China Launches Moon Probe (cnn.com) 29
China launched an uncrewed lunar mission Friday that aims to bring back samples from the far side of the moon for the first time, in a potentially major step forward for the country's ambitious space program. From a report: The Chang'e-6 probe -- China's most complex robotic lunar mission to date -- blasted off on a Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan island, where space fans had gathered to watch the historic moment. The country's National Space Administration said the launch was a success. The launch marks the start of a mission that aims to be a key milestone in China's push to become a dominant space power with plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and build a research base on its south pole.
It comes as a growing number of countries, including the United States, eye the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration in an increasingly competitive field. China's planned 53-day mission would see the Chang'e-6 lander touch down in a gaping crater on the moon's far side, which never faces Earth. China became the first and only country to land on the moon's far side during its 2019 Chang'e-4 mission. Any far-side samples retrieved by the Chang'e-6 lander could help scientists peer back into the evolution of the moon and the solar system itself -- and provide important data to advance China's lunar ambitions.
It comes as a growing number of countries, including the United States, eye the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration in an increasingly competitive field. China's planned 53-day mission would see the Chang'e-6 lander touch down in a gaping crater on the moon's far side, which never faces Earth. China became the first and only country to land on the moon's far side during its 2019 Chang'e-4 mission. Any far-side samples retrieved by the Chang'e-6 lander could help scientists peer back into the evolution of the moon and the solar system itself -- and provide important data to advance China's lunar ambitions.
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Your "meat" doesn't work when you're only 8.
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Are you hoping to land in a gaping crater?
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Are they still not pre-announcing their missions? (Score:2)
The Russians did that ages ago - only announcing missions when it was clear they were going to succeed.
Even back in the 70's and 80's launches were hard to hide, so the world knew something was up, just not exactly what.
Re:Are they still not pre-announcing their mission (Score:4, Informative)
By Andrew Jones
February 15, 2024
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https://beijingtimes.com/china... [beijingtimes.com]
Another from Oct. 2023.
Re:Are they still not pre-announcing their mission (Score:4, Interesting)
They do, you just never hear about it (Score:2)
China did announced all launches beforehand, it was only English MSM that never reported it and hence you never knew about it. If you can read Chinese (or bothered to use Google translate) you can get all that from Chinese media.
e.g. the previous Chang'e 5 announcement, months before the launch: https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2020... [www.gov.cn]
The Chang'e 6 was announced in 2023: https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/jie... [www.gov.cn]
Re: Are they still not pre-announcing their missio (Score:2)
Sometimes the speed reading courses (Score:2)
Sometimes the speed reading courses suddenly hit a dip or a speed bump, and you read something like an unscrewed lunar mission and you hit the brakes
Should walk before you run. (Score:1)
China should return samples from the near side first. When that secedes, then try on the far side.
Space is hard. Russia and the US had many many failed missions until they got sufficient experience. For example, US's Ranger 7 was the first successful Ranger mission*, as 1 thru 6 bit the dust; it became almost comical. (I have a draft script for a movie about the stressed Ranger team.)
Incremental is a safer bet.
* To get close-up photos of the moon's surface by taking rapid photos up until the time it intenti
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Doing something that another country has already done long ago, doesn't impress anyone. If they want to be perceived as advanced leaders in scientific research, they have to do something that has NOT already been done decades ago by other countries, especially hated Western countries.
If there were any conceivable way they could send a manned mission to Mars, that's what they'd be doing. The dark side of the moon, is the loftiest space-exploration goal they thought they had
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Re:Should walk before you run. (Score:4, Informative)
China should return samples from the near side first.
They did.
https://www.bbc.com/news/scien... [bbc.com]
https://www.nationalgeographic... [nationalgeographic.com]
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First, Ranger was a sequential TV system. not a "Gatling Gun of Cameras" . Someone with a movie script should certain know that, particularly since the TV system cause most of the later failures in various ways.
There is no particularly good reason to do the near side first. The only consequential bit of added complexity is the lack of direct communications. That, too, is a long-solved problem and China has already landed on the far side and has a workable communication method. Putting
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This is Chang'e 6. Want to guess what Chang'e 5 did?
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I stand corrected. I thought 5 was merely a far-side lander.
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You should learn the language before making a fool of yourself.
uncrewed (Score:2)
Fortunately, it was uncrewed. I'm really happy that it was not unmanned. After all, if it was unmanned, they might have launched some womxn to the moon, Alice maybe.