Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Apr 5, 2019 13:27:09 GMT 2
(.#170).- Mission Chang'e 4 : The Chinese rover will join the moon's hidden face.
Mission Chang'e 4 : The Chinese rover will join the moon's hidden face.
Article by Rémy Decourt published on 07/12/2018
On Saturday, China is expected to launch a rover to the far side of the moon. A world first and a daring technical challenge for the Chinese space agency, at the forefront of robotic exploration of the moon.
Weather permitting, China will launch Saturday a rover to the far side of the moon. This mission is a world first. This is the first time a rover will land on this side of the Moon that never faces the Earth. Hence his name "face hidden". The launch is scheduled for 8 December with an expected landing for the end of the year. The landing is planned inside the Von Kármán crater in the Aitken Basin in the southern hemisphere of the moon, near its south pole.
This rover will characterize his landing site and analyze the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface. It will also be tasked with conducting radio astronomy experiments and determining whether and how plants can grow there. To communicate with the rover and relay its data to Earth, China will use the Queqiao satellite launched in May 2018.
The crater Von Kármán within which the rover Chang'e 4. will land in red, the target area. © CNSA
That said, this hidden part of the moon is not completely unknown to us. This face has fewer dark spots, includes "seas" of basalt that appear darker on the surface but has many more craters of all sizes. Probes, in orbit around the moon, have mapped its entire surface and produced a wide variety of altimetry maps and measurements of all kinds.
The Russians were the first to have been able to observe the hidden face with the Luna 3 spacecraft, in October 1959. Despite the very poor quality of the images, this part of the Moon, not visible from Earth, proved to be of a very different from what we are used to.
Robots and men
In this field of robotic exploration of the moon, China has certainly taken a step ahead of NASA and other space agencies. Of course, Russia also has an ambitious lunar program, but the first missions are not planned for several years. After Chang'e 4, China plans another mission on the hidden side but to bring back lunar samples, which has not been done since NASA's inhabited Apollo mission. Three other robotic missions are also planned for the lunar poles with, again, sample return projects.
Beyond these robotic missions, China plans to install by 2030 a base that will eventually be occupied permanently.
F I N .
Mission Chang'e 4 : The Chinese rover will join the moon's hidden face.
Article by Rémy Decourt published on 07/12/2018
On Saturday, China is expected to launch a rover to the far side of the moon. A world first and a daring technical challenge for the Chinese space agency, at the forefront of robotic exploration of the moon.
Weather permitting, China will launch Saturday a rover to the far side of the moon. This mission is a world first. This is the first time a rover will land on this side of the Moon that never faces the Earth. Hence his name "face hidden". The launch is scheduled for 8 December with an expected landing for the end of the year. The landing is planned inside the Von Kármán crater in the Aitken Basin in the southern hemisphere of the moon, near its south pole.
This rover will characterize his landing site and analyze the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface. It will also be tasked with conducting radio astronomy experiments and determining whether and how plants can grow there. To communicate with the rover and relay its data to Earth, China will use the Queqiao satellite launched in May 2018.
The crater Von Kármán within which the rover Chang'e 4. will land in red, the target area. © CNSA
That said, this hidden part of the moon is not completely unknown to us. This face has fewer dark spots, includes "seas" of basalt that appear darker on the surface but has many more craters of all sizes. Probes, in orbit around the moon, have mapped its entire surface and produced a wide variety of altimetry maps and measurements of all kinds.
The Russians were the first to have been able to observe the hidden face with the Luna 3 spacecraft, in October 1959. Despite the very poor quality of the images, this part of the Moon, not visible from Earth, proved to be of a very different from what we are used to.
Robots and men
In this field of robotic exploration of the moon, China has certainly taken a step ahead of NASA and other space agencies. Of course, Russia also has an ambitious lunar program, but the first missions are not planned for several years. After Chang'e 4, China plans another mission on the hidden side but to bring back lunar samples, which has not been done since NASA's inhabited Apollo mission. Three other robotic missions are also planned for the lunar poles with, again, sample return projects.
Beyond these robotic missions, China plans to install by 2030 a base that will eventually be occupied permanently.
F I N .
