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Moon landing 2013 (Chang'e 3)


czokletmuss

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THIS POST WILL BE REGULARLY UPDATED WITH NEW DATA AND PHOTOS

ARTICLES

Constant updates and lots of fresh news on China's CCTV page: http://english.cntv.cn/special/lunarmission/index.shtml

Article about landing on spaceflightnow: http://spaceflightnow.com/china/change3/131214landing/

Very detailed article on nasaspaceflight: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/12/china-jade-rabbit-lunar-arrival/

BEFORE LANDING

Mission minute by minute: http://live.china.org.cn/2013/11/29/coming-soon-china-launches-change-3-lunar-probe/

Article about Chang'e 3 mission on nasaspaceflight: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/12/china-change3-rover-to-the-moon/

VIDEOS

Yutu rover deployment:

BEFORE LANDING

Liftoff:

Chang'e 3 mission (animation):

PHOTOS

First picture from the Moon:

MTjyE9N.png

Yutu rover deployment:

20131214_change3_rover_deploy_1_roll.gif

20131214_change3_rover_deploy_2_transfer.gif

20131214_change3_rover_deploy_final.gif

BEFORE LANDING

Chang'e 3 after separation:

OYIDx0y.jpg

Liftoff:

22.jpg

Edited by czokletmuss
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The lander is surprising large for their first soft landing attempt:

x3AfNpt.jpg

As is the rover:

UqB8Pms.jpg

They also have a backup spacecraft, Chang'e 4, which will launch in 2015. Good for them. China is certainly taking a measured and deliberate approach to their space program. While the focus of their manned program at the moment is development of a space station, I can imagine that if Chang'e 3 is successful, there will be a major push towards a manned lunar landing perhaps a bit sooner than the 2030 timeframe they estimate.

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Looks cool to me. Go China. We need good competition for another space race.

Right - look how well the last sterile and meaningless race ended. Count me out. We need space development, not more stunts to fuel nerd fantasies.

(Not that there is going to be another race to start with - the historical situation that gave rise to the space race were and are unique.)

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Well, nationalism can do awesome stuff to a space program. :)

Unfortunately, a nationalistic space program is all the right goals for all the wrong reasons. Hell, just GOING to space tends to... alter one's view on nationalism. Seeing the Earth from orbit kind of makes you rethink politics a little, apparently.

Maybe all we really need to do is send the politicians to space for a few days.

To quote a certain Mr. Sagan,

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Back on topic, the Chinese rover: I'm hoping it paves the way for a multinational manned return to the Moon, with the Chinese, Americans, Russians, and ESA all co-operating... but I rather doubt it. I'm curious to see what kind of science will result from it either way.

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Well, nationalism can do awesome stuff to a space program. :)

Well, the Chinese program is anything but an example of that. They have just enough of a program to keep the propaganda flowing at home and to prove they are Great Nation - and not a renminbi more.

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This will wake up NASA for once..

I wouldn't count on that. However, if the sufficient number of hawkish politicians see their chance to gain more votes using cold-war-like rhetoric and President Obama will choose to go this way too, praising the past achievements of American nation, than, who knows, maybe there will be enough political support to give NASA more money? Because right now it looks like the SLS and Orion may get cancelled in few years, so the support - even originated from a nationalistic rhethoric - is very needed.

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Why? As an Australian, you should feel closer to China than to Europe. We are all the same species anyway.

Because they don't do things as rapidly (when was the last time someone sent a lander to the moon :P) and i'm talking about their space programs :P

And just because everything here is labelled made in china doesn't mean I'm more fond of China :P.

Edited by M.Wolfy
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Why? As an Australian, you should feel closer to China than to Europe. We are all the same species anyway.

I do hope you understand the difference between a geographical distance and a cultural one.

Unfortunately, a nationalistic space program is all the right goals for all the wrong reasons. Hell, just GOING to space tends to... alter one's view on nationalism. Seeing the Earth from orbit kind of makes you rethink politics a little, apparently.

Maybe all we really need to do is send the politicians to space for a few days.

Sounds like the US need space missions more than ever, with their focus on controlling and distrusting the whole world and breaking common sense and law on a large scale.

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Sounds like the US need space missions more than ever, with their focus on controlling and distrusting the whole world and breaking common sense and law on a large scale.

Nah, half the country would decry it as a waste of money. Besides, Murica's MO is to do something once and then claim that's what makes us awesome, even though we don't do it anymore.

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Right - look how well the last sterile and meaningless race ended. Count me out. We need space development, not more stunts to fuel nerd fantasies.

(Not that there is going to be another race to start with - the historical situation that gave rise to the space race were and are unique.)

It's the nerd fantasies that encourage space development. Are you saying we've learned nothing from the space race? That we don't apply what we learned then to our current space program? Either way...it is better then nothing. Competition is good. Very good. Let's say the Chinese do land a man on the moon and wave their flag. Americans watch, hear about this. Well... We can't have that now can we? This is America we are supposed to be the head of the spear in space. We gotta one up them.

Yes I would rather see a moon landing with scientific goals in mind, but if we go to the moon to wave a flag ourselves then so be it. The technology/knowledge gained from the endeavour will be good reguardless.

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It's the nerd fantasies that encourage space development.

You've phrased this as a fact, but it's not. It's an opinion.

Are you saying we've learned nothing from the space race? That we don't apply what we learned then to our current space program?

A complete non sequitur.

Competition is good. Very good. Let's say the Chinese do land a man on the moon and wave their flag. Americans watch, hear about this. Well... We can't have that now can we? This is America we are supposed to be the head of the spear in space. We gotta one up them.

That's simply not going to happen. The race to the moon in the 1960's happened because of a unique combination of political circumstances and because Kennedy was killed in Dallas.

Yes I would rather see a moon landing with scientific goals in mind, but if we go to the moon to wave a flag ourselves then so be it. The technology/knowledge gained from the endeavour will be good reguardless.

That might be true the second time around, it certainly wasn't the first.

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