China Successfully Lands Probe, Rover on the Moon

[Broomstick]

From the BBC:

China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, the first soft landing there for 37 years.

On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module used thrusters to touch down, marking the latest step in China's ambitious space exploration programme.

Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".

The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.

The Chang'e-3 mission launched atop a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket on 1 December from Xichang in the country's south.

The official Xinhua news service reported that the craft began its descent just after 1300 GMT (2100 Beijing time), touching down in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) 11 minutes later.

State television showed pictures of the moon's surface as the lander touched down and an eye-level view of the landing site was released later on Saturday. Staff at mission control in Beijing clapped and celebrated after confirmation came through.

The probe's soft-landing was the most difficult task during the mission, Wu Weiren, the lunar programme's chief designer, told Xinhua.

It is the third robotic rover mission to land on the lunar surface, but the Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload than previous missions, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.

"It's still a significant technological challenge to land on another world," said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane's Space Systems and Industry told the AP news agency.

"You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don't end up in a crater or on top of a large rock."

The landing module actively reduced its speed at about 15km from the Moon's surface.

When it reached a distance of 100m from the surface, the craft fired thrusters to slow its descent.

At a distance of 4m, the lander switched off the thrusters and fell to the lunar surface.

The Jade Rabbit was expected to be deployed several hours after touchdown, driving down a ramp lowered by the landing module.
Infographic

Reports suggest the lander and rover will photograph each other at some point on Sunday.

According to Chinese space scientists, the mission is designed to test new technologies, gather scientific data and build intellectual expertise, as well as scouting for mineral resources that could eventually be mined.

"China's lunar program is an important component of mankind's activities to explore [the] peaceful use of space," said Sun Huixian, a space engineer with the Chinese lunar programme.

The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour.

Its name - chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters - derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.

The rover and lander are powered by solar panels but some sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs), containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night.

Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington DC, said China's space programme was a good fit with China's concept of "comprehensive national power". This might be described as a measure of a state's all-round capabilities.

Space exploration was, he told BBC News, "a reflection of your economic power, because you need spare resources to have a space programme. It clearly has military implications because so much space technology is dual use".

He added: "It reflects your scientific and technological capabilities, it supports your diplomacy by making you appear strong.

"China is saying: 'We are doing something that only two other countries have done before - the US and the Soviet Union."

Mr Cheng explained that the mission would also advertise the country as a destination for commercial space launches, as well as providing an opportunity to test China's deep-space tracking and communications.

"The rover will reportedly be under Earth control at various points of its manoeuvres on the lunar surface," Mr Cheng wrote in a blog post.

"Such a space observation and tracking system has implications not only for space exploration but for national security, as it can be used to maintain space surveillance, keeping watch over Chinese and other nations' space assets."

China has been methodically and patiently building up the key elements needed for an advanced space programme - from launchers to manned missions in Earth orbit to unmanned planetary craft - and it is investing heavily.

"China wants to go to the Moon for geostrategic reasons and domestic legitimacy," Prof Joan Johnson-Freese, of the US Naval War College in Rhode Island, told the AFP news agency.

"With the US exploration moribund at best, that opens a window for China to be perceived as the global technology leader - though the US still has more, and more advanced, assets in space."

The landing site is a flat volcanic plain, part of a larger feature known as Mare Imbrium that forms the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".

The lander will operate there for a year, while the rover is expected to work for some three months.

After this, a mission to bring samples of lunar soil back to Earth is planned for 2017. And this may set the stage for further robotic missions, and - perhaps - a crewed lunar mission in the 2020s.

Congratulations China!

[Thanas]

Good for them.

[Guardsman Bass]

Great news. I hope they get some good science out of their probe, and keep it up. I'd love to see them take a shot at a Mars lander (Mars tends to be a beast when it comes to successful robotic missions).

[Borgholio]

Isn't something like half of all Mars missions failed?

[mr friendly guy]

Isn't something like half of all Mars missions failed?

IIRC the Chinese also attempted a Mars mission. For some reason the probe was launched from a Russian site rather than a Chinese one. I am guessing the reason is the Chinese were doing too many launches of satellites on their own soil so they utilised the Russian rocket to carry it into space. Needless to say, it failed.

India however has managed to get their probe into space.

[Highlord Laan]

Well done, China!

