Starship Asterisk*

Xinhuanet:
Chang'e-3 probe sets out on new missions

2014-01-17 11:27:22
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china ... 052859.htm

BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chang'e-3 lunar probe has started its long-term scientific missions and will have its durability tested when it continues lunar surface surveys, sources with the Beijing Aerospace Control Center said on Thursday.

The center transferred operations of the probe to a smaller management team on Wednesday night, said Cui Yan, who leads the team at the center.

"We have made all the hardware and software ready for the long-term control tasks and have developed new management methods," Cui said, noting this is the first time China would operate a lunar probe for as long as one year.

Liu Junqi, one of the chief engineers on Cui's team, said that during the yearlong task the team will coordinate deep-space control stations around the nation to closely monitor the Chang'e-3 lander and the Yutu rover, and to arrange scientific missions on the lunar surface.

One of the major responsibilities for the team is to put the lander and rover into sleep mode when the lunar night falls and "awaken them" once the night ends, he said.

One night on the moon lasts about 14 Earth days, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 C and there is no sunlight to provide power for the instruments' solar panels.

"The transfer of control marks the successful completion of the probe's first stage of exploration and scientific missions," said a publicity officer at Beijing Aerospace Control Center who refused to be named.

He said under the long-term management mode, the lander and rover do not need a lot of people to take care of them, therefore Cui's team, which has less than 20 people, is able to take over from the current large control group.

"Next, the team will control the probe to perform scientific operations that can last several months. Engineers will test whether the lander and rover can function well over a long period and whether they can live up to their designed life span," the officer added. "During the yearlong period, the team's controllers and engineers will work about 15 consecutive night shifts each month, so this is really a tough job."

The lunar rover Yutu has a designed life span of three months, and the lander is expected to work for one year.

After waking up following nearly two weeks of dormancy, Yutu completed its first sampling of lunar soil using its mechanical arm on Tuesday, the Beijing center said.

"Accuracy control of the mechanical arm at a distance of 380,000 kilometers has been realized in the probe, marking China's breakthrough in controlling a mechanical arm with high precision on the lunar surface," said Wu Fenglei from the center.

Yutu will continue to survey the moon's geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources, while the lander will explore the landing site until the end of its life span.

 (Source: China Daily)

China's lunar probe observes stars, explores moon

2014-01-17 23:33:46
 • Moon lander and rover have collected a large amount space observation and moon exploration data.

 • After data analysis, scientists have drafted an atlas of stars around the constellation Draco.

 • Probe equipment on the rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) is exploring the moon.

read more at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china ... 023631.htm

China Exclusive: China's moon rover experiences abnormality.

Xinhuanet   2014-01-25 15:01:46

BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's moon rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit), has experienced a mechanical control abnormality, and scientists are organizing repairs.

The abnormality occurred due to "complicated lunar surface environment," the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said on Saturday, without giving further details.


read more (but not much more) at:
Xinhuanet English.news.cn

Xinhua News Agency: Netizens extend blessings to troubled lunar rover

2014-01-26 16:55:20

BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of Chinese netizens have sent their blessings to lunar rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) after it experienced major trouble.

A mechanical control abnormality occurred to Yutu because of the "complicated lunar surface environment," said China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) on Saturday. Repair work is ongoing.

The news caused a splash on China's social networking circles.

People not only hailed the authority's openness to the accident, but also expressed concern.

By Sunday afternoon, more than 36,000 reposts had been generated under the "yueqiucheyutu" or "lunar rover yutu" account on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter.

The weibo account is believed to belong to space enthusiasts who have been following Yutu's journey to the moon. It has more than 110,000 followers.

.... Do not worry about 2017, Chang E V will come here and continue to finish the story of the moon. Now lander is still good, will continue to work on the moon for at least one year. But she did not know [how to answer] my question ...... If you really can not fix it, to help me when we remember to comfort her.

Goodnight, Earth. Good night, [humanity].

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/chris ... -1.2477871
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.

And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.

"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.
... He also pointed out that China launched an experimental space station in 2011. It will be replaced with a more permanent one which will be completed in 2020.

