Fwd: Spotlight on China's Moon Rover

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: November 26, 2013 10:36:01 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Spotlight on China's Moon Rover

 

China's lunar probe to land on moon next month

 

English.news.cn   2013-11-26 15:15:34

 

Wu Zhijian (C), spokesman with the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, introduces China's lunar probe at a press conference in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 26, 2013. China is scheduled to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe to the moon in early December, marking the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to soft-land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, the official said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Jinhai)

In pictures: China to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe in early Dec.

BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- China is scheduled to launch Chang'e-3 lunar probe to the moon in early December, the first time a Chinese spacecraft will soft-land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, an official said Tuesday.

Chang'e-3 comprises a lander and a moon rover called "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit). The lunar probe will land on the moon in mid-December if everything goes according to plan, said Wu Zhijian, spokesman with State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence(SASTIND).

Tasks for Yutu include surveying the moon's geological structure and surface substances, while looking for natural resources, Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar orbiter project, said in an interview with Xinhua.

Yutu will land in Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, and operate there for three months. It can travel at a speed of 200 meters per hour.

The Bay of Rainbows was selected because the level terrain will enable smooth communication and ample sunshine. Previous lunar missions were near the lunar equator and no country has surveyed the area yet. The Bay of Rainbows was "left blank" in the study of the moon, said the scientist.

The Chang'e-3 mission is the second phase of China's lunar program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth. It follows the success of the Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 missions in 2007 and 2010.

Chinese scientists have made technological breakthroughs for Chang'e-3, which will be the most complicated and difficult task in China's space exploration, SASTIND spokesman Wu said.

"More than 80 percent of the technology adopted in the mission is new," he said.

The mission will be China's first exploration of an extraterrestrial object using remote control of a lunar probe and deep space communication, Wu said.

Narrow time windows mean a timely launch is essential. Different trajectory parameters have to be adapted quickly as intervals between the windows are very short, he said.

Many technologies will be used to ensure the probe makes a soft-landing in low-gravity conditions. The rover will separate from the lander to the explore area around the landing site.

The lunar program will also see breakthroughs in remote control between the moon and Earth. Technologies of high precision observation and control as well as lunar positioning will be used in the mission, which includes experiments that would be extremely difficult to conduct on Earth's surface, he said. 

 

Copyright ©2013 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.

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Spotlight on China's Moon Rover
by Morris Jones for SpaceDaily.com
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 26, 2013

This is now the second major space mission to fly under the reign of Xi Jinping, and it seems that China's new leadership has set its space media policies firmly in place. Any hopes that China's change in leadership would lead to a more open policy for covering spaceflight seem to have been destroyed.

The upcoming launch of China's Chang'e-3 Moon lander and rover follows a busy year for the Chinese space program. Awareness of China's growing strength in spaceflight is rising throughout the world. So much has been achieved in human and robotic spaceflight. Work towards even greater feats is advancing rapidly.

China is moving forward in space, but as this analyst has long remarked, its policy of revealing its activities to the world has been lacking. China has always been somewhat cagey on its plans for space, even when there were no ostensibly secret or sensitive issues surrounding a mission.

Things seemed to be a little more open in 2012, when the Shenzhou 9 mission carried three astronauts to the Tiangong 1 space laboratory. Live video coverage of key events, including a manual docking, was provided. However, roughly a year later, space observers noted a strange step backwards in media coverage of the Shenzhou 10 mission, which also carried three astronauts to the Tiangong 1 space laboratory.

There was a relatively short gap between the launches, and the missions were similar. But media coverage was markedly different for Shenzhou 10. What had happened?

This analyst speculated that the rise of Xi Jinping to China's leadership could have changed the game. It seemed that China's media were being cautious while the new leader set his policies in place. Given time, we would hopefully return to normal programming.

This analyst has since watched media disclosure of China's first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon. The weeks leading up to the launch were fairly lean, but that was to be expected. China reported on the basics of the mission, as well as the arrival of the spacecraft and its rocket to the launch site.

A model of the rover was also exhibited at the International Astronautical Congress in Beijing. This pace of reportage seemed fairly normal, and matched the type of coverage given to China's earlier Moon orbiter missions. So far, so good.

With less than a week to go before the expected launch of Chang'e-3 on December 1 UTC time, the window for stronger media coverage was certainly open. But China still remained relatively quiet.

A media briefing on the mission held roughly six days before launch told us that the name of the rover was "Yutu", or "Jade Rabbit", but provided essentially no critical information that had not been previously published.

Even the launch date and time were announced with no more precision than "early December". Chinese television (CCTV) did not even carry this briefing live, but did make some minor references to the briefing on their Web site.

An overview of the media policy for Chang'e-3 suggests that China will still tell us of its plans and report on key events as they occur. There is no overwhelming blanket of secrecy, but we are still not seeing much progress in terms of coverage. In past times, China has sometimes tried to give more publicity to some of its missions, only to pull back for later ones. The oscillations now seem to be damping down.

This is now the second major space mission to fly under the reign of Xi Jinping, and it seems that China's new leadership has set its space media policies firmly in place. Any hopes that China's change in leadership would lead to a more open policy for covering spaceflight seem to have been destroyed.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst who has written 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 to send 'jade rabbit' buggy to the moon next month

 

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Visitors take pictures of a prototype model of a lunar rover at the 15th China International Industry …

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will land its first probe on the moon in early December which will deploy a buggy to explore its surface, an official said on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country's space ambitions.

China has already photographed the surface of the moon to prepare for the landing, said a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

In 2007, China launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang'e One orbiter, named after a lunar goddess, which took images of the surface and analyzed the distribution of elements.

The lunar explorer buggy was named "Yutu" in a public vote. "Yutu" means jade rabbit, a reference to Chang'e pet rabbit in folklore.

"Chang'e Three's mission requires mastering many key technologies. The technical difficulties and the risks involved in carrying out the mission will be high," spokesman Wu Zhijian told a news conference, carried live on state television.

"In taking on the mission to land on the moon, Chang'e Three will help China fulfill it's lunar exploration dream, it's space dream and the Chinese dream," said Wu.

Scientists will aim to carry out a soft landing and the buggy will rove around on the moon's surface. Scientists will also and test deep space communication technologies, Wu added.

Advancing China's space program has been a priority for the leadership, with President Xi Jinping calling for China to establish itself as a space superpower.

Scientists have discussed the possibility of sending a man to the moon some time after 2020.

China successfully completed its latest manned space mission in June, when three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with an experimental space laboratory critical in Beijing's quest to build a working space station by 2020.

China is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, which decades ago learned the docking techniques China is only now mastering.

Russia successfully carried out its first soft landing of a lunar probe in 1966.

Beijing insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said it was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.

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

(Reporting By Natalie Thomas; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Robert Birsel)

 

Copyright © 2013 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

 

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