Moon landing 2013 (Chang'e 3)

[zekes]

They are funded all right, they are just wasting money on bad ideas like SLS or Orion. But this is completely off-topic, let's talk about Change'3

No! Off topic! Dreamchaser is the best!

Back to topic i can't believe it worked! Nice job China!

[tetryds]

Amazing I guess I know what I'm going to build next in KSP. BTW is there a Chang'e 3 challenge already?

The cheapest, most efficient probe with a rover to land on Mün wins? Count me in.

[Spartwo]

Fair enough.

I just find it astonishing how quickly the Chinese are moving foward,can't wait for their next mission(I just said that).

[Kryten]

23 pages... anyone any idea yet how to pronounce the damaned thing?

From watching chinese-language news reports (for the pretty pictures, I can't more than a few words of chinese), it's pretty much 'chong-uh sohn-how' (SÄÂnhào=number three), all spoken rapidly.

[astropapi1]

So, what's their next mission? (Chang'e 4)

[Lohan2008]

So, what's their next mission? (Chang'e 4)

Return with samples > according to the talking head

[Kryten]

Chang'e 4 is literally the Chang'e 3 backup. There might be some slightly better instruments, but it's going to be almost identical. The biggest change is likely to be the terrain at the landing site, now -3 has proven the approach with a low-risk (i.e. very flat) area. The sample-return mission is Chang'e 5/6.

[Kerbal01]

I don't remember the USA operating any rovers on the Moon. The Surveyor probes were pretty rudimentary (which is quite normal, as they were developed as cheap demonstrators for the Apollo program rather than proper probes.)

Also, both the Luna and Surveyor programs had lots of failures. 2 out of 7 Surveyor's crashed and only a handful of the more ambitious Luna landers actually landed.

So yeah, China has achieved quite a feat by successfully landing on their first attempt, and they get bonus points for the rover.

What I meant was landing a robotic lander on the moon, not specifically rovers.

[zitronen]

23 pages... anyone any idea yet how to pronounce the damaned thing?

Go here: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php

Paste in:

嫦娥

If you hover over the >> thing and click on the speaker it will pronounce it for you.

[TimMartland]

Considering the rate of China'a expansion an growth, and the relatively slow progress of the US space program, I think the first flag planted on mars is gonna be red with little yellow stars.

[czokletmuss]

Considering the rate of China'a expansion an growth, and the relatively slow progress of the US space program, I think the first flag planted on mars is gonna be red with little yellow stars.

I don't see the reason for anyone to care honestly. If we as a species get to another planet than these flags would be proven to be unimportant in the grand scale of things.

And speaking about Americano-centrism:

Just joking

[Drunken Hobo]

Go here: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php

Paste in:

嫦娥

If you hover over the >> thing and click on the speaker it will pronounce it for you.

Cheers, very helpful being able to hear it. Wasn't as difficult as I thought.

[numerobis]

I don't see the reason for anyone to care honestly. If we as a species get to another planet than these flags would be proven to be unimportant in the grand scale of things.

And speaking about Americano-centrism:

...snip...

Just joking

The telescope, sunglasses, and US flag are made in China, obviously.

[deadshot462]

One of the first surface pictures from the rover:

Reminds me of the 0.13 days when the Mun's surface would blank out any stars from the sky. Quite a cool effect.

[Cesrate]

Considering the rate of China'a expansion an growth, and the relatively slow progress of the US space program, I think the first flag planted on mars is gonna be red with little yellow stars.

China has no plan to Mars yet... Well, manned mission without a certain aim may just be a waste of personnel and money. So all the thing is uncertain. Maybe the first flag will be plant by Elon Musk, who know.

[nhnifong]

[kookoo_gr]

fixed the color balance

[Brotoro]

The next thing they should do is demonstrate their precision-landing ability by landing very close to an old Apollo site and sending the rover over to take pictures. I'd pay money to see THAT.

The Apollo 12 site would be good.

[astropapi1]

The next thing they should do is demonstrate their precision-landing ability by landing very close to an old Apollo site and sending the rover over to take pictures. I'd pay money to see THAT.

The Apollo 12 site would be good.

No! Make it Apollo 11, so all those conspiracy theorists can go stick those theories up their...

[Tommygun]

This is pretty cool, but I wonder that in 10 years from now if people will start saying it was all filmed in a Mongolian desert.

[Lohan2008]

The next thing they should do is demonstrate their precision-landing ability by landing very close to an old Apollo site and sending the rover over to take pictures. I'd pay money to see THAT. The Apollo 12 site would be good.

This is so cool, I definitely agree > Apollo 12 is close enough to justify the lunar drive.

I would pay for China to go over to the Russian probes and have a look inside them.

[Nibb31]

fixed the color balance

Why do you assume there's anything wrong with the color balance?

[Nibb31]

This is so cool, I definitely agree > Apollo 12 is close enough to justify the lunar drive.

I would pay for China to go over to the Russian probes and have a look inside them.

Rubbish, the closest previous lander is Luna 17/Lunokhod 2, which is 390 km away. Apollo 12 is actually 1400 km from Chang'e. The Yutu rover is expected to function for 3 months with a planned range of 10 km.

If the choice was between taking photos of old Apollo hardware and maximizing science returns at the landing site, then it's a no brainer.

[czokletmuss]

Yutu rover deployment:

And according to mission plan:

One day after landing, the two vehicles - the Chang'e lander and Yutu rover start a sequence of taking photos of each other before the rover departs the landing site and starts nominal mission operations.

Source: http://www.spaceflight101.com/change-3.html

So there will be MOAR images of both Yutu and lander soon

Plus some congrats to China:

It's funny that so far ESA and Roskomos have congratulated China its success but NASA is still silent

Edited December 15, 2013 by czokletmuss

[iDan122]

Time to make a Chang'e 3 replica( once 0.23 is out and my laptop gets repaired)