A Chinese astronaut said in September his country is willing to open its space station to foreign astronauts and even train them for such missions.
The rest of the article is at the URL above

Chinese moon rover Yutu is awake

Deborah Byrd reports:
It was widely reported on Wednesday that China’s first moon rover – called Yutu or, in English, Jade Rabbit – failed to connect with mission controllers in Beijing following its second hibernation in the long, cold lunar night. Then yesterday afternoon, another report suggested signs of life from Yutu. Today (February 13, 2014), a spokesman with China’s lunar probe program has said that Yutu is able to pick up signals, although it is still experiencing a mechanical control abnormality, according to an English-language report from news.xinhuanet.com. Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesman, said:

… the rover stands a chance of being saved as it is still alive

Space Daily: What's Up, Yutu?
by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 17, 2014
...The Chinese themselves are probably slowly, methodically and cautiously testing their robot. Releasing any information prematurely could lead to confusion or concern.

How can they tell the world about the state of Yutu when they are not entirely sure themselves? The Chinese were fairly open about the fact that Yutu had suffered a mechanical anomaly and was generally not expected to survive. Given enough time, we can expect more official reports.

The state of the rover itself is also probably changing. As time passes, it is steadily being heated by the sun. This will probably affect the state and the functionality of some of its parts.

read more at:
http://www.spacedaily.com/m/reports/Wha ... u_999.html

on Feb 13th, Ken Kremer wrote at Universe Today
The little ‘rabbit’ beloved worldwide has now phoned home and actually survived the perils of the long lunar night and is alive and awake to start a 3rd day of scientific exploration ...

The All-China Women's Federation writes:
Behind the popular micro-blog account for Yutu, China's first lunar rover, is a young woman in Beijing, Chinese media reported on Monday, disproving the conclusion of many people that the account is run by the government.

China's lunar rover awake but ailing
BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China's moon rover Yutu woke up again at 6:42 a.m. on Friday, after its third dormancy, but even after a long rest, mechanical problems have not been resolved.

Yutu and the lander, which woke up earlier on Wednesday, have restarted their operations and are exploring as scheduled, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).

The control issues that have troubled Yutu since January remain, but its panorama camera, radar and other equipment are functioning normally, SASTIND said.

The cause of the problems is a mystery. The lander functioned normally during its first three lunar days, according to the SASTIND. A lunar day is equivalent to about two weeks on Earth.

Read more at:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2 ... 187139.htm

Excerpts from:
Jade Rabbit: China's robotic lunar adventurer

by Xinhua Writer Xue Yanwen

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- In China's previous space missions, astronauts like Yang Liwei emerged as heroes, but in the country's third lunar exploration, a robot has unexpectedly grabbed the nation's heart.

Lunar rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, roused from its third lunar night slumber on Friday, stretching its wings in the sun after its dormancy in temperatures as low as minus 180 degrees Celsius. People on Earth were relieved by its greeting on an online diary posted under the name "Lunar Rover Yutu."

"Don't poke me... I'm already up!" the six-foot robot told the 600,000-strong followers of the blog, who had been crossing their fingers that the rover would survive its second sleep since a mechanical abnormality was spotted at the end of January.

"Any carrot pie for me?" Yutu asked upon waking on March 14, a day celebrated by mathematics enthusiasts as "Pi Day" in honor of the famous ratio's first few digits, 3.14.
...

Though its moon adventure is only a one-way journey, and the robot may end up as space trash, one Weibo user imagined another scene:

"One year later, the little guy from Chang'e-5 mission came, passing by my body which was covered with lunar dust. I sighed. How cold it is during the lunar night! Ten years later, I saw the five-star red flag on the spacesuit, and I was picked up. I was going home," wrote user Kevin-Ji Xuetao, replying to a post under the "Yutu Lunar Rover" microblog.

"One hundred years later, I heard a kid ask his mum, 'Is it the moon rover Yutu?' There I was, showcased in a museum, watching my peers explore farther and farther in space."

(Ji Shaoting, Yuan Suwen and Yu Fei also contributed to the story.)

"It is a sweetheart for all of us," Ye Peijian, a top scientist with the Chang'e-3 program, the country's lunar probe mission, told Xinhua.

Ye said he has no idea who has been running the account, but posts about the mission have been generally accurate.

"We have never thought of spreading scientific knowledge in this manner," Ye said. "It is meaningful to spread important aerospace news in a light-hearted way, and to make people care."

http://www.nature.com/news/china-s-luna ... S-20140624

China's lunar rover limps into another long night
Suspense mounts as mission team gets ready to publish results of first Moon surface observations since 1976.

