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China's Chang'E 2 Succeeds In Thrilling Asteroid Flyby
Zothecula writes "China has now joined the very select group of countries to have succeeded in carrying out an interplanetary probe mission. According to reports from China's official news agency Xinhua, the Chang'E 2 probe passed a mere 3.2 km (2 miles) from the near-Earth asteroid Toutatis at 8:30:09 GMT on December 13, making it the closest asteroid flyby to date ... and resulting in some remarkable photographs."
This was done better and cheaper than the USA could have accomplished.
How can 3.2km be the closest asteroid flyby when Hayabusa returned a sample from an asteroid?
http://www.space.com/9538-asteroid-dust-successfully-returned-japanese-space-probe.html
I guess I'll have to RTFA...
China's been orbiting 3.2km afar the asteroid at 10km per second, leaving a time frame of mere 320ms to correct possible errors? Would a crashing satellite have enough energy to fling it out of its orbit and make it deviate towards earth or moon? (I suck at physics... bear with me!)
It just a piece of Ginger Root scaled at different sizes!
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Another damned link that talks about photos, MOTHER FUCKER THEY'RE AMAZING PHOTOS!!!!, and then doesn't provide them.
It does provide an artist's conception...of the spacecraft.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
This is such a rare event. China actually doing something productive and cool. I don't think I could get used to this, and somehow I doubt I will have to.
Ok.. so I went to the article and saw the link to the Chinese site with the pics... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-12/16/c_132043872_6.htm
All I can say is WTF... while the picture of the asteroid is interesting. There's a dozen photo galleries below it with photos that I would NOT want to be shared with friends and family...
For example... an "Underwear Show" "Top Bikini babes..." "Contortionist..."
Time to find another site without the BS...
Seven asteroids with exactly the same shape in different sizes in such a precise arrangement is conclusive proof of intelligent life.
Chang'E's flyby of 4179 Toutatis is certainly an impressive feat. But, given that Hayabusa took samples while several meters above the surface of 25143 Itokawa, and that NEAR-Shoemaker actually landed on 433 Eros, I don't see how the term "closest" (which the article uses as well as the summary) can apply. Unless they mean "the asteroid flyby mission that took place nearest to Earth," which, while interesting, doesn't seem to be how this is being presented.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/15/0431204/chinese-moon-probe-flies-by-asteroid-toutatis
So now that this little gravity tractor maneuver is done, who is Toutatis going to come down on next time around?
North Korea's spaceship was doing donuts around the asteroid by the time the Chinese got there. Glorious Leader's spaceship is much faster and more agile than anything the Chinese could come up with.
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Slashdot editors' memory is getting really short. This is essentially the same story already post just two days ago! And nothing new in this one.
Chang'E's flyby of 4179 Toutatis is certainly an impressive feat. But, given that Hayabusa took samples while several meters above the surface of 25143 Itokawa, and that NEAR-Shoemaker actually landed on 433 Eros, I don't see how the term "closest" (which the article uses as well as the summary) can apply. Unless they mean "the asteroid flyby mission that took place nearest to Earth," which, while interesting, doesn't seem to be how this is being presented.
Some of the source articles from which Gizmag stole this story referred to this being the closest flyby of this particular asteroid. The wording was such that when I first skimmed one of them even I thought the claim was that this was the closest approach to any asteroid. When I went back and parsed the whole sentence it became much clearer - Gizmag must never have read their sources carefully.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
The Chinese news release states that it was the closest for 'this' asteroid, not any asteroid.
Gizmag screwed up claiming that it was the closest for any asteroid, and slashdot echoed Gizmag's claim. More sensational that way I guess.
Before you anoint our Chinese overlords, be aware that most of this technology was stolen from NASA/JPL. There is a reason China was (basically) kicked out of NASA
You can't compare the two scenarios.
In a flyby the probe is moving really fast relative to the asteroid. It thus can't produce enough delta-v for a last minute avoidance maneuver. The trajectory is determined well before the encounter. How close you can safely get depends on how accurately you can predict the asteroid path. A few kilometers at close approach with a reasonably low risk of collision is pretty good.
If you enter orbit first the situation is completely different. You can gradually lower the orbit and get as close as you want. You can also take all the time you need to accurately map the gravity field. And if there is a risk a collision the gravity is so low that you can quickly raise the orbit. The main difficulty in a low gravity environment is landing without bouncing back into space.
"China has now joined the select group of countries have been successful interplanetary exploration missions. According to China's official news agency, Xinhua News Agency reported, Chang'e II detector by only 3.2 km (2 miles) from near Toutatisat 8:30:09 on December 13 GMT Earth asteroid, it is the closest asteroid flying over ... as well as the resulting photos. "
A record to be shattered on the 21st...
Table-ized A.I.
I realize I should have just said that a flyby and an orbit are two different things, and that the article is therefore correct. Explaining why it is easier to get close to an object when you are orbiting around it than when you are flying past it is irrelevant.
P.S. /. doesn't have an edit button is because Bezos patented it. Seriously guys, it is 2012.
I hope that the reason
Well I am sure that some of the new agencies and their reporters there at Chinese mission control, such as Reuters and AP, could clear this up...oh wait....this was a Stalinist mission and closed to press. And I am sure that the only reason we are getting any information from these paranoid nut jobs is that the mission was successful.
Glad we got that out of the way.
True. But the mission to orbit and/or land on the surface of an asteroid is MUCH more technically challenging than a close flyby, so I'll still score the point for Hayabusa and NEAR. It's the closest (the only?) flyby of Toutatis, but anything beyond that is exaggeration if we're talking about technical accomplishment for probes visiting the vicinity of asteroids. It's a nice accomplishment, but a ways to go before it is comparable.
And when they find the probe, there's gonna be a *made in china* sticker on it :p
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Is it just me or are the Chinese actually the first to take a COLOR image of an asteroid.
Seems like most of the other spacecrafts opted to use black/white imaging. Probably necessitated by the amount of available illumination (there are no flash guns big enough to cover several kilometers).
The Chinese satellite is also on some multi-mission profile.
If you want to get real close/land to an asteroid, it would likely need to be a specific mission with-respect-to trajectory, fuel management, avionics/control, etc.
It was just a little gravitational push that the probe exerted on this asteroid. I wonder how much closer to the earth it will be when it comes around in 145 years time?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.