Moon landing 2013 (Chang'e 3)

[Kryten]

So, another competetor of the space race! I have a feeling there will be a race to something....

Well let's just put it this way; after forty years without a single lunar landing by anyone, India, Russia, South Korea, ESA (since cancelled),and Japan have all suddenly decided it's something they should be doing. A Russia/India joint mission was put together directly to compete with this one (planned for landing in 2013 or late 2012), but that went out the window after the Phobos-grunt incident.

[czokletmuss]

More pictures and very detailed mission overwiev of Chang'e 3 is accesible here; http://www.spaceflight101.com/change-3.html

And guess what? This map is already not up to date:

"The probe's carrier, an enhanced Long March-3B rocket, entered the orbit with comparatively high precision, and the first two orbital trimmings were highly exact, which resulted in the probe being capable of meeting the demands of near-moon deceleration and follow-up orbital control," said a statement released Thursday by the administration.

Noting good adaptability in the flying control plan for Chang'e-3, the statement added that "it has been decided that a third orbital trimming is not necessary."

Source; http://english.cri.cn/6909/2013/12/06/2724s801882.htm

Some extra video material about Chang'e 3:

http://youtu.be/IUwEAHz6RI8

http://youtu.be/5OxtdaEjbks

At last I know how to pronounce "Sheznhou"

And remember: Lunar Orbit Insertion burn takes place on December 6, 2013 at ~2:30 UTC.

Edited December 5, 2013 by czokletmuss

[Meithan]

So? Any news on the orbital insertion?

[Kryten]

Nothing yet, but that time isn't actually official. Some sources are giving times around 9:00 UCT/GMT instead.

[Kryten]

Confirmation of successful insertion into lunar orbit.

[miracmert]

Yay! It's got into the lunar orbit!

[Deathsoul097]

WOO! We should launch our own KSP Chang'e 3 replica to celebrate!

[NASAFanboy]

WOO! We should launch our own KSP Chang'e 3 replica to celebrate!

Delivered.

Edited December 6, 2013 by NASAFanboy

[czokletmuss]

Awesome!

BEIJING - China's Chang'e-3 probe entered a circular lunar orbit at 5:53 pm Friday Beijing Time, after about 112 hours on a Earth-Moon transfer orbit, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) said.

The probe entered the lunar orbit after 361 seconds of precise braking by the variable thrust engine, following orders by engineers with BACC.

The center later verified that Chang'e-3 had entered the 100 km-high lunar circular orbit.

The braking was important otherwise Chang'e-3 would have escapes from the Moon, or crashed into it, said BACC.

The probe was launched at 1:30 a.m. Monday from southwest China's Xichang Satellite Center. It should soft-land on the Moon in the middle of December.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-12/06/content_17158578.htm

[OrianCEV]

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

As is the rover:

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.

Well,they have the groundwork layed down by the US and USSR,So they have the knowledge to launch bigger landers & rovers.

Edited December 6, 2013 by OrianCEV

[Meithan]

On December 10 (Chinese Time), Chang’e 3 [will perform] an orbit adjustment maneuver that places the vehicle in an orbit of 15 by 100 Kilometers around the Moon with the periselene location carefully positioned to line up with the landing site on December 14 for the ambitious landing maneuver.

The timing of landing has been carefully chosen considering the important factor of sunlight. With lunar days and nights of 14 days, it is highly desirable to perform the landing early in the lunar day at the landing site so that the lander & rover could operate for the first two weeks of the mission in daylight. There are no guarantees that either can survive the first lunar night so performing initial science operations in the first few days after landing ensures that at least some scientific and engineering data is gathered.

Sunrise at Sinus Iridum occurs on December 13/14 and landing later that day ensures that there is enough light for solar power generation, descent photos and initial photos to be taken at the landing site. After landing, the lander & rover are in constant sunlight for almost 14 days to allow initial operations to be completed before the first transition to Lunar Night Sleep Mode.

