Chang'e 3 - China Rover Separates From Lander, Now On Moon's Surface

[rdunk]

Some other point, yes

                                                           

[08rubicon]

  Very good, armap. I was inclined to think the landing might have
been faked. Looks like they actulally did it. Thanks   
   rubicon

[WarToad]

Very nice work, ArMaP.  +1g.  Wish I could give more.

[stealthyaroura]

ArMaP YOU are the man! gold for you again.

k'chang

[Amaterasu]

Well done, ArMaP.  I too gave You increase.  [smile]

[ArMaP]

Thanks for the gold, everybody, too bad it's not real.

[rdunk]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I thought it was REAL . 

[deuem]

I think he means the Gold not the landing. ArMaP to define real....

[rdunk]

I think he means the Gold not the landing. ArMaP to define real....

Yea, and my comment was about Z's gold too, and not about the landing!   

                                                       

[Elvis Hendrix]

Finally, some high-quality photos from Chang'e 3!


Once again, tips from helpful users at nasaspaceflight.com and from Twitter have led me to a new pile of photos from the Chang'e 3 mission. And these are the best-quality ones I've seen yet. Almost all of the images I've seen to date have been shared through a bizarre roundabout method of projecting them on a screen, then filming them with a video camera, then aired on television, and then screen-grabbed. These photos are different: they are clearly direct from the original digital data. They're still not perfect -- they have been downsampled, contrast-enhanced, watermarked, and JPEG-compressed -- but they're so, so much better than what I've seen before, rich with detail and nuanced in color. They were also accompanied by a little bit of information about when they were taken, which is great. Here's the trove of images.

Emily Lakdawalla

This first one is really special:




Chinese Academy of Sciences

Earth from Change'3
The Chang'e 3 lunar lander captured this photo of Earth from the lunar surface on December 25 at 2:15 China time (December 24 at 18:15 UTC).



And these panoramic 360 views around lander and rover are new:









Chinese Academy of Sciences

Panoramic view around the Chang'e 3 lander
Chang'e 3 captured the images for this panoramic view around the landing site on December 17 and 18, 2013. The images have been mosaicked into a polar azimuthal projection, showing the full 360 degrees of terrain around the lander







http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/01100912-finally-some-high-quality-change3.html

[rdunk]

Moon rover, lander wake after lunar night

2014-01-13 08:38XinhuaWeb Editor: Mo Hong'e

China's moon rover "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit) and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy that lasted two weeks, or one lunar night, in a move designed to ride out harsh climactic conditions.[Special coverage]

Yutu was awakened autonomously at 5:09 a.m. Beijing Time on Saturday and has finished necessary setting procedures and entered a normal working mode following orders from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), according to a statement issued by the BACC on Sunday.

See more: http://www.ecns.cn/2014/01-13/96589.shtml

[rdunk]

China's Moon Rover Performs First Lunar Probe

2014-01-15 08:47XinhuaWeb Editor: Mo Hong'e

China's moon rover "Yutu", or Jade Rabbit, completed its first scientific exploration of lunar soil on Tuesday, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) said.[Special coverage]

The rover used its mechanical arm to survey the lunar soil at 21:45 Beijing Time, following instructions from the control center, according to a BACC statement.

The exploration lasted about half an hour and every operation was precisely performed by the rover, it said.

"Accuracy control of the mechanical arm at a distance of 380,000 kilometers has been realized in the probe, making China's breakthrough in controlling a mechanical arm with high precision on the lunar surface," said Wu Fenglei of the BACC.

The rover completed an arm flexing assessment on Dec. 23, a key test before beginning the soil survey and other work on the surface, said the center.

Yutu will survey the moon's geological structure and surface substances and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will conduct in-situ exploration at the landing site for one year.

http://www.ecns.cn/2014/01-15/96968.shtml

[rdunk]

China's lunar probe observes stars, explores moon
by Staff Writers
Beijing (XNA) Jan 21, 2014

Moon lander Chang'e-3 and rover "Yutu" of China's lunar probe mission have collected a large amount space observation and moon exploration data, a government authority said on Friday.

A moon-based optical telescope on the lander has been observing lights from many celestial objects at near ultraviolet wavelengths, and has detected 23 stars, said a statement from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.

More:

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Chinas_lunar_probe_observes_stars_explores_moon_999.html

[Amaterasu]

Interesting that the number 23 has been popping up...  23 stars.  The number the Brazilian Nazi slave/orphan that played soccer (in another thread today) was also 23...

[ArMaP]

Interesting that the number 23 has been popping up...  23 stars.  The number the Brazilian Nazi slave/orphan that played soccer (in another thread today) was also 23...

23 is a nice number.