https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/rest-of-asia/china-launches-rover-for-first-far-side-of-the-moon-landing

China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

dv said:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/rest-of-asia/china-launches-rover-for-first-far-side-of-the-moon-landing

China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

How will it communicate give it’s on the dark side?

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/rest-of-asia/china-launches-rover-for-first-far-side-of-the-moon-landing

China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

How will it communicate give it’s on the dark side?

Via a relay satellite stationed at the L2 Lagrange point

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/rest-of-asia/china-launches-rover-for-first-far-side-of-the-moon-landing

China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

How will it communicate give it’s on the dark side?

By satellite presumably, with a time lag … How long does it take to orbit the Moon?

118 minutes orbit.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/rest-of-asia/china-launches-rover-for-first-far-side-of-the-moon-landing

China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing

China launched a rover early on Saturday destined to land on the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambitions to become a space superpower, state media said.

The Chang’e-4 lunar probe mission – named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology – launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch centre at 2:23 am (1823 GMT), according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The blast-off marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e-4 mission, expected to land around the New Year to carry out experiments and survey the untrodden terrain.

How will it communicate give it’s on the dark side?

Via a relay satellite stationed at the L2 Lagrange point

Yep, I actually did know that.

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

btm said:

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

Yes

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

How will it communicate give it’s on the dark side?

Via a relay satellite stationed at the L2 Lagrange point

Yep, I actually did know that.

Just testing me? :-)

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Via a relay satellite stationed at the L2 Lagrange point

Yep, I actually did know that.

Just testing me? :-)

Sort of, the Beeb had a programme on how China planned to do this about 6 months ago and they mentioned the L2 Lagrange point but I’ve not heard of China managing to get a satellite there yet.

btm said:

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

Why can’t they be re-charged with solar panels?

Michael V said:

btm said:

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

Why can’t they be re-charged with solar panels?

The batteries can be solar charged, there is sunlight on the far side of the moon.

The moon is tidally locked so the near side faces earth, the far side of the moon still receives around the same amount of sunlight as the near side of the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

The phrase “dark side of the Moon” does not refer to “dark” as in the absence of light, but rather “dark” as in unknown: until humans were able to send spacecraft around the Moon, this area had never been seen. While many misconstrue this to think that the “dark side” receives little to no sunlight, in reality, both the near and far sides receive (on average) almost equal amounts of light directly from the Sun. However, the near side also receives sunlight reflected from the Earth, known as earthshine.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Michael V said:

btm said:

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

Why can’t they be re-charged with solar panels?

The batteries can be solar charged, there is sunlight on the far side of the moon.

The moon is tidally locked so the near side faces earth, the far side of the moon still receives around the same amount of sunlight as the near side of the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

The phrase “dark side of the Moon” does not refer to “dark” as in the absence of light, but rather “dark” as in unknown: until humans were able to send spacecraft around the Moon, this area had never been seen. While many misconstrue this to think that the “dark side” receives little to no sunlight, in reality, both the near and far sides receive (on average) almost equal amounts of light directly from the Sun. However, the near side also receives sunlight reflected from the Earth, known as earthshine.

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.

Ian said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Michael V said:

Why can’t they be re-charged with solar panels?

The batteries can be solar charged, there is sunlight on the far side of the moon.

The moon is tidally locked so the near side faces earth, the far side of the moon still receives around the same amount of sunlight as the near side of the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon

The phrase “dark side of the Moon” does not refer to “dark” as in the absence of light, but rather “dark” as in unknown: until humans were able to send spacecraft around the Moon, this area had never been seen. While many misconstrue this to think that the “dark side” receives little to no sunlight, in reality, both the near and far sides receive (on average) almost equal amounts of light directly from the Sun. However, the near side also receives sunlight reflected from the Earth, known as earthshine.

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.

Onya Mr Floyd!

Michael V said:

btm said:

Batteries would have a pretty short life, and they couldn’t be recharged with solar panels. Does it use an RTG?

Why can’t they be re-charged with solar panels?

They could but instead they’ve opted for an RTH.

Well, quite an exciting space day.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/03/china-probe-change-4-land-far-side-moon-basin-crater
Chang’e 4 landing: China probe makes historic touchdown on far side of the moon
Lander and rover will explore the South Pole-Aitken basin for the first time

—-

No images yet but CNSA are usually pretty coy.

dv said:

Well, quite an exciting space day.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/03/china-probe-change-4-land-far-side-moon-basin-crater
Chang’e 4 landing: China probe makes historic touchdown on far side of the moon
Lander and rover will explore the South Pole-Aitken basin for the first time

—-

No images yet but CNSA are usually pretty coy.

