Fwd: China successfully lands robotic rover on the moon

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 14, 2013 10:51:59 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: China successfully lands robotic rover on the moon

 

 

 

China successfully lands robotic rover on the moon
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
December 14, 2013

A Chinese robotic rover landed on the moon Saturday, becoming China's first outpost on another world after a rocket-powered descent to an unexplored volcanic plain named the Bay of Rainbows.

Chang'e 3 returned real-time imagery of the moon from an on-board descent camera. Credit: CCTV
 
The ambitious Chang'e 3 mission also achieved the first "soft landing" on the moon in 37 years, and it made China the third country to pull off the feat after the United States and Russia.

Touchdown occurred at about 1311 GMT (8:11 a.m. EST; 9:11 p.m. Beijing time) in the Bay of Rainbows, a dark basin on the moon's near side filled with lava that congealed billions of years ago.

The Chang'e 3 lander dropped from a low-altitude orbit, using its variable-thrust main engine to reduce its velocity from orbital speeds of 1.7 kilometers per second, or about 3,800 mph, to nearly zero.

Chinese media reports said the lander was designed to halt its descent about 300 feet above the lunar surface to ensure the landing zone was clear of hazards such as boulders or steep slopes.

Once the probe's autonomous hazard detection system was satisfied the landing site was safe, Chang'e 3 resumed its descent before shutting off its engine about 10 or 15 feet above the moon. Chinese officials said they designed the craft's landing sets with impact suppressors similar to shock absorbers.

Laser and radar ranging sensors supplied altitude and terrain data to Chang'e 3's computer, giving the lander navigation cues during the final descent.

Such on-board smarts have never been used on an unmanned lander before.

Chinese state television broadcast the landing live, showing animation and real-time imagery from Chang'e 3's camera.

Engineers at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center, who appeared stoic and reserved before landing, erupted in applause and flashed smiles when the touchdown was announced.

Artist's concept of the lander and rover on the lunar surface. Credit: Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering
 
Chang'e 3 was expected to deploy a six-wheel mobile rover as soon as a few hours after landing.

The 140-kilogram, or 308-pound, rover will drive several miles around the landing site during a three-month mission.

China named the rover Yutu after soliciting suggestions from the public. Yutu translates as "Jade Rabbit" in English.

In Chinese mythology, Yutu is a rabbit who accompanies the goddess Chang'e to the moon.

It could take several days to pinpoint the probe's exact location on the moon.

Two European Space Agency tracking antennas were called up to receive signals from Chang'e 3 on Saturday. One of the European-owned ground stations in Australia tracked the lander throughout its descent, and another near Madrid was on standby to pick up a signal from Chang'e 3 a few hours after landing.

The New Norcia station near Perth received a strong signal from Chang'e 3 throughout its descent, according to an ESA official at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

Chang'e 3's ground team at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center monitored the landing through China's own communications antennas, but ESA's ground stations were configured to provide navigation support.

Using quasars, bright beacons at the hearts of distant galaxies, ESA can attain precise position estimates for spacecraft flying through deep space. Chang'e 3 will be the first time the technique -- Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging, or delta-DOR -- has been used for a stationary probe on the surface of another celestial body.

In the delta-DOR technique, engineers compare the exact time a spacecraft's signals are received at two ground stations -- in Australia and Spain for the Chang'e 3 mission. The antennas simultaneously track a quasar, which have known locations, to correct for errors induced by radio signals passing through the Earth's atmosphere.  

 

© 2013 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

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China Lands On Moon - Rover Yet To Deploy
by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 14, 2013

The CLEP logo features the Chinese picrographic character for "Moon" tweaked with a dragon's head and peace doves. It also features another graphic at its very centre: Two human fooprints in space boots. The long-term goal of this first landing is graphically clear.

The successful landing of China's Chang'e-3 spacecraft on the Moon is significant for several reasons. This is China's first landing on another heavenly body, and represents an important step forward for their space program. It's also the first object to safely land on the Moon in 36 years, breaking a mission drought that has gone longer than most analysts would have expected.

