• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > China

Chinese Probe Chang'e-4 Manages to Enter Moon's Orbit

  • Chang'e 4 lunar probe takes off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, China, Dec. 8, 2018.

    Chang'e 4 lunar probe takes off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, China, Dec. 8, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 December 2018
Opinion

China is about to make history in space science through a probe that prepares to land on the far side of the Moon, which cannot be directly observed from Earth.

The Chinese probe Chang'e 4 entered into lunar orbit Wednesday, completing a key step to what would be the first landing on the Moon's dark side.

RELATED:
Chinese Scientists Set New Quantum Computing Record

After flying about 110 hours from Earth, the probe began to slow down and entered the elliptical lunar polar orbit, in line with the instructions sent from a control center in Beijing, the China National Space Administration announced.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the rocket sent the probe into "lunar orbit" as planned, and the control center only had to make "small adjustments" before the deceleration process.

Next, the control center will adjust the probe's orbit around the Moon and test the communication between the probe and the Queqiao data relay satellite.

Afterwards, the center will choose the "right time" to complete the landing, which is expected to happen in early January.

The mission will perform low-frequency radio astronomical observation, terrain and relief analysis, mineral composition detection, shallow lunar surface structure analysis, and neutron and neutral atom radiation measurements.

All these investigations will allow for a greater understanding of the Moon's dark side, which is the portion of the Moon's surface not currently facing the Sun.

The exploration of this side of the Moon is a scientific milestone since no country has managed to reach that part of the satellite until now.

Both the Soviet Union and the United States managed to photograph the hidden face more than half a century ago. However, these countries have never landed there, despite the fact that a U.S. unmanned mission unsuccessfully tried to do it in 1962.

In May, China took the first step for this new mission with the launch of a satellite, which is aimed to facilitate communications between the Moon's far side and the Earth's control centers.

The Chang'e program, which was named after a  Chinese mythological goddess of the moon, began with the launch of a first orbital probe in 2007. Since then, China has successfully sent four devices to the satellite.

The ultimate goal of the Chinese lunar program is to send a manned mission to the Moon in 2036 possibly.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.