Chang'e 5-T1 may go to Mars...

[xenomorph555]

I and others have wondered what will happen to C5-T1 after it completes it's post mission program in June. Some say it will be something reasonable like an asteroid rendezvous or L2 sat, however there is a rumour that it will... fly to Mars. Now I have no idea if this is possible (i'm going to make the assumption of no) but it's a cool idea, it all depends on fuel levels, timing, etc. It's something I could see the Chinese doing though.

Questions:

When is the next Earth-Mars transfer date?

Have any other spacecraft gone from Lunar orbit to Mars?

Your thoughts?

[Reddragon]

I think the next transfer window opens next year (early summer I guess). As far as I know no spacecraft has ever left lunar orbit for Mars. Isn't Chang'e 5-T1 a sample lunar return mission?

[xenomorph555]

I think the next transfer window opens next year (early summer I guess). As far as I know no spacecraft has ever left lunar orbit for Mars. Isn't Chang'e 5-T1 a sample lunar return mission?

Chang'e 5 (2017) is a SRM.

T1 was a test mission that took a capsule round the moon back to Earth like Zond, then went back to L2 then to lunar orbit.

[deadshot462]

Would this be the first spacecraft to travel from one moon to another planet? I think so.

[Reddragon]

Chang'e 5 (2017) is a SRM.

T1 was a test mission that took a capsule round the moon back to Earth like Zond, then went back to L2 then to lunar orbit.

Oh, it's that! I mixed the two, sorry. Now the "post mission program in June" makes sense to me. I doubt that has enough delta V to go to Mars but if it does I'd say the red planet is the best option. It really depends on it's equipment.

[xenomorph555]

Oh, it's that! I mixed the two, sorry. Now the "post mission program in June" makes sense to me. I doubt that has enough delta V to go to Mars but if it does I'd say the red planet is the best option. It really depends on it's equipment.

If it has enough fuel to get to Mars then it will probably only be a flyby, however first we need work out the dv needed.

- - - Updated - - -

I did some rough calculations, I don't think it's possible on it's own. Maybe with an Earth slingshot.

[SubzeroSpartan7]

I don't believe it has enough Delta-V from what I understand it used up quite a bit of its fuel doing the perigee raising manuever and insertion into the Langrange point. It has also entered orbit around the Moon and has lowered it self considerably. From what I read it should only have about 200-300 M/s of Delta-V left.