For the first time after 37 years, a spacecraft automatic tip to the surface of the Moon. It is not Russian, nor American, like all those that had until now been selenic alternate on the ground, but it is the Chinese probe Chang’e (named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon), whose launch took place today at 18:30 (on time) from the base spatial Xichang, Sichuan Province.
powerful Long March 3B carrier rocket, in slightly modified version than the one that brings the spacecraft in orbit on board with the “taikonauts,” he turned his eight engines hydrazine, came off with regularity from the platform launch and inserted into Earth orbit the spacecraft automatic Chinese. The moon landing is scheduled for Dec. 14, and once dropped on the surface, the spacecraft will release a six-wheeled rover that will have to walk on the moon, in the region of the Sinus Iridum, not far from where he came down into 1970, the first lunar rover in history, the Russian “Lunokhod 1.”
ESA shall contribute in some way to the mission, thanks to its large Earth stations, which are able to keep in contact with the probe during its journey towards our natural satellite in space. This launch confirms once more the interest to the Moon by the Chinese space program and its space agency (CNSA), the probe match today was preceded by two missions: the first to Chang’e 1, was reached lunar orbit in November 2007 and the second, Chang’e 2, reached the lunar globe in October 2010. Both remained operational in lunar orbit, but now you point to landing and landing of a rover, dubbed “Yutu” heavy 140 kilograms. The name was chosen through a public vote on a shortlist of 10 possible names, in Chinese mythology, is the Yutu “jade rabbit”, a companion of the moon goddess Chang’e.
The rover is powered by solar panels, but there is also an onboard heat source radioisotope to keep it in optimum temperature during the long lunar night. On board, in addition to scientific instruments to analyze the samples for digging the soil, navigation equipment features 4 bedrooms and 4 panoramas that can send high-resolution images to earth from the moon. This is the first attempted landing on another celestial body from the Chinese side. The last probe to touch the surface of the moon was the Soviet Luna 24, which landed August 18, 1976 and then again the next day, returning to the ground 170 grams of lunar samples with a happy landing in Siberia. Exactly what, according to the experts, and as reported by the website “spaceflightnow.com,” should be the next step of China to the Moon.
The Chinese space program, in addition to its program of interplanetary missions, began exactly 10 years ago the sending of its astronauts in orbit (or “taikonauts”). After the first launch of Yang Liweii, in October 2003, followed by other missions, until the last flight in June last year, with three “taikonauts” on board, including the second Chinese astronaut. The objective of the current mission is to build the first space station in orbit of China, and in fact, for now, the missions of spacecraft Shenzhou (“divine vessel”), have made, and with great success, appointments and docks into orbit a prototype of the station, the form-lab “Tiangong 1″. But in addition to manned space flight, the Chinese space program has several goals in space, in the field of satellites for earth observation, those of telecommunications, and to expand, especially on future orbital laboratories, studies in various scientific disciplines (starting materials science, biology and astronomy) under conditions of weightlessness (or microgravity).
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