China's Chang'e 5 Probe Lifts Off From Moon Carrying Lunar Samples (space.com) 32
China's Chang'e spacecraft has lifted off from Oceanus Procellarum at 10:10 EST Thursday, carrying with it the first fresh lunar samples since 1976. Space.com reports: Six minutes later, the ascent spacecraft achieved lunar orbit, marking a huge milestone in the Chang'e 5 mission to return lunar samples to Earth. The ascent vehicle's job now is to meet up with the Chang'e 5 orbiter while still circling the moon, and then transfer its precious cargo to a return capsule for the journey home. That next stage is an extremely challenging rendezvousing and docking between the small ascent vehicle and the Chang'e 5 orbiter while orbiting the moon. The activity needs to be automated due to the time delay in communicating across the roughly 236,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) between the Earth and the moon.
The two spacecraft will begin a final approach sometime on Saturday (Nov. 5)and complete the docking 3.5 hours later. If all goes well, China will then prepare for the final leg of the journey to deliver the first lunar samples to Earth in 44 years. The lunar samples won't be coming home immediately however. The Chang'e 5 spacecraft will need to wait in lunar orbit for a number of days for a narrow window in which to fire its engines and head for Earth.
The careful timing of this trans-Earth injection maneuver will allow the orbiter to deliver the reentry module to Earth at the precise time in order to land in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia -- the same site used by the China National Space Administration to return astronauts home aboard Shenzhou spacecraft. The journey back to Earth will last 112 hours -- just over four and a half days -- before the reentry attempt. As spacecraft returning from the moon are traveling faster than those reentering from low Earth orbit, such as trips from the International Space Station, the Chang'e 5 reentry module will bounce off the atmosphere once to help it slow down before taking a final, fiery plunge to Earth.
The two spacecraft will begin a final approach sometime on Saturday (Nov. 5)and complete the docking 3.5 hours later. If all goes well, China will then prepare for the final leg of the journey to deliver the first lunar samples to Earth in 44 years. The lunar samples won't be coming home immediately however. The Chang'e 5 spacecraft will need to wait in lunar orbit for a number of days for a narrow window in which to fire its engines and head for Earth.
The careful timing of this trans-Earth injection maneuver will allow the orbiter to deliver the reentry module to Earth at the precise time in order to land in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia -- the same site used by the China National Space Administration to return astronauts home aboard Shenzhou spacecraft. The journey back to Earth will last 112 hours -- just over four and a half days -- before the reentry attempt. As spacecraft returning from the moon are traveling faster than those reentering from low Earth orbit, such as trips from the International Space Station, the Chang'e 5 reentry module will bounce off the atmosphere once to help it slow down before taking a final, fiery plunge to Earth.
Congratulations (Score:5, Informative)
Congrats China, and I hope the journey back is safe.
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Something something first Chinese takeout on the moon something something?
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Congrats China, and I hope the journey back is safe.
We need the competition.
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This was a secret mision to communicate with Klingonian Empire.
There's Klingons on the starboard bow, scrape 'em off, Jim!
Been there. Done that. Doing it again. (Score:1)
The US Apollo program put the first man on the moon. It's twin sister program, Artemis, will put the first woman on the moon. NASA is assembling the pieces to do that now.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25... [cnn.com]
It's great to see other nations develop their space programs to be able to bring rocks from the moon. It's a bit underwhelming when it's been 50 years since the USA completed this same feat.
It's also rather disappointing that it's been 50 years since there's been an American on the surface of the moon.
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The US Apollo program put the first man on the moon.
You do realise that "man" can mean male or person, depending on context? Nobody was talking about the first "male person" on the moon.
It's twin sister program, Artemis, will put the first woman on the moon.
So what?? How is that a new achievement? Its not like a woman running a 4 minute mile.
America has had female astronauts for decades, since they started sending up scientists, not just test pilots. It would be a shock if a woman was *not* included in the next few lunar missions.
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You do realise that "man" can mean male or person, depending on context?
I do.
Nobody was talking about the first "male person" on the moon.
True, we are talking about getting rock samples from the surface of the moon. I expected people to recall that Apollo brought back rock samples, like this Chinese mission has. I guess I should have been more explicit.
So what?? How is that a new achievement? Its not like a woman running a 4 minute mile.
It would be a new achievement because no woman has yet been to the moon. Perhaps not exceedingly notable but still a milestone in history. If the theory that "gender is just a social construct" is to be believed then perhaps we could claim that a woman has in fact been to the moon. Ha
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So what?? How is that a new achievement?
There are some unique problems to solve for female physiology. It's also a nice thing for young girls to see, that yes there really are no areas of scientific and engineering endeavour where they can't go. Believe it or not that's how kids think, role models are important.
America has had female astronauts for decades, since they started sending up scientists, not just test pilots.
Only 11% of astronauts have been women, and it wasn't until 2013 that women made up half of that year's class of astronauts. Because of the long training times and relatively few available missions the pace of change has been very slow.
