the first time China has attempted a soft landing on any extra-terrestrial surface. Scientific data from the moon’s surface will be sent directly back to earth, and a telescope will be installed on the moon.


The Chang’e-3 mission is the second phase of China’s lunar program, which involves the various stages of orbiting, landing and returning to Earth, ahead of a potential manned lunar mission. It follows the success of the Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 missions in 2007 and 2010. Preparations for the launch are reported to be going well at the launch center.
cntv.cn
30/11/13
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