Meanwhile, back in the US, the conclave of boomer throwbacks that haven't had an original idea in the last 40 years shrugs, cuts more funding from NASA, and buys the Air Force a new bomber or something. Or a new summer home for one of their buddies.

[Ahriman238]

It's nice to see someone taking up the torch of space exploration.

I still say JFK must be rolling in his grave at the idea of American astronauts getting taken into space by the Russians.

[Isolder74]

Great job for the Chinese. This is one of the first steps into doing a manned mission.

On a less serious note, if there is an orbital part of the mission, then you can bet when it takes pictures of any of the Apollo sites then the Hoax Nuts will declare this mission a fake too.

[K. A. Pital]

Great job for the Chinese. This is one of the first steps into doing a manned mission.

On a less serious note, if there is an orbital part of the mission, then you can bet when it takes pictures of any of the Apollo sites then the Hoax Nuts will declare this mission a fake too.

Nothing will ever convince the Moon Hoaxers. It's just a matter of fact. Been there, tried that. Any argument will be met with "well they faked it too". This could be stretched to lengths you'd never think about: Gagarin is a fake, automated Soviet probes landing on the Moon fake, Lunokhods fake. Oh. Mars rovers also fake.

[Simon_Jester]

...Do they just think that there's some kind of impermeable shell stopping anything from ever leaving Earth?

Do they think that the Cold War ICBM arsenal was a hoax?

[K. A. Pital]

...Do they just think that there's some kind of impermeable shell stopping anything from ever leaving Earth?

Do they think that the Cold War ICBM arsenal was a hoax?

No. Just that humans die inexplicably when going to space and also the very powerful rockets were a hoax (they never achieved the necessary thrust to throw anything to the Moon or Mars).

[Isolder74]

...Do they just think that there's some kind of impermeable shell stopping anything from ever leaving Earth?

Do they think that the Cold War ICBM arsenal was a hoax?

Yes they actually do think that the Van Allen Belts are a massive wall of deadly radiation that no one can pass. Any evidence that confirms the Apollo Missions actually happened is part of the hoax. They are Conspiracy Speculationists. If it doesn't confirm their preconceived notions about it they dismiss it out of hand.

[mr friendly guy]

Great job for the Chinese. This is one of the first steps into doing a manned mission.

On a less serious note, if there is an orbital part of the mission, then you can bet when it takes pictures of any of the Apollo sites then the Hoax Nuts will declare this mission a fake too.

Funny you should mention that.

Not the Onion

Beijing, China — The Chinese unmanned lunar probe, Chang’e 3, made a successful landing on the moon this morning (12/14/2013) according to China state media. Initial images from the lunar rover show no evidence of any American manned moon landings.

The Chinese landing is the first lunar mission since 1976, and the first country to land other than the US and USSR.

“We immediately wanted to take the rover and see the moon landing area,” Chen Qiufa, director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells us. “To celebrate the occasion we broadcasted the journey to the American moon landing site on China Central Television (CCTV). Everyone was astonished when the rover arrived. There was no evidence of the moon landing. We even checked and double checked the coordinates just to make sure we were at the right place.”

Images from the rover showed none of the American flags planted on the moon, manned lunar rovers, tools, or other items that were documented to remain from the manned space missions.

Earlier this month NASA requested China to postpone the moon landing. NASA expressed concerns that it would disrupt their ongoing survey monitoring how dust moves on the moon.

“We found it initially suspicious when they expressed a great deal of concern over their dust survey,” Qiufa said. “The lack of atmosphere on the moon ensures that, unless impacted, the dust does not move. You might as well watch grass grow in the Gobi desert or Tibet attain their freedom. It is simply not going to happen. Now we find it was to prevent us from discovering the American manned moon landings were indeed faked.”

Chinese space officials announced that they did, however, find a previously unknown, actively inhabited man made outpost that they are observing. Video evidence appears to show two males resembling Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur both alive and living on the moon. China says they will continue to monitor the area for further evidence.

Amazing as it sounds, if you read the replies someone actually tried to prove this article was BS by pointing out that the Chinese probe landed a long distance from where the Apollo moon missions landed. I guess the part about Elvis and Tupac on the moon wasn't obvious enough to scream parody.

[Isolder74]

It's not the Onion but it is basically the same kind of News Site.