(Source: http://www.spaceflight101.com/change-3-mission-updates.html)

And the trajectory and landing time were also chosen so that China is looking at the event, facilitating tracking. Nice work on orbit planning, guys.

[BeefTenderloin]

Surely this is going to annoy NASA - LADEE is trying to study the lunar atmosphere, and a moon landing will kick up dusts and gas and affect the results.

[bigdad84]

Surely this is going to annoy NASA - LADEE is trying to study the lunar atmosphere, and a moon landing will kick up dusts and gas and affect the results.

Just goes to show, NASA needs to step up their game and land on the moon again.

[brdavis]

Surely this is going to annoy NASA - LADEE is trying to study the lunar atmosphere, and a moon landing will kick up dusts and gas and affect the results.

A known event, releasing known contaminants, at a known time and location? That's called a "tracer"… it was nice of the Chinese to do it for LADEE . Seriously, it's had a chance to characterize the system, and now it has a chance to characterize the system when it is perturbed out of equilibrium. This isn't a problem as much as it's a golden opportunity handed to them.

[czokletmuss]

A known event, releasing known contaminants, at a known time and location? That's called a "tracer"… it was nice of the Chinese to do it for LADEE . Seriously, it's had a chance to characterize the system, and now it has a chance to characterize the system when it is perturbed out of equilibrium. This isn't a problem as much as it's a golden opportunity handed to them.

Exactly. What a shame though that NASA and CNSA aren't cooperating in this matter - what's happenning is NASA seizing the occasion, it wasn't planned.

Check out this awesome infographic from space.com; what's especially worth noting is the sheer size of the lander:

[Tiberion]

Saw this making the rounds today: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/12/06/why-is-china-targeting-moon-and-should-nasa-as-well/ (yes I know, Foxnews. They actually have decent sci/tech articles if you realize that any related political comments will be from their viewpoint)

The interesting takeaway is Bolden reiterating his stance from April that NASA has no plans to do manned missions to the Moon, and may not in his lifetime. (He's 67, so we're only talking out to 2033-2040, but the point remains)

And Buzz Aldrin agrees with him, he thinks the focus should be on Mars.

Other things of note;

They suggest that there is very little support for the asteroid missions, either within NASA or in the science community beyond (although NASA's David Weaver doesn't seem to agree)

Also, Bolden says we won't lead a manned moon program, but he has actively offered supports to all of the other agency heads if they wanted to do one.

Clearly China is excluded from that for the reasons we have discussed before. I do wonder if any of the other agencies are planning anything as the quote suggests. And how much China's foreign policy would have to change to see the Congressional ban repealed. It's not like Russia is exactly friendly, but we still co-operate with them.

[czokletmuss]

We would all love to see NASA getting more funding and, more importantly, some real goal but luckily even if we talk only about unmanned exploration the near future is going to be exciting. New Horizons, Juno, Phobos-Grunt 2 (hopefully) and Chang'e program. I don't see however how exactly manned exploration is going to work accroding to NASA. I mean, commercial transport to LEO - unless they cancel ISS - is one thing, but going BEO is something else entirely. I guess only China is really interested in doing this and for various reasons they are not going to do this with USA. And with overpriced SLS, well - did you know that a single launch is going to cost more or less $1.5 billion? And in the same time Bolden is announcing this:

"NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had a tough message for the space science community today - forget about flagship missions, they're not affordable today. At the very same time on Capitol Hill, however, the chairman of one of NASA's key committees was expressing enthusiasm about a mission to Europa - unquestionably a flagship mission. The disconnect could not be more stark. Flagship missions are NASA's most expensive (over $1 billion) and risky space science missions, but offer exceptional scientific payoff."

