3.12.2020
Photo provided by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows Chang'e-5 probe gathering samples on the moon on Dec. 2, 2020. China's Chang'e-5 probe has completed sampling on the moon, and the samples have been sealed within the spacecraft, the CNSA announced Thursday morning. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
China's Chang'e-5 probe has completed sampling on the moon, and the samples have been sealed inside the spacecraft, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Thursday morning.
Launched on Nov. 24, the spacecraft landed on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on Dec. 1, tasked with retrieving China's first samples from an extraterrestrial body.
After the spacecraft worked for about 19 hours on the moon, the sampling ended at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time), and the samples were stowed in a container inside the ascender of the probe as planned, said CNSA.
By using data sent back by the probe, researchers simulated the sampling procedure in a lab, providing an important basis for the operation on the moon.
The lunar regolith penetrating radar and other payloads installed on the lander have carried out scientific exploration as planned and provided information support for sampling.
The probe has withstood temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius on the lunar surface.
The probe has adopted two methods of moon sampling, including using drills to collect subsurface samples and grabbing samples on the surface with a robotic arm. Diverse samples at different sites have been gathered.
The moon samples have been sealed inside the spacecraft to ensure that they are kept in a vacuum and free from the influence of the external environment during its return to the Earth.
The Chang'e-5 probe is equipped with multiple payloads including a landing camera, panorama camera, lunar regolith penetrating radar and lunar mineralogical spectrometer, which detects lunar surface topography and mineral composition, as well as the moon's shallow subsurface structure.
Before the sample drilling process, the lunar regolith penetrating radar analyzed the subsurface structure in the sampling area, offering data reference for sampling. Enditem
Quelle: Xinhua
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Change5 Abflug von Mondoberfläche
Quelle: Twitter
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Quelle: Twitter
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Update: 4.12.2020
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China's Chang'e-5 mission leaves Moon's surface
China has executed the next stage of its Chang'e-5 Moon mission, blasting into orbit samples gathered on the lunar surface.
Right on cue, at 15:10 GMT, an ascent vehicle lit its engine to head up to a service module that will shepherd home the rock and dust materials.
It's more than 40 years since lunar samples were last brought back to Earth.
Chang'e-5 still has some key steps to negotiate to achieve mission success.
The ascender has to rendezvous with the orbiter, and also pass over the samples.
These will be enclosed in a module that will be aimed at Inner Mongolia. This module will have to survive a fiery, high-speed descent through Earth's atmosphere to get to the ground.
The lander deployed a Chinese flag
Chang'e-5 touched down on the Moon on Tuesday and immediately set about scooping and drilling nearby "soil", or regolith.
The landing hardware had comprised a powered descent system, which was left on the surface when the time came to leave.
Chinese TV broadcast the moment of lift-off from the Moon.
A camera placed on the surface landing mechanism, looking upwards, recorded the moment of ignition of the ascender's rocket motor and the rapid departure.
If controllers in China keep to the timeline that's been put in the public domain then the ascender's rendezvous with the service module should occur on Saturday (GMT).
Assuming this operation passes without incident, the samples should be back at Earth towards the middle of the month.
The last lunar sample return mission was in 1976.
A total of just under 400kg were picked up by American Apollo astronauts and the Soviets' robotic Luna landers.
But all these samples were very old - more than three billion years in age. The Chang'e-5 materials should be quite different.
The Chinese mission has targeted a high volcanic region called Mons Rümker. It's in the northwest of the nearside of the Moon.
Samples from this location may be no more than 1.2 or 1.3 billion years old, and, as such, should provide additional insights on the geological history of the Moon.
The samples will also allow scientists to more precisely calibrate the "chronometer" they use to age surfaces on the inner Solar System planets.
This is done by counting craters (the more craters, the older the surface), but it depends on having some definitive dating at a number of locations, and the Apollo and Soviet samples were key to this. Chang'e-5 would offer a further data point.
Quelle: BBC
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Update: 6.12.2020
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China gelang Andockmanöver mit Rückkehrkapsel
Nach seiner unbemannten Mondlandung ist China am Sonntag das erste robotergesteuerte Andock-Manöver eines Raumschiffes in der Umlaufbahn um den Erdtrabanten gelungen. Die Aufstiegsstufe des nach der chinesischen Mondgöttin benannten Raumschiffes „Chang‘e 5“ koppelte an an den Orbiter an, wie die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Xinhua berichtete. Rund zwei Kilogramm Mondgestein, die zur Erde zurückgebracht werden sollen, seien nachher sicher in der Rückkehrkapsel verstaut worden.
Quelle: Krone.at
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China's #ChangE5 mission has completed historic rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit. The samples collected on the moon have been transferred from the ascender to the returner.
