Posted on 12/14/2013 9:53:16 AM PST by Hojczyk
BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar probe Chang'e-3, with the country's first moon rover onboard, successfully landed on the moon on Saturday night, marking the first time that China has sent a spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body.
The lunar probe began to carry out soft-landing on the moon at 9 p.m. Saturday and touched down in Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, 11 minutes later, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
During the process, the probe decelerated from 15 km above the moon, stayed hovering at 100 meters from the lunar surface to use sensors to assess the landing area to avoid obstacles and locate the final landing spot, and descended slowly onto the surface.
The success made China the third country, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to soft-land on the moon.
Compared to those other two countries, which have successfully conducted 13 soft-landings on the moon, China's soft-landing mission designed the suspension and obstacle-avoiding phases to survey the landing area much more precisely through fitted detectors, scientists said.
The probe's soft-landing is the most difficult task during the mission, said Wu Weiren, the lunar program's chief designer.
Chang'e-3 relied on auto-control for descent, range and velocity measurements, finding the proper landing point, and free-falling.
The probe is equipped with shock absorbers in its four "legs" to cushion the impact of the landing, making Chang'e-3 the first Chinese spacecraft with "legs."
Chang'e-3 adopted a variable thrust engine completely designed and made by Chinese scientists. It can realize continuous variation of thrust power ranging from 1,500 to 7,500 newtons, according to Wu Weiren.
The soft-landing was carried out 12 days after the probe blasted off on an enhanced Long March-3B carrier rocket.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.xinhuanet.com ...
The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.
Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies. There shall be freedom of scientific investigation in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and States shall facilitate and encourage international co-operation in such investigation.
Right. Where’s the proof?
BBC reports rover deployed, pictures of rover and lander
expected Sunday.
That’s pretty cool China. We have mobile semi autonomous remote control cars/labs on Mars.
First to call “faked in a Beijing film studio.”
Post of day!
Mare Imbrium is such a well defined Mare . I admire it when I look at it . Didn’t know there were sub parts of it
Here's "the old surveyor" ... which looks like a piece of junk!
The LM had some class, though.
Here are three screen shots of the deployment, the control room screen, and the interactive map from Wikipedia. ( Of course, the red spot marks the landing site. )
On the control room screen the big rectangle apparently marked the zone of possible landing sites, and it heavily overlaps Sinus Iridum. I suppose that the actual spot depended on the timing of the landing as it was in polar orbit.
wow ! I see her
I am going to set up my 8” schmidt cassegrain and take a good look tonight .
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