Katia Moskvitch
20 June 2014
As it plunges into another two-week long ‘lunar night’, Jade Rabbit, China’s Moon rover, is living on borrowed time.
The rover, also known as Yutu, is the first manmade craft to soft-land on the Moon since the Soviet probe Luna 24 touched down there in 1976. Although mechanical failures crippled it during its first lunar night, the craft has lasted nearly twice as long as its initial life expectancy of three months. The fact that it is still working at all is a remarkable feat for the country’s space ambitions, lunar researchers say.

“Just landing and getting it to work even for one lunar day is a tremendous achievement,” says Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck College, University of London. And, he adds, researchers are eager to get their hands on the results of the mission, during which the rover has been surveying the lunar surface and geological structure, scouting for natural resources and analysing the soil.
... more at the website

Emily Lakdawalla wrote on the 22nd July
Chang'e 3 update: Both rover and lander still alive at the end of their eighth lunar day
Despite the fact that it hasn't moved for 6 months, the plucky Yutu rover on the Moon is still alive. Its signal is periodically detected by amateur radio astronomers, most recently on July 19. A story posted today by the Chinese state news agency offers a new hypothesis to explain the failure of the rover's mobility systems: too many rocks. I don't mean to be flippant; this story, like that of Curiosity's wheels, shows how hard it is to reliably predict the physical properties of a landing site even when you have very good orbital data. For Yutu, rocks of a size that could damage the rover turned out to be more abundant than predicted, and they're now guessing that collisions with rocks may have damaged the vehicle. ...

Click to view full size image

... Despite the unexpectedly early failure of its ability to rove, Yutu has proved surprisingly resilient in other ways. The rover was only expected to last three months, but it has now survived eight intense lunar days, although its capabilities are degenerating with time. After last contact on July 19, rover and lander have just hibernated for the eighth lunar night; they should awaken on August 8. ...

read the rest of this at http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... alive.html

Xinxua: Space launch to pave the way for lunar expedition
BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- China will launch an experimental spacecraft between Friday and Sunday to test a key technology designed to help a future lunar probe return to Earth with soil samples.

The unnamed spacecraft is due to reach a location near the moon before returning to Earth, said a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, which announced the launch on Wednesday.

It will be China's first lunar module to return to Earth, at a speed close to 11.2 km per second, space experts said.

Hu Hao, chief designer of the lunar exploration program's third phase, said in an earlier interview with China Daily that the re-entry speed could cause the return capsule to overheat or become difficult to track and control.

No simulated tests on Earth can recreate the challenge, he said.

Spaceflight 101 feature
The Chang'e 5 Test or Precursor Mission (Chang'e 5-T1) is China's next step in its lunar program to pave the way to sample return missions to the Moon as early as 2017. Chang'e 5-T1 will demonstrate a re-entry capsule at realistic re-entry speeds that would occur on a lunar sample return mission. For that, Chang'e 5-T1 will conduct a circumlunar flight with a duration of eight days - launching from China on October 23, 2014 and entering a circumlunar Free Return trajectory back to Earth for landing on October 31/November 1

Planetary Society

China to launch test mission for Chang'e 5 program today

Posted By Emily Lakdawalla

2014/10/23 14:54 UTC

China is launching to the Moon today! (Weather permitting.) The spacecraft will have a brief, 8-day mission, out to the Moon and back. It is an engineering test for the technology that the future Chang'e 5 sample return mission will need to return its precious samples to Earth. Chang'e 5 is scheduled to launch in 2017.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... lunar.html
Chang'e 5 T1 rounds the lunar farside, returns lovely photo of Earth and the Moon together
Posted By Emily Lakdawalla

2014/10/28 16:15 UTC

Click to view full size image

Earth and the Moon from Chang'e 5 T1
The Chang'e 5 test vehicle captured this beautiful view of Earth over the far side of the Moon on October 28, 2014.
...
The spacecraft's trajectory will carry it back to Earth at about 21:30 UT on October 31. Happy Halloween!

Nitpicker wrote:Thanks M.Mc, that's a great pic. Higher res version is well worth a look:
http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/asset ... E5T023.jpg

Click to view full size image

CNSA
Earth from Chang'e 5 T1
The Chang'e 5 test vehicle captured this view of its home planet on October 28, after rounding the lunar farside.

