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Chinese Academy of Sciences. Five years after landing on the near side of the Moon, China's Chang'e-3 lunar lander will be powered down in preparation for the Chang'e-4 lunar far side mission.
Chang'e-3 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since the Soviet Luna 24 mission in when it touched down on Mare Imbrium on December 14, , and made China only the third country to achieve such a feat. With the mission's repurposed backup spacecraft, known as Chang'e-4 , currently in lunar orbit and preparing for an unprecedented landing on the far side of the Moon in early January, researchers with the China Lunar Exploration Project CLEP will put the 1, kg Chang'e-3 lander into an extended sleep in order to prevent signal interference, according to a report by Chinese language CCTV.
The news confirms that Chang'e-3 is operational, as no official updates on the status of the lander have been made since mid Tracking enthusiasts have, however, provided evidence of operations in the meantime.
Chang'e-3 would be due to wake up around December 18, following sunrise over its Mare Imbrium landing site, now named Guang Han Gong , for its 63rd lunar day on the Moon. The lander has one remaining operational science instrument, the Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope LUT , which has been monitoring variable stars and stars like our own Sun, and also performing low-galactic-latitude sky surveys during the daytime periods. The LUT has, creatively, also been used to measure the water content of the lunar exosphere and taken advantage of the unique conditions offered by lunar eclipses.
An image of the Pinwheel galaxy captured by the ultraviolet telescope on the Chang'e-3 Moon lander. Chang'e-3 uses solar power but also utilises a radioisotope heater unit RHU to allow it to survive the Earth-day-long lunar nights. This heater could also allow the spacecraft to operate for decades.
China on Friday will launch the Chang'e-4 spacecraft to make the first ever attempt at a landing on the far side of the Moon. Here's what you need to know about the mission.
Yutu, the kg mission rover also known by its English name Jade Rabbit, ceased operating in The rover had become immobilsed in only its second lunar daytime in early , but still returned valuable data with its Lunar Penetrating Radar , Panoramic Camera and other instruments. The Chang'e-4 rover , while using the same frame, has been upgraded for longevity and the issue leading to immobility has been addressed.
The Chang'e-4 lander has also received upgrades. While still using solar power it also carries a small radioisotope thermoelectric generator RTG to allow limited experiments during the lunar nighttime. The Chang'e-4 lander carries a Low Frequency Spectrometer LFS , with three 5-metre-long booms to take advantage of the unique radio-quiet environment on the lunar far side, in place of Chang'e-3's LUT.
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The service module for Chang'e-5 T1 , a mission to test a capsule ahead of a possible 'skip-reentry' into the Earth's atmosphere after a return from the Moon at close to the second cosmic velocity Chang'e-5 T1 was a precursor to the Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission, which could launch on a Long March 5 rocket in late The visit to the Lagrange point prompted speculation that Chang'e-4 could be reporposed for a far side landing, as a relay satellite would likewise be needed in place in orbit around the area to provide communications for any craft landing and operating on the lunar far side.
The lunar far side never faces the Earth due to the phenomenon of tidal locking.
To facilitate communications for the Chang'e-4 mission, the Queqiao relay satellite was launched in May and achieved its desired halo orbit around E-M L2 in June. It is also carrying an imager and the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer NCLE , which will attempt to look into the cosmic 'dark ages' after the lander and roving section of the mission. And here we are, with another Chinese space mission goal on track to be achieved around that deadline. Landing on the far side of the Moon has its own technological challenges, such as how to maintain direct radio contact with Earth.
To solve that problem, China launched the Queqiao relay satellite in May and placed it in a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point. That would then transit telemetry back to Earth via its S-band antenna. Eight students lived in lunar-like conditions for a cumulative days.
According to Wang Ju of the China Academy of Engineering, this test had critical implications for human ambitions for long-term stays beyond Earth, particularly for a lunar base. Significantly, in , China successfully demonstrated to the world that reproduction could be possible in outer-space when its SJ recoverable satellite sent 6, mouse embryos to space, in which some of the embryos developed into advanced blastocysts in four days. In the future are plans for launching its permanent space station, to be followed by deep space exploration and exploitation.
For China, space, like its engagements in the Antarctic continent, offers both the possibility for science as well as access to future resources.
The roadmaps released by state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the China National Space Administration CNSA , tasked with setting policy for space, indicates that between and , China aims to achieve several significant milestones regarding space technology.