Quelle: Xinhua
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Orbiter-returner combination of Chang'e-5 separates from ascender
A graphic simulation shows the orbiter and returner combination of China's Chang'e-5 probe after its separation from the ascender. The orbiter and returner combination of China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully separated from the spacecraft's ascender at 12:35 p.m. Sunday (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The orbiter-returner combination will continue to orbit the moon, and wait for the right time to return to Earth with lunar samples. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
The orbiter and returner combination of China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully separated from the spacecraft's ascender at 12:35 p.m. Sunday (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The orbiter-returner combination will continue to orbit the moon, and wait for the right time to return to Earth with lunar samples.
Earlier on Sunday, the probe's ascender successfully rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit.
This is the first time a Chinese spacecraft has carried out rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit.
The samples collected on the moon have been transferred from the ascender to the returner, the CNSA said.
Chang'e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in China's aerospace history. It is also the world's first moon-sample mission in more than 40 years.
The Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on Nov. 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on Dec. 1.
The returner of the probe is expected to land at the Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in mid-December. Enditem
A graphic simulation shows the orbit of the orbiter and returner combination of China's Chang'e-5 probe after its separation from the ascender. The orbiter and returner combination of China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully separated from the spacecraft's ascender at 12:35 p.m. Sunday (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The orbiter-returner combination will continue to orbit the moon, and wait for the right time to return to Earth with lunar samples. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
Chang’e-5 spacecraft smashes into moon after completing mission
HELSINKI — The Chang’e-5 ascent vehicle which carried precious samples into lunar orbit was commanded to crash into the moon Monday after completing its role in the mission.
Mission control sent commands to the spacecraft at 5:59 p.m. Eastern Monday, resulting in the ascent vehicle impacting the moon around 6:30 p.m., the China Lunar Exploration Program announced Tuesday.
The impact occurred at 0 degrees longitude and 30 degrees south. The reported coordinates suggest impact between the ancient craters Regiomontanus and Walther in the southern highlands region.
The ascent vehicle was a crucial component in the complex 23-day Chang’e-5 mission to collect lunar samples and deliver them to Earth.
The spacecraft lifted off from atop the Chang’e-5 lander in Oceanus Procellarum Dec. 3, taking with it around two kilograms of lunar samples collected by the Chang’e-5 lander. The spacecraft had landed together Dec. 1.
On December 5 the spacecraft successfully completed the first attempt at a robotic rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit.
The unprecedented event allowed the transfer of the samples to a reentry capsule attached to the Chang’e-5 orbiter. The ascent vehicle was jettisoned six hours later along with a docking adapter.
The docking was a crucial moment in the sample return mission which launched from Wenchang, south China, Nov. 23. While hundreds of tests and simulations had been run on the ground, the docking would take place 380,000 kilometers away and required an accuracy of no less than five centimeters, according to mission officials.
The Chang’e-5 orbiter remains in lunar orbit awaiting a window for trans-Earth injection which would result in a reentry and landing of the reentry capsule at Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, around 112 hours (4.6 days) later.
Chinese state media state the burn is scheduled for the next few days, but is expected to take place around 9:50 p.m. Saturday Eastern in accordance with a planned 23-day mission.
The burn to head home, subsequent trajectory correction maneuvers, reentry vehicle separation from the orbiter module around 5,000 kilometers from Earth, and a skip reentry—involving bouncing off the atmosphere once—are the remaining mission events required to get the samples home.
Future applications but no extended mission
The success of the ascent vehicle also has applications for more grandiose plans. Litoff from the lunar surface and subsequent rendezvous and docking are activities required for a planned Chinese Mars sample return around 2030, and crewed missions to the moon.
China revealed a potential crewed lunar mission architecture at the 2020 China Space Conference in September which includes lunar orbit rendezvous maneuvers.
Reports from Chinese media following the successful docking stated that the ascent vehicle had considerable remaining propellant and an extended mission was being considered.
However the CLEP announcement stated that the craft was deorbited responsibly to prevent it becoming space junk which could impact future missions.
The impact appears to have occurred in an unlit portion of the moon and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—which imaged the Chang’e-5 lander and ascent vehicle hours after landing—would not be in an orbit to observe.
China currently has three operational landers on the moon but it is unclear if they can carry out science related to the impact.
Chang’e-3, which landed seven years ago in Mare Imbrium, is effectively retired but carries a sticky quartz crystal microbalance which had been used for dust detection. The Chang’e-5 lander remains active following ascent vehicle liftoff. The Chang’e-4 lander is currently hibernating while the sun rises over its location in Von Kármán crater on the lunar far side.
Quelle: SN