Like the launch of India's first Mars mission a few weeks ago, the landing of Chang'e-3 also serves as a wake-up call to the world at large. China's space program cannot be ignored or dismissed as a half-hearted effort. China has scored again, and has demonstrated the ability to keep scoring.

This may be China's first lunar landing, but it's hardly a modest try. The Chang'e-3 spacecraft is large, complex and very capable. The rover it carries is the most sophisticated robot ever to operate on the surface of the Moon. The mission will perform scientific experiments that have never been previously attempted on the Moon. The scientific returns will be bountiful.

It's only fair and accurate that the world should pay more attention to China's steadily advancing capabilities in spaceflight. But the reaction to this mission must also be kept in perspective.

This analyst has long suggested that China is steadily developing the technologies to send astronauts to the Moon, and will launch such a mission at some time in the future. But don't hold your breath. Chinese astronauts will not land on the Moon any time soon. A decade from now, they still won't be there. And nobody really knows how long it will take.

The spacecraft used in this mission is another step forward in working towards this ultimate goal. It has demonstrated the basic technologies and capabilities that could be incorporated into a future Chinese astronaut lander.

But there's still a lot of work to do before China can even contemplate such a mission. In any case, China's astronauts will be busy over the next few years flying to a new space laboratory, then a new Chinese Space Station that will appear with the turn of the decade.

The landing of Chang'e-3 is the first in a sequence of four robot lunar landings that China has officially announced. Another rover-carrying mission is next. Later, China will launch two missions to retrieve samples of lunar rocks and return them to Earth. These missions should all be completed over the course of this decade.

As China develops more capabilities in spaceflight, the stage will eventually be set for a human lunar program. China may decide to send astronauts on circumlunar flights that will take them around the Moon without landing.

Eventually, the footpads and rover tracks left by China's robot spacecraft will be joined by human footprints. Naysayers and critics of China's ambitions would do well to inspect the logo of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), which has operated all of China's three robot lunar missions to date.

The CLEP logo features the Chinese picrographic character for "Moon" tweaked with a dragon's head and peace doves. It also features another graphic at its very centre: Two human fooprints in space boots. The long-term goal of this first landing is graphically clear.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst who has covered the various Asian space programs for SpaceDaily.com since 1999. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

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China successfully soft-lands probe on the moon

By LOUISE WATT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Saturday successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually have a Chinese astronaut set foot on the moon.

The unmanned Chang'e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor following a 12-minute landing process.

The lander carried a six-wheeled moon rover called "Yutu," or "Jade Rabbit," the goddess' pet. After touching down Saturday evening on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon, the rover was slated to separate from the Chang'e eight hours after landing and embark on a three-month scientific exploration.

China's space program is an enormous source of pride for the country, the third to carry out a lunar soft landing after the United States and the former Soviet Union. The last one was by the Soviet Union in 1976.

"It's still a significant technological challenge to land on another world," said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane's Space Systems and Industry. "Especially somewhere like the moon, which doesn't have an atmosphere so you can't use parachutes or anything like that. You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don't end up in a crater on top of a large rock."

State-run China Central Television showed a computer-generated image of the Chang'e 3 lander's path as it approached the surface of the moon, explaining that for about a 12-minute landing period it would have no contact with Earth. As it was just hundreds of meters (yards) away, the lander's camera broadcast images of the moon's surface.

The Chang'e 3's solar panels, which are used to absorb sunlight to generate power, opened soon after the landing. The Chang'e 3 will set up antennae that will transmit pictures back to Earth.

A soft landing does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries. An earlier Chinese craft orbited and collected data before intentionally crash-landing on the moon.

The Chang'e mission blasted off from southwest China on Dec. 2 on a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

China's military-backed space program has made methodical progress in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in technology and experience.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon. China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that.

"They are taking their time with getting to know about how to fly humans into space, how to build space stations ... how to explore the solar system, especially the moon and Mars," Bond said. "They are making good strides, and I think over the next 10, 20 years they'll certainly be rivaling Russia and America in this area and maybe overtaking them in some areas."

Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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Chinese unmanned spacecraft lands on moon

By Pete Sweeney

 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - 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.