MargaritaMc wrote:This is a nice one of Australia!

rstevenson wrote: ... And it has a circular cloud feature, slightly above and well to the right of Oz. Of course, it doesn't look nearly as circular when you zoom in on it, but while looking at it I spotted an interestingly symetric object, marked by my red arrow. Could it be the ISS? some other craft? A cloud feature over an island? pariedolia?

Rob

geckzilla wrote:Given the bright color I'm going with clouds. They look symmetrical from this perspective but other than that there is nothing special about them.

Xinhua: Chinese unmanned lunar orbiter returns home
BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- China succeeded Saturday in the world's first mission to the Moon and back for some 40 years, becoming the third nation to do so after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The test lunar orbiter, nicknamed "Xiaofei" on Chinese social networks, landed in Siziwang Banner of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Saturday morning.

The last documented mission of this kind was by the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

"Xiaofei" is mean to test technologies that will be used in the Chang'e-5 mission, scheduled for 2017 when an unmanned spacecraft will land on the moon, collect a soil sample and return to Earth.
...To help it slow down, the craft is designed to "bounce" off the edge of the atmosphere, before re-entering again. The process has been compared to a stone skipping across water, and can shorten the "braking distance" for the orbiter, according to Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer with the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.
...
The "bounce" was one of the biggest challenges of the mission, because the craft must enter the atmosphere at a very precise angle. An error of 0.2 degrees would have rendered the mission a failure.

Planetary Society:Chang'e 5 test vehicle "Xiaofei" lands successfully
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2014/10/31 23:23 UTC

Click to view full size image

Xinhua news
Chang'e 5 test vehicle "Xiaofei" safely on the ground
The Chang'e 5 test vehicle launched October 23, 2014 and successfully returned a test sample return capsule eight days later, on October 31.

...This is an important step for China's methodical lunar exploration program. The program was laid out in three phases. The first phase, orbital reconnaissance of the Moon, was completed successfully by the Chang'e 1 and 2 orbiters in 2007 and 2010, respectively. The Chang'e 3 lander and rover represent the second phase, demonstrating a successful soft landing on the lunar surface in 2013. The Chang'e 3 backup spacecraft may be launched to another lunar landing as Chang'e 4 next year to a different location, possibly even the lunar south pole.

But the next step will be a doozy. Chang'e 5, to be launched in 2017, will be a stack of four spacecraft with a complicated mission. It must launch, traverse the distance to the Moon, enter lunar orbit, separate into a service module and lander, land, collect samples, place them into a capsule, launch it into lunar orbit, rendezvous with an orbiting service module, transfer back to Earth, and protect the precious cargo as it enters Earth's atmosphere and lands -- in the right spot! -- on the surface.
...

Planetary Society: Chang'e 5 test vehicle flying on to Earth-Moon L2
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla
2014/11/03 18:21 UTC

The Chang'e 5 test sample return capsule successfully returned to Earth last week. But the sample return capsule wasn't the only spacecraft on the mission; there was also a service module, a spacecraft based upon the design of Chang'e 1 and 2. Today I learned that the Chang'e 5 test vehicle service module did not follow the sample return capsule into Earth's atmosphere. Instead, it successfully performed a divert maneuver, and is now on its way to the Earth-Moon L2 point, a gravitationally stable location beyond the Moon from which the spacecraft could be steered to any number of other destinations.

China has already performed this tricky piece of navigation once before, with the Chang'e 2 lunar orbiter; they sent it to the Earth-Moon L2 and then onward to fly by near-Earth asteroid Toutatis. According to China Military Online, that's not the plan for the Chang'e 5 test vehicle service module. Instead, it will stay at L2 for a little while and then enter lunar orbit, "in order to verify Chang'e 5 tasks related to flight control technology." I'm not exactly sure what that means. One thing it does mean is that China will soon have an operational orbiter at the Moon, in addition to the still-functional Chang'e 3 lander.
...

Chang’e-3 lander continues work after finishing scheduled tasks
2014-12-15 14:39 Ecns.cn Web Editor: Mo Hong'e
(ECNS) -- The Chang'e-3 lander has finished all scheduled tasks in 13 lunar days and 13 lunar nights since its soft landing one year ago and will continue to carry out additional tasks, the People's Daily reported on Monday.
During its year on the moon's surface, which included 13 dormancies on lunar nights and awakenings on lunar days, the Chang'e-3 lunar probe endured the extreme cold environment and carried out more than 30 radio surveys, says Cui Yan, chief designer of the Chang'e-3 lunar program at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC). ...