China launches its first moon rover mission

[Buster's Uncle]

China launches its first moon rover mission
China launches its first lunar lander carrying a rover craft to the moon
Associated Press
14 hours ago



In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the Long March 3B rocket carrying the Chang'e-3 lunar probe blasts off



BEIJING (AP) -- China launched its first mission Monday to land a rover on the moon, an unmanned operation scheduled to arrive in mid-December to start surveying the lunar surface and transmitting images.

A Long March-3B rocket carrying the Chang'e 3 lander blasted off Monday as scheduled at 1:30 a.m. from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The launch center's director, Zhang Zhenzhong, declared the launch successful. "We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," Zhang was quoted as saying.

If the Chang'e 3 successfully soft-lands on the moon, China will become the third country to do so, after the United States and the former Soviet Union. 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 moon rover carried in the latest mission, called "Yutu" — or "Jade Rabbit" in Chinese — will survey the moon's geological structures, Xinhua said.

A telescope will be set up on the moon to survey the moon surface and observe the earth's plasmasphere, a region of dense, cold plasma that surrounds the earth, Xinhua said.

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.

The military-backed space program is a source of enormous national pride and has powered ahead in a series of well-funded, methodically timed steps.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-launches-first-moon-rover-011009713.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China's 1st Moon Rover Launches On Lunar Journey
SPACE.com
By Leonard David, SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist
21 hours ago






China's first-ever mission to land a rover on the moon has begun its journey to the lunar frontier.

Riding atop a modified Long March 3B rocket, China's Chang'e 3 moon lander and its rover Yutu  toward the moon at 1:30 a.m. Monday (Dec. 2) local time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country's Sichuan province. It was 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Dec. 1 at launch time.

If the probe continues on track, Chang'e 3 will land on the lunar surface by mid-December, becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on the moon in more than 37 years. The moon landing mission was the former Soviet Union's robotic Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.

Shortly after the Chang'e 3 spacecraft separated from its rocket, launch officials declared the liftoff a success.

"The Chang'e probe on its way to the moon, of course, is a symbol of China's national prowess," Zhang Zhenzhoung, director of China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, according to a translation by the state-run CCTV news broadcast. "Let's all work together ... to make more efforts in space exploration and realize the Chinese dream."

Chang'e 3 is expected to touch down by Dec. 14 or 15 to begin conducting scientific surveys on the moon. The mission is China's first-ever landing on the surface of an extraterrestrial body and signals a shift into the second stage of China's lunar exploration program. That program consists of three major steps: orbit the moon, land on the moon, and return moon rock samples to Earth by 2020.

China's first two unmanned moon missions, the Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 lunar orbiter flights, launched in 2007 and 2010, respectively.


Meet Yutu: China's first moon rover

The Chang'e 3 spacecraft is part lander, part rover, and is loaded with scientific gear.



Neil Armstrong trained for the historic Apollo 11 mission at the Lunar Landing Research Facility


The lander is expected to touch down in the Sinus Iridum region of the moon, also known as the Bay of Rainbows. Once on the lunar surface, the lander will deploy the Yutu rover — a six-wheel robot that weighs nearly 310 lbs. (140 kilograms).

Yutu, meaning "Jade Rabbit," is the white pet rabbit of the moon goddess Chang'e. The name was selected by the public using Internet websites. Participants around the world cast nearly 3.5 million votes, with Yutu receiving the most votes over a 10 day period.

Yutu is to patrol the moon for at least three months under control by scientists on Earth. Radar gear attached to the bottom of Yutu is to study the structure and layers of the moon down several hundred feet below topside as the machine crosses the lunar terrain.


Moon landing's tricky business

Getting the Chang'e 3 lander and rover on the moon is tricky business. The spacecraft's powered descent phase in the lunar soft-landing process will not be a long period of time, roughly 700 seconds.

The lander is equipped with high-precision, fast-response sensors to analyze its motion and surroundings. A variable thrust engine is employed to slow the spacecraft down as it drops toward the moon. The landing depends on the successful use of devices to track the probe's distance to the moon and descent velocity, as well as terrain recognition and obstacle avoidance sensors.

The Chang'e 3 lander is outfitted with an extreme ultraviolet camera that can monitor the Earth to study the formation of the planet's plasmasphere, or inner magnetosphere, and its density change, according to Chinese space scientists. The lander also carries optical telescope gear for astronomical surveys.



SPACE.com - This is a reduced version of a mosaic from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity


Tough test for China

In a CCTV.com interview, Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior advisor of China's lunar probe project, said the lander will hover above the moon at about 330 feet (100 meters).

"Then using special cameras it will look for a flat place to land on. Then when it's about 4 meters above ground, its engine will stop," Ouyang said. "The lander's four legs are shockproof and will ensure a soft landing."

Chang'e 3 deployed its landing legs shortly after separating from its Long March 3B rocket.

The lander will start work immediately after landing on the moon by observing space using an optical telescope, Ouyang said.