The Chang'e 3, a probe named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, is carrying the solar-powered Yutu, or Jade Rabbit buggy, which will dig and conduct geological surveys.

China has been increasingly ambitious in developing its space programs, for military, commercial and scientific purposes.

In its most recent manned space mission in June, three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with an experimental space laboratory, part of Beijing's quest to build a working space station by 2020.

At 9:14 p.m. local time, the official Xinhua news service reported that the spacecraft had touched down in the Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, at 9:12 p.m. after hovering over the surface for several minutes seeking an appropriate place to land.

View gallery

 

The Long March 3B rocket carrying the Chang'e-3 lunar probe is seen docked at the launch pad at  …

A soft landing does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries. In 2007, China put another lunar probe in orbit around the moon, which then executed a controlled crash on to its surface.

China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast images of the probe's location on Saturday and a computer generated image of the probe on the surface of the moon on its website. The probe and the rover are expected to photograph each other tomorrow.

The Bay of Rainbows was selected because it has yet to be studied, has ample sunlight and is convenient for remote communications with Earth, Xinhua said.

The rover will be remotely controlled by Chinese control centers with support from a network of tracking and transmission stations around the world operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).

(Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Copyright © 2013 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

 

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China Lands On The Moon: Historic Robotic Lunar Landing Includes 1st Chinese Rover

By Leonard David, SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist   |   December 14, 2013 08:40am ET

The Chang'e 3 lunar lander and moon rover is part of the second phase of China's three-step robotic lunar exploration program. Credit: Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering View full size image

China has landed its first robotic lander on the moon, a historic lunar arrival that makes the country only the third nation to make a soft-landing on Earth's celestial neighbor.

China's Chang'e 3 moon lander and its Yutu rover touched down on the moon Saturday (Dec. 14) at about 8:11 a.m. EST (1311 GMT), though it was late Saturday night local time at the mission's control center in Beijing during the landing. It is the first soft-landing on the moon by any spacecraft in 37 years. 

Chang'e 3 launched toward the moon on Dec. 2 Beijing time to begin its two-week trek to the lunar surface. The spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit about five days after launch, and then began preparing for landing. A camera on the spacecraft snapped 59 photos of the moon during the descent, including a view straight from the lunar surface just after touchdown. [See photos from China's Chang'e 3 moon rover mission]

The first photo of the moon by China's Chang'e 3 lunar lander is shown here in this still from a broadcast by the country's state-run CNTV news channel on Dec. 14, 2013. Chang'e 3 delivered the Yutu rover to the moon with its successful landing.
Credit: CNTV

View full size image

Following a lengthy engine burn Saturday, the mooncraft lowered itself to the lunar surface on autopilot, making what appeared to be a smooth touchdown on the Bay of Rainbows in the moon's northern hemisphere. The descent from lunar orbit to the moon's surface took about 12 minutes.

Shortly after landing, Chang'e 3 deployed its vital solar arrays, which were folded for the landing, to begin generating power for its lunar surface mission. The lander is now expected to unleash the instrument-laden Yutu rover, built to trundle across the dusty, time-weathered terrain for months.

China's Chang'e 3 lunar arrival is the first soft-landing on the moon since 1976. Not since the former Soviet Union's Luna 24 sample-return mission has a spacecraft made a controlled, soft touchdown on the lunar surface. The last soft-landing on the moon by NASA was in 1972 during the Apollo 17 manned lunar landing mission.

The Yutu rover (its name means "Jade Rabbit") is named after the pet rabbit that travels with the goddess Chang'e to the moon in Chinese legends. Chang'e 3 is China's third lunar mission to carry the name, but the first to soft-land on the moon. The first two Chinese lunar missions were built to orbit the moon.  

China's Yutu moon rover, part of the Chang'e 3 lunar landing mission launching in December 2013.
Credit: China National Space Administration

The six-wheeled Yutu rover is a solar-powered vehicle equipped with cameras, a robotic arm tipped with science gear and a radar system attached to its underbelly.

The stationary lander itself also is geared to observe Earth, astronomically eye other celestial objects from the moon, as well as watch the Yutu rover wheel across the lunar terrain.

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

 

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