I predict they will find a dark of the moon there
I tried to get there jury rigging my landie with my antigrav machine but only got half way there before I ran out of oxygen silly me left the windows wound down.

Text from CSNA which I’ve put through Google Translate:

At 10:26 on January 3, the No. 4 detector successfully landed on the back of the moon at a distance of 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude, and passed back to the world’s first close range through the “Bridge Bridge” relay star. The photograph of the moon back image reveals the mystery of the ancient moon back. The mission realized the first soft landing of the human detector and the relay communication of the first moon back with the earth, which opened a new chapter in human lunar exploration.

At 10:15, the scientific and technical personnel issued instructions at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. The No. 4 detector began to reduce the power from the distance of 15 km from the moon. The 7500N variable thrust engine was turned on, and the speed of the detector was gradually increased from the relative 1.7 km to the moon. Drop to zero every second. At 6-8 km, the detector performs rapid attitude adjustment and keeps approaching the moon; it starts hovering at a distance of 100 meters from the lunar surface, identifies obstacles and slopes, and autonomously avoids obstacles; after selecting a relatively flat area, Start slowly and vertically down. About 690 seconds later, the No. 4 detector landed autonomously in the von Carmen crater in the Antarctic-Aitken Basin on the back of the moon. During the lunar landing, the landing camera captured multiple landing area imagery.

dv said:

Well done the Chinese.

NASA Chief Administrator was quick to offer congratulations, so that’s nice.

dv said:

NASA Chief Administrator was quick to offer congratulations, so that’s nice.

Yeah you’d have to be a bit of a nobber to wish the competitions peaceful space missions to fail

I am somewhat interested in the colour. It is possible they haven’t done their surface colour calibration yet. There were some orangey areas of the (near) lunar surface reported by the Apollo astronauts.

Don’t say tholins, not everything can be tholins.

dv said:

I am somewhat interested in the colour. It is possible they haven’t done their surface colour calibration yet. There were some orangey areas of the (near) lunar surface reported by the Apollo astronauts.

Don’t say tholins, not everything can be tholins.

dv said:

I am somewhat interested in the colour. It is possible they haven’t done their surface colour calibration yet. There were some orangey areas of the (near) lunar surface reported by the Apollo astronauts.

Don’t say tholins, not everything can be tholins.

The colour was a bit strange on some of the snaps I’ve seen from their nearside mission, as if they were adding too much yellow.

My colour adjustments to a Chinese nearside rover snap, to bring it more in line with the colour surface snaps from the Apollo missions. Chinese on left, mine on right.

But who knows.

China just landed on the far side of the south pole of the moon.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/01/china-change-4-historic-landing-moon-far-side-explained/

Instruments include several cameras, including one for awe-inspiring panoramas of the lunar surface. Chang’e-4 also comes equipped with radar that can penetrate the moon’s surface.

Chang’e-4 is carrying a “lunar biosphere” experiment containing plant seeds and silkworm eggs, as well as a low-frequency radio spectrometer that will let researchers study the sun’s high-energy atmosphere from afar. This instrument has an extra trick: By pairing it with an instrument on board Queqiao, Chinese researchers can use the two as a radio telescope. The moon’s far side is ideal for radio astronomy, since the moon blocks noise from Earth’s ionosphere and human radio transmissions. This will allow us for the first time to do radio observation at low frequencies that are not possible from Earth, from close to the moon and on the moon.

The mission’s scientists teamed up with German researchers to install a particle detector on the lander, and Swedish researchers put an ion detector on the rover. The radio-telescope instrument on Queqiao is a joint Dutch-Chinese effort.

Bubblecar said:

My colour adjustments to a Chinese nearside rover snap, to bring it more in line with the colour surface snaps from the Apollo missions. Chinese on left, mine on right.

But who knows.

Not sure if the colours are right or wrong. The northern areas such as Tranquility Base tend to be bluer (basalt = bluestone) and the south pole where the Chinese are tends to be yellower. But then again, the colours may be enhanced.

This website talks about various steps in colour enhancement of the Moon.

https://www.datarescue.com/life/kepler/moontests/raw_vs_jpeg.html

Note how the south pole looks yellower in this colour enhanced image.

JudgeMental said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

hitchhikers guide joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCsfHVM5x_I

JudgeMental said:

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

hitchhikers guide joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCsfHVM5x_I

Rightio.

JudgeMental said:

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

hitchhikers guide joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCsfHVM5x_I

OK, IGIN :)

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Bubblecar said:

Seconded.

hitchhikers guide joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCsfHVM5x_I

OK, IGIN :)

yes, after you two have sucked all the humour from it!!!!