One tough test the Chang'e 3 mission must pass is withstanding the extreme cold conditions on the moon. To do so, both the lander and the rover will go into the lunar-night sleep mode. By using radioisotope heater units (RHU) and specially designed fluid loops, Chinese space engineers expect the moon hardware to survive the plunging temperature.


Tracking China's moonshot

The Chang'e 3 launch marked the 25th launch of the Long March 3B rocket — currently the most powerful launch vehicle in China's Long March rocket fleet — occurred in a narrow launch window just four minutes long.

Shortly after liftoff, the European Space Agency's ground station in Kourou, French Guiana, started receiving signals from the mission and uploading commands on behalf of the Chinese Chang'e 3 control center. The effort is being run from the Estrack Control Center in ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

"We picked up signals from Chang'e 3 from our Kourou station at 18:34 UT, a bit earlier than planned," said ESA's Gerhard Billig, systems engineer at ESOC. "We'll have communication passes again starting on Dec. 4 daily until arrival at the moon, expected on Dec. 6."

The ESA tracking assist will run daily throughout Chang'e 3's five-day cruise to the moon. ESA deep-space ground stations are to help out during descent and after landing, pinpointing the probe's path and touchdown locale.

"We had no problem receiving their signals, as we're both following internationally agreed technical standards" Billings told SPACE.com. "This really makes all the difference for the cooperative support we provide to not only the Chinese but also to our Japanese, Russian and U.S. partners."

The landing and rover operations on the moon will be commanded via two Chinese tracking stations at Kashi, in the far west of China, and at Jiamusi, in the northeast.

Visit SPACE.com for the latest news on China's space missions and the Chang'e 3 moon landing.


http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-1st-moon-rover-launches-lunar-journey-190716529.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China launches first moon rover, the 'Jade Rabbit'
China launches its first lunar lander carrying 'Jade Rabbit' rover to the moon
Associated Press
10 hours ago






BEIJING (AP) -- China launched its first rover mission to the moon Monday, sending a robotic craft named Jade Rabbit to trundle across the lunar landscape, examine its geology and beam images back to Earth.

A rocket carrying the rover aboard an unmanned Chang'e 3 spaceship successfully blasted off early Monday from a launch center in southwestern China and was scheduled to arrive on the moon in mid-December, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," Xichang Satellite Launch Center director Zhang Zhenzhong said.

If the Chang'e 3 successfully soft-lands on the moon, China will become the third country to do so, after the United States and the former Soviet Union. 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.

"Chang'e" is a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, and "Yutu" — or "Jade Rabbit" — is her pet.

The solar-powered rover will survey the moon's geological structures and set up a telescope to survey the surface as well as observe the Earth's plasmasphere, a region of dense, cold plasma that surrounds the planet, Xinhua said.

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. China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon.

The military-backed space program is a source of enormous national pride and has powered ahead in a series of well-funded, methodically timed steps. It has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in space technology and experience.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-launches-first-moon-rover-064543710.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China Launches Mission to Rove the Moon
By Kaijing Xiao | ABC News Blogs – 2 hours 21 minutes ago




 

A rocket blasted off from its base in southwest China early Monday carrying the country's first-ever robotic lunar rover. It is China's most ambitious space mission to date, and part of the ruling Communist party's narrative of national power and scientific mastery.

The Chang'e-3 probe is carrying a lunar rover called the Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, named after the mythical pet of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess. The probe and rover were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province.

The Chang'e-3 three-month mission is to land on the moon, rove around and collect soil samples. If all goes smoothly, China will become only the third country after the US and former Soviet Union to put a rover on the moon.

"The probe has already entered the designated orbit," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted launch center director Zhang Zhenzhong as saying, as he declared the launch a success to an applauding audience.

The Yutu rover is expected to land on the moon on December 14, at a landing site called the Sinus Iridium (The Bay of Rainbows). During its time on the moon, Yutu will explore the lunar surface, conduct geological surveys and search for natural resources within a 3-square-kilometer area. It will travel a maximum distance of 10 kilometers from the landing site. It is also able to transmit real-time video while digging and analyzing soil samples.

China established its lunar orbiter project in 2004 with the program "Project Chang'e." In 2007, it launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang'e-1. And in 2010, Chang'e 2 was launched to survey the moon's north and south poles and take high-resolution pictures of the chosen landing site for Chang'e-3.

Chinese scientists are working on sending a human being to the moon sometime after 2020, and on constructing a working space station by that time.

China's military plays an important role in the country's space program, which contributes to scientific research, commercial applications such as satellites, and military applications. Fearing that China might steal information for its space and missile programs, the US Congress passed a bill in 2011 which bans NASA from bilateral cooperation with China on space research.

According to Reuters, China pledges to share the technological achievements of its manned space program with other nations, especially developing ones, and will offer to train astronauts from other countries.

President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to establish itself as a major power in space. China's space program has produced plentiful imagery of state power, military prowess and technological achievement that mesh with Xi's pursuit of a "Chinese Dream."


http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/china-launches-mission-rove-moon-144522144--abc-news-topstories.html