What is funny is that there seems to also be posts from Hoaxers praising the story for defying the Media Conspiracy to keep the Moon Hoax under cover. I wonder how long it will take before this story shows up in some Moon Hoax video as evidence of the Hoax.

[Darksider]

Meanwhile, back in the US, the conclave of boomer throwbacks that haven't had an original idea in the last 40 years shrugs, cuts more funding from NASA, and buys the Air Force a new bomber or something. Or a new summer home for one of their buddies.

I'm hoping China's increased presence in space will trigger a sort of "Sputnik moment" that will wake the U.S. establishment and society in general up out of it's complacency, and get us to start devoting resources and placing emphasis on science and engineering again.


At this rate the Chinese are going to have a moon colony before we do.

[Zaune]

Yes they actually do think that the Van Allen Belts are a massive wall of deadly radiation that no one can pass. Any evidence that confirms the Apollo Missions actually happened is part of the hoax. They are Conspiracy Speculationists. If it doesn't confirm their preconceived notions about it they dismiss it out of hand.

Would I be right in guessing there's a certain amount of overlap with these guys?

[Isolder74]

Yes they actually do think that the Van Allen Belts are a massive wall of deadly radiation that no one can pass. Any evidence that confirms the Apollo Missions actually happened is part of the hoax. They are Conspiracy Speculationists. If it doesn't confirm their preconceived notions about it they dismiss it out of hand.

Would I be right in guessing there's a certain amount of overlap with these guys?

There is always overlap in Conspiracy nuts it's part of their general playbook…..Why did you have to remind me about the flat earthers?

[Gandalf]

I'm hoping China's increased presence in space will trigger a sort of "Sputnik moment" that will wake the U.S. establishment and society in general up out of it's complacency, and get us to start devoting resources and placing emphasis on science and engineering again.

I think it's more likely to trigger more rounds of everyone blaming everyone else for yet another chapter of "America isn't that great any more, and the other side is why." China would basically need a Mars base to overcome that level of division.

[Darksider]

I would actually like to see a new space race to Mars between the U.S. and China, because even if we lose, it would still get us back out there.

[Broomstick]

Better for all of us if China is not only serious about seeking usable resources on the Moon, but is also able to get them and utilize them. Once space gets profitable the human race will get serious about not only exploring but getting out there and living/working/colonizing it.

[Simon_Jester]

Yes. One of the nice things about a conflict of exploration is that being the first only gives you some advantages; it doesn't make you dominant for all time, it just gives you an edge. So it's not a case where you have to win the race or be forever inferior, as the Chinese themselves have proved.

Unless China heavily militarizes space (no indication of this) and denies it to others (unlikely to seem worth the effort to them), other people will get their chance to go (back) to any place they have gone, and do all that they have done.

[Imperial528]

I would actually like to see a new space race to Mars between the U.S. and China, because even if we lose, it would still get us back out there.

Really the thing with most tech races is that if you start from a similar tech base and your only issue is they got motivated to do it first, then you only lose by giving up, in my opinion. Or by going bankrupt. The USA's problem is that after we "won", we went home instead of kept at it. Yeah, we kept doing science in space, but not at the same scale or with the same enthusiasm, especially among the general populace.

The fascist imperialist "patriotic" side of me screams obscenities to the thought of China getting to Mars (Or anyone else really) before the USA does, but frankly if that's what it's going to take to get the world's current most powerful country to actually devote its resources to space again, then it'd better be done soon.

[PainRack]

With all this talk about the US losing its focus on the space race....... its still kinda jarring to realize that NASA spends more money than any other space agency.

I mean, watching Neil DeGreasse Tyson suddenly go off about the LHC and NASA budget was a huge eye-opener, given the other talking point that all of NASA spending = 1 year of US military budget.

I'm not sure how sad that makes me to realize how little we humans value space

[Borgholio]

I mean, watching Neil DeGreasse Tyson suddenly go off about the LHC and NASA budget was a huge eye-opener, given the other talking point that all of NASA spending = 1 year of US military budget.

I must have missed that one...link please?

[Darksider]

With all this talk about the US losing its focus on the space race....... its still kinda jarring to realize that NASA spends more money than any other space agency.

Yes, but how efficiently is that money spent? It's over-exaggerated by the Right-wing of American politics, but the U.S. does seem to spend more money for less result.