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Chinese Lunar Probe Lands Successfully

Posted by timothy on from the remote-control dept.

China's Chang'e 3 moon probe made its intended landing earlier today, setting down softly in the moon's Sinus Iridum, as reported by Reuters. From the article: "The Chang'e 3, a probe named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, is carrying the solar-powered Yutu, or Jade Rabbit buggy, which will dig and conduct geological surveys. ... China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast images of the probe's location on Saturday and a computer generated image of the probe on the surface of the moon on its website. The probe and the rover are expected to photograph each other tomorrow. ... The Bay of Rainbows was selected because it has yet to be studied, has ample sunlight and is convenient for remote communications with Earth, Xinhua said. The rover will be remotely controlled by Chinese control centers with support from a network of tracking and transmission stations around the world operated by the European Space Agency (ESA)."

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Images from the surface by mbone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is a cool animated gif of the descent imager pictures of the landing, and a false color image of the surface.

  2. Re:First by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nitpick: the name is Luna-9.

    The first landing of any kind (a crash landing), was the Soviet Luna-2 in 1959. The U.S. then sent a series of crash-impact spacecraft in the early 1960s, the Ranger series, whose goal was to take photos during the final descent, along with testing out systems. Five of the nine Ranger missions successfully impacted the moon, and three of them managed to send back photos.

    Then as you note, Luna-9 was the first non-crash landing, in 1966.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  3. Re:They have the money to do this by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about money? We have resources lying around the country already - both human and material. We have the ability to do it all over again, any time.

    What we lack, is backbone, initiative, the dream, the drive, the balls. Our leaders today are less than men, and there seem to be no real men to run the worthless bastards out of power.

    Money. Money is important, in it's own right, but money doesn't control our ability to aim high. That ability is only governed by our lack of courage.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  4. Re:First by david.given · · Score: 5, Interesting
    As an interesting addendum:

    Luna-9's pictures were sent back using one of the standard encodings used for wireless newspaper photography transmission. During the transmission, the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the United Kingdom was listening in (well, wouldn't you?) and the astronomers there recognised the encoding, phoned someone at the Daily Express, and as a result the first pictures from the surface of the moon ever were printed in a British newspaper while the USSR was still wondering what to do with them.

    There is some speculation that the encoding scheme was picked deliberately to make sure this happened...