Source: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/news/are-the-days-of-nasas-science-flagship-missions-over

I'm sorry, but I don't see much sense in all this. I get it that your politicians doesn't really care as long as their voters keep their job doing anything, whether it's really necessary or not, but it makes me kinda sad. But hey, at least Bill Nye isn't loosing hope:

[Tiberion]

I don't know why you think NASA isn't planning anything Beyond Earth Orbit. I'm not saying I have a lot of faith that the asteroid mission is a good idea, or that it will actually happen, but its certainly a BEO mission:

Send robot to asteroid. Put it in a bag.

Bring Asteroid-in-a-bag to Lunar neighborhood (orbiting I think? I saw the mission video on NASATV the other day)

Use SLS/Orion to send astronauts to explore asteroid

With the idea that it all leads to a manned martian mission as the technology matures.

Also, the initial SLS rockets will cost that much due to R&D costs. Its averaging the whole program cost (40 billion) over the 1st 4 rockets. The planned production cost is targeted at something like 500 million, which is still a lot.

The politics behind SLS are despicable, and its insane costs are directly caused by that. We voted for 'Change' and we certainly got it in our space program. But at this point, its better to push on than to scrap it and start over again.

And I was actually pretty sad to see that video this morning. If we're down to relying on writing letters to the President to fund Planetary Sciences, its already dead. Not much hope to be had.

[Lohan2008]

The Beijing Aerospace Control Center reports that China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe successfully entered lunar orbit Friday at 5:53 pm Beijing time.

The Chang'e-3 probe, carrying with it the Yu Tu (Jade Rabbit) lunar rover, was launched from the Xichang Satellite Center at 1:30 am Monday morning, and was promptly inserted into the desired Earth-Moon transfer orbit, requiring only two minor course corrections on the way.

After four days and 16 hours in this transfer orbit, Chang'e-3's internal rocket engine was used to slow the spacecraft, allowing it to enter into a circular lunar orbit some 100 km (63 miles) above the Moon's surface. The probe's variable thrust engine, which can supply from 1,500 to 7,500 Newtons (150 to 765 kg) of thrust, fired for a total of 361 seconds to complete the lunar orbit insertion maneuver.

Over the next week, Chang'e-3 will remain in orbit preparing and testing systems for the landing in Sinus Iridum, presently scheduled for December 14. The level of live coverage that will be available for that event is as yet unclear, but we can hope.

http://www.gizmag.com/change-3-reaches-lunar-orbit/30049/

[deadshot462]

Looking forward to that landing. Been too long since a soft landing occurred on the Moon, there's still a lot to be discovered down there.

[Reddragon]

I really like that many people in the scientific sphere have spoken for a manned return to the moon. I doubt that even if (the US congress/president whoever accepts NASA missions and goals) gets the green light would happen before 2025. If SpaceX Falcon Heavy is going to be really as powerful and cheap as they say it may be the best option for a lunar return but I don't think as SLS is going to be done, they'll want to use a private company launch vehicles for any BEO missions. It has been said that LEO is for private BEO is for NASA. The governments are still going to rule this for a very long time. At least the human exploration part.

[Tankbuster32]

We could take a photo and say: This is how much the Universe cares for your petty nations and squabbling!

[Kryten]

Probe is now in 15*100Km orbit. Four days to landing.

[Lohan2008]

BEIJING -- China's lunar probe Chang'e-3 entered an orbit closer to the moon on Tuesday night.

Following an order from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center, the probe descended from the 100 km-high lunar circular orbit to an elliptical orbit with its nearest point about 15 km away from the moon's surface, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said in a statement.

The administration said the transition was conducted above the dark side of the moon at 9:20 pm.

At 9:24 pm, it was confirmed that Chang'e-3 had entered the new orbit.

In the new orbit, the probe will prepare for a soft-landing on the moon's surface, according to the statement.

Chang'e-3, which is carrying moon rover "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit), was successfully launched on December 2 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-12/11/content_17165837.htm

{LOL< China Daily said "dark side", it is the FAR side of moon}

[Meithan]

Fantastic! Can't wait to see new images from the lunar surface!