Chinese Chang'e-3 Lunar Rover On Its Way After Successful Launch

savuporo writes "The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy, blasted off on board an enhanced Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 1:30 a.m. (12.30 p.m. EDT). Landing is expected on December 14, at a landing site called Sinus Iridium (the Bay of Rainbows), a relic of a huge crater 258 km in diameter. Coverage of the launch was carried live on CCTV, with youtube copies available."

Comments

Asia is playing catch up

[Taco Cowboy]

While it is true that Asian countries (especially China and India) are playing catch up in the space race, they are catching up pretty quickly.

It is very very true that what India and China are doing the West (and Russia) had done some decades ago.

It is also true that what China is doing (and what India is doing also) is nothing new in the Western standard, one shouldn't stay put just because one's opponents are just beginning to do the "old stuff", or else, one day, the opponent may just have passed you by.

To India and China, congratulation of what you guys are doing !

To the West, please wake the fuck up !

Re:Asia is playing catch up

[Shakrai]

To the West, please wake the fuck up

That won't happen until the Chinese do something we haven't done before, preferably something with implications for national-defense. When that happens there will be a massive panic, followed by determined efforts to rectify the situation. What you're looking for is another Sputnik, and it will be a few decades before the Chinese are there.

For some reason this quote comes to mind: "Americans will always do the right thing, after they've exhausted all other possibilities."

Re:Asia is playing catch up

[savuporo]

are playing catch up in the space race, they are catching up pretty quickly.

Chang'e-3 is not playing catch up - its doing many things that "west" has never done. First, only two space agencies have sent probes to land on lunar surfacce before. US never sent a teleoperated rover. Russians did, but 40 years ago with much older set of instruments.

It also carries multiple scientific instruments that have never been used on the lunar surface before ( obviously, because it has been 37 years since anyone bothered to go there ) . Namely, it has a radar underneath it that is intended to scan deep under the surface - this has never been done before. Second, it carries a telescope, which will for the first ever telescope landed on another planetary body.

See here for details : http://www.spaceflight101.com/change-3.html

Re:Asia is playing catch up

[savuporo]

That won't happen until the Chinese do something we haven't done before,

"West" has never sent a teleoperated rover to the moon. Russians did, 40 years ago.

Re:Asia is playing catch up

[savuporo]

It is much more challenging to do tele-operated rovers on Mars

Nobody disputed that. A rover on the moon however is a different thing than a rover on the Mars. First, its on an entirely different celestial body - hey, there are scientific discoveries there, and potential for development. Second, teleoperated rover on the moon will have substantially different capabilities compared to martian ones - instead of 10 minute signal lag, you have 1-2 seconds, and can actually do things interactively.

A rover on mars and a rover on moon are different things and one is not "more or less" than another. US, or "west", have done one, but not the other.

And before you jump back with "but we had men there" - again, men on the moon are a different capability than having a long lasting rover there. Chang'e-3 mission is designed for 3 months, and it will carry out continuous observations with its instruments. Thats a tall order for any human crew for a long time to come.

Re:Asia is playing catch up

[joe_frisch]

That will be the critical point. If someone takes a serous shot at a manned mars mission for example, will the US space race revive, or will we just decide that we could but don't want to. For a while we've been letting the Russians launch our astronauts into space, something that would have been unthinkable when I was growing up.

It's the DETERMINATION that counts

[Taco Cowboy]

Anyone can pick arbitrary milestones to make a point, but that doesn't make it meaningful.

I think the more informative numbers would be the cost (in inflation adjusted dollars) for the various projects. I don't know what they are, but I suspect China and India are doing their missions for a fraction of what it cost the US to do it, which means they will probably be doing more in the near future.

The biggest differentiating factor does not come with a number attached.

What India and China have, and what the West is sorely lacking, is the DETERMINATION to make their country more technologically advance.

England used to be one of the top country in the world in term of technology, and what happened ?

They taught their children how to use Microsoft Word in school, rather than how to program.

America is still (one of the) top country (countries) in the world in term of technology, but technology is far from being what the average American is interested in.

The Americans are wasting their time debating the never-ending pro and anti-abortion issue.

The Americans prefer to watch Netflix, to vote for their next American Idol, than to encourage and lead their children towards learning the how-tos in technology.

In other words, the Indians and the Chinese have much more curiosity than the people in the Western countries, and their curiosities are propelling onwards in strengthening themselves and their respective countries in Science and Technology, while the West, still sitting in their comfortable Lazy-Boy watching the latest flix from Hollywood.