JudgeMental said:

yes, after you two have sucked all the humour from it!!!!

JM’s image, humourous.
Two forumites failing to understand it – priceless.

I love at least two things about the Chinese lander / rover.

First time earth biology has been deliberately exported to another world. NASA has been too damn phobic of contamination.

Far side radio telescope – away from the huge amount of radio noise generated on Earth.

What is the rover intending to do?

For sour grapes, see https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/chinas-journey-lunar-far-side-missed-opportunity-180963703/

“it appears that although the Chinese are going to one of the most geologically interesting sites on the Moon, they have chosen a site that will not yield much insight regarding the most pressing scientific questions about SPA basin. This landing site consists of mare lavas that fill crater von Karman, which means the rocks at this site are not related to the geology of the SPA basin floor, but rather to volcanic flooding that occurred much later. A key unanswered question for SPA is the composition of the basin floor and what it represents, as it is more mafic (i.e., more iron-rich) than the typical highlands crust—making it a significant compositional anomaly on the far side. Is the basin floor the remnant of a giant impact melt sheet? Could it be the lower crust and upper mantle of the Moon exposed by the giant collision? Or does it have some unexpected, exotic origin, resulting from processes and histories not yet imagined? Unfortunately, answers to these questions must await another mission.”

Don’t bet on it. First, the Chinese landing site is much better because it is flatter. Second, they could and hopefully will use the rover to travel onto the SPA terrain later. Unlike Curiosity, which has been doing wheelies on the exact same uninteresting terrain for three years, instead of moving on to the nearby geology further up Mt Sharp that is actually far more interesting.

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

You guys are total failures as nerds .

gaghalfrunt said:

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

You guys are total failures as nerds .

:-)

JudgeMental said:

gaghalfrunt said:

Bubblecar said:

Seconded.

You guys are total failures as nerds .

:-)

We should all be going to nerd school,
Nerd school that’s for me

;)

gaghalfrunt said:

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Let me be the first to say:

IDGI

Seconded.

You guys are total failures as nerds .

True.

Recent images have a normal colour balance

dv said:

Recent images have a normal colour balance

cool. :)

dv said:

Recent images have a normal colour balance

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Recent images have a normal colour balance

cool. :)

Neutral.

The Rev Dodgson said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Recent images have a normal colour balance

cool. :)

Neutral.

Stop messing with me dude. ;)

JudgeMental said:

dv said:

Recent images have a normal colour balance

Fake. No stars.

See the Far Side of the Moon in This Amazing Panorama from China’s Chang’e 4 Lander

mollwollfumble said:

Chang’e-4 is carrying a “lunar biosphere” experiment containing plant seeds and silkworm eggs

I’ll be interested to see how this goes. Seems a pretty small container, not much bigger than a football.

dv said:

See the Far Side of the Moon in This Amazing Panorama from China’s Chang’e 4 Lander

Yep. Here’s one of the images.

From https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/01/see-the-first-panorama-of-the-far-side-of-the-moon-captured-by-chinas-change-4-lander/

it looks like the other side…

I wonder if they used the same set from 1969

They’re growing cotton there now, lets just hope this doesn’t get away on them.

Peak Warming Man said:

They’re growing cotton there now, lets just hope this doesn’t get away on them.

On the Moon? I really suspect that the Moon’s current ecosystem is not in serious danger.

Link at https://www.newscientist.com/article/2190704-first-moon-plants-sprout-in-chinas-change-4-biosphere-experiment/

Seeds of cotton, oilseed rape, potato and arabidopsis were carried to the moon as part of a biosphere experiment, along with fruit fly eggs and some yeast.

The organisms are kept in a sealed chamber, protected from the extreme temperatures and intense radiation on the moon’s surface.

The six organisms could make up a mini-ecosystem, with plants producing oxygen and food to sustain the fruit flies. Yeast could process the flies’ waste and dead plants to provide another food source.

Ford Thunderbird radical custom 1963

Not a lunar rover

Kind of weird about the cotton.

The early news items were suggesting they were hoping to study how a closed ecosystem could work with a small number of species in low gravity.

To me this suggests a study of at least some weeks but it appears there was no heating, and hence of course they all died as soon as night fell.

Or perhaps the heating element broke.

CNSA has released some new images:

dv said:

CNSA has released some new images:

They would have learnt a lot from this mission, increase their knowhow a bit.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

CNSA has released some new images:

They would have learnt a lot from this mission, increase their knowhow a bit.

No doubt, no doubt.

They have a lunar polar mission coming up. I’ll be interested to find out what the deal is with those craters that supposedly have water ice in them so hopefully they’ll land somewhere near one of those.