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Only 11% of astronauts have been women, and it wasn't until 2013 that women made up half of that year's class of astronauts. Because of the long training times and relatively few available missions the pace of change has been very slow.
It will change back as soon as they eliminate the sex quotas. Most applicants are male, most girls are just not interested in engineering. There are simply not a lot of Gwynne Shotwells in the world.
Women are less likely to choose jobs that take them from home for long periods. And that is across cultures. Wouldn't it be boring if boys and girls had the same preferences?
Countries with more gender equality have fewer female STEM grads [thejournal.ie]
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The US Apollo program put the first man on the moon. It's twin sister program, Artemis, will put the first woman on the moon.
And then we'll go and tick off the other checkboxes. First trans person on the moon, first gay person on the moon, first disabled person on the moon...
Does anyone know if we've already ticked off "first /. member on the moon" ?
awesome (Score:3)
First possibility: The prospect of being second fiddle burns in our gullet so bad that we finally get off our couches, set aside the jumbo bucket of KFC, and start trying again. We vote in politicians with a mandate to spend the tax dollars necessary to pump up the space program to something substantial, and to prioritize performance and success over politics. It's the Apollo days all over again except our sights are significantly longer out than the moon.
Second possibility: The naysayers are right, the west has passed it's peak, and we just sort of mumble something grumpy, like an old man, and switch to a website that make us feel good about ourselves. This is fine with me too. While I'd prefer my own civilization to be in the vanguard, at least some more vigorous, energetic group has taken the pole position and is pushing forward.
Either way, humanity wins. Go for it China. Dunk on us if you can. To be honest, I think your governmental system is self-limited and doubt you'll succeed, but I'm willing to be proved wrong
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Did the space race ever really stop? I guess it took a pause once the Soviet Union fell in 1990 or whenever. After that Americans wanted to get out of the Cold War for a while.
Things heated up again with a few political events here and there. Obama failing to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon grade plutonium as promised to Russia didn't help. This gave Russia an excuse to not dispose of their plutonium stockpile. North Korea launching missiles over Japan happened. China has launched several anti-sat
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Main possibility: the prospect of being second fiddle motivates the US to declare China to be the worst evil ever, get everyone off their asses to hate them , and then nuke them. Humanity loses.
And yeah I cheated, I merely look at what happens.
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I think your governmental system is self-limited
I've come to the conclusion that it's not the government system, but the people who took control of it.
Same in my home country - the government now is run in a way that the constitution doesn't even mention, with party alliances being stronger than the conscience and representation of your voters that it highlights. But a big part of that is not because the system is built like that, but because those with a vested interest in making good money despite being unable to land good jobs in any other sphere have
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There's another option. Team up with China.
Back in the early 60s Kennedy was talking the Soviet PM about a joint moon mission. Plan was for each country to develop its own rockets and vehicles, meet up in orbit around the moon and go down together. Information would be shared to keep costs down for both parties and made sure both were ready by 1969.
That dream died with him but in the end the US and Russia did end up cooperating extensively. And that was at the height of the Cold War, in fact Kennedy saw it
The US space program is doing fine (Score:2)
Just because the US isn't sending humans to the moon doesn't mean it has slacked off the last 50 years. The 2020 NASA budget is $22B.
Don't discount landing robots on Mars, the Juno mission, the Cassini mission, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble telescope, the Kepler mission (which has discovered thousands of planets), the ISS, and the ongoing OSIRIS-REx mission where a lander collected samples from an asteroid and is returning them to Earth.
Unlike during the cold war, science is a greater priority t
44 years (Score:4, Informative)
If all goes well, China will then prepare for the final leg of the journey to deliver the first lunar samples to Earth in 44 years.
It sounds like somebody selected "Aliexpress Super Economy shipping" instead of EMS or courier. The moon is a long way.
44? (Score:2)
Chinese don't like 4s. :/
Lunar sample prices (Score:2)
In 2018, lunar material retrieved by the Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft were sold for $4.2 million per gram [collectspace.com].
Chang'e is bringing back 2kg of lunar material [scmp.com], so probably worth $8.4 billion (assuming they don't flood the market and depress the per gram price).
Nov. 5?? (Score:3)
Stuff like this makes me not care... (Score:1)
...about all the BS that goes on between our countries. There are engineers over there who worked hard on this. They had a ticket to ride within their system, just like we do and they took it. I wish those engineers the best of luck, regardless of all the other BS that goes on.
Freaking amazing (Score:3)
An article summary talking among other things about "careful timing" of procedures literally misses the date by a month. Nice journalism, guys.
Environment in the spacecraft on deorbiting? (Score:2)
How hot do you think it will get in there when plunging through the atmosphere? And how much shock when "bouncing off the atmosphere"? I kept thinking about how the scientists who have worked with lunar rocks have to deal with miniscule amounts of samples while they are bringing back kilograms of it!