Chang'e 3 is 1 year old! :D

[xenomorph555]

1 year ago the Chang'e 3 lander landed safely on the surface of the moon creating a large chapter oin China's history, it was also the mission that got me interested in the Chinese program

Lets look at the history of this mission:

1st December-In the cold night on the 1st of December a Long March 3B, China's most powerful rocket, waited on the pad with the probe. Then at 17:30 it launched fully live and with full coverage on national and international TV, not the most regular event in China. The launch was fully successful placing the probe and it's rover on course for the moon.

6th December-On the 6th the probe entered an orbit of 100km. Over the next few days this was whittled down to just 15km, and so began the tense-full wait.

14th December-Finally on the 14th the engine was fired and Chang'e 3 began to fall to the surface, similar to Apollo 11 the lander missed the intended target site of Sinus Iridum and came down on Mare Iridum. A few 100 meters from the surface the lander hovered using it's advanced auto systems to detect and avoid danger (the first of any landers capable of this). Finally at 13:11 it landed and everyone was happy . The lander was quick to send back a bad quality photo using one of it's low quality cameras which were quickly used to mock the Chinese , this procedure is normal and is done before HD cameras are activated.

14th December 20:35-At 20:35 the rover "Yutu" was activated and lowered to the surface. It was quick to begin driving round and interacting with the lander taking photos. Around about this time the landers HD camera was activated leading to some astounding shots.

17th December-The scientific instruments on both probes were activated and they began working.

11th January-After sleeping through the lunar nigh that began 2 weeks before both probes got back to work.

Both continued to work until the 2nd lunar night began and Yutu broke down leaving it working but paralized, regardless both probes continued to work for 10 months, when Yutu finally died, but Chang'e 3 itself is still functional.

The probes achieved many thing including science, astronomy, technology and much more. Chang'e 3 will carry on an extended mission hopefully for many more months.

Dragon rock:

Edited December 16, 2014 by xenomorph555

[LordFerret]

Newsflash! Special enhanced image processing has revealed the Chang'e 3 rover has made an amazing discovery!...

...Should the rover return the science sample, DNA analysis may confirm what we already suspect, and will also award the Chinese team major science points!

[sorry, I couldn't resist. All joking aside; Great imagery, and many kudos to the Chang'e 3 team. ]

[Godot]

Happy Birthday, Chang´e 3

...

The probes achieved many thing including science, astrology, technology and much more. Chang'e 3 will carry on an extended mission hopefully for many more months.

...

So, astrological predictions will have a greater chance to get fulfilled, thanks to chang´e?

[xenomorph555]

Newsflash! Special enhanced image processing has revealed the Chang'e 3 rover has made an amazing discovery!...

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hwFYQ0IdCAo/VI-QoNRG7KI/AAAAAAAAExc/TRbd3CFbdKo/s800/ksp-incredible.jpg

...Should the rover return the science sample, DNA analysis may confirm what we already suspect, and will also award the Chinese team major science points!

[sorry, I couldn't resist. All joking aside; Great imagery, and many kudos to the Chang'e 3 team. ]

Hahaha, that was good

Happy Birthday, Chang´e 3

So, astrological predictions will have a greater chance to get fulfilled, thanks to chang´e?

I meant star observing, the Chang'e 3 lander had a space telescope that activated and viewed stars when in the lunar night. Becoming the second lunar observatory after Lunokhod 1.

[Godot]

...

I meant star observing, the Chang'e 3 lander had a space telescope that activated and viewed stars when in the lunar night. Becoming the second lunar observatory after Lunokhod 1.

Yes, of course, you meant Astronomy.

Mentioning Astrology was just a too funny opportunity to let it pass unnoticed, considering Science vs. Pseudo-Science

Edited December 16, 2014 by Godot

[xenomorph555]

Yes, of course, you meant Astronomy.

Mentioning Astrology was just a too funny opportunity to let it pass unnoticed, considering Science vs. Pseudo-Science

Haha thanks