Posted on 12/14/2013 4:02:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The Chinese Academy of Sciences said Saturday's intended touchdown was due at 1300 UTC on the Moon's plain known in Latin as Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows. It would be the world's first soft lunar landing in nearly four decades.
Statements from the Chinese mission on Sina Weibo – China's short-messaging system - said the landing craft known as Chang'e-3 would make a "free fall" landing using an automatic system for the final few meters of descent.
Thruster jets would first be deployed 100 meters (330 feet) above the lunar surface.
"At this stage, the Earth base is effectively powerless, and there is only about 10 minutes to finish the process," said Chang'e-3's Weibo page.
Hands off landing
The chance of manual intervention would be "practically zero," according to sources quoted by China's state news agency Xinhua.
European Space Agency (ESA) official Karl Bergquist, who has liaised with the Chinese mission, said the key challenge would be to identify a flat location for the landing.
The intended Sinus Irium site is an 400-kilometer (250 mile) wide plain.
The rover carried by the landing craft is called Yutu, or Jade Rabbit.
It is designed to climb slopes of up to 30 degrees in inclination and travel at 200 meters per hour, according to the Shanghai Aerospace Systems Engineering Research Institute.
Four decades later
The last lunar soft landing was made by the former Soviet Union in 1976 in the wake of the United State's first manned Apollo mission in 1969. The last US Apollo explorers visited the Moon's surface in 1972.
In September the US space agency NASA launched the unmanned spacecraft LADEE to orbit the Moon - 250 kilometers above its surface - and sample its extremely thin atmosphere of gases and electrically-charged dust.
It was NASA's third lunar-bound probe in five years.
NASA's next big human exploration project plans to send humans to Mars by the 2030s.
Monkey flight
Almost simultaneously on Saturday, Iran said it had sent a monkey into space using a ballistic missile and returned it safely to Earth.
Tehran has rejected western charges that its space bids have military aims.
Meanwhile in U.S...... Last man on moon calls 6-year-old on a space mission
The U.S. left the Moon 41 years ago to the day.
The big guy has cut the space program. It was a symbol of American greatness. He doesn’t believe in American greatness.
Then they well claim the moon and 200 miles around it challenging any body that comes close.
> Almost simultaneously on Saturday, Iran said it had sent a monkey into space using a ballistic missile and returned it safely to Earth.
Thanks Cincinatus’ Wife.
I wish them luck even if we have to watch from afar.
They've said as much - this is to be their first step to colonizing and militarizing the moon.
There has been some talk about them nuking us from the moon, but do not worry that, worry about them sending large rocks ...
It’s not so much “militarizing” the Moon as controlling the area between the Earth and the Moon - cis-lunar space. Lots and lots of space assets (satellites) there.
Okay, I’m watching now but how are they getting those images of the Lunar Lander? Are we seeing it via an earth based telescope or another way?
Oh, that’s cute....China is stuck on stupid. I’m sure I can find things NOT made in China. If not...I’ll go without. At least Japan created a pretty FAIR market and excellent products. China means cr**.
It’s on the surface.
China’s ‘jade rabbit’ rover lands on the moon Saturday
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/china/change3/131213prelanding/#.UqxfNLR1ItI
Chinese media reported the landing is set for 1340 GMT (8:40 a.m. EST/5:40 a.m. PST) in the Bay of Rainbows, a dark basin filled with solidified lava.
It should be landing NOW!!!
Good for them!
It seems that OJ Simpson and James Brolin are not available.
It should be landing NOW!!!
And the ADIZ - Air Defense Identification Zone - should now be in effect.
O-Hole turned NASA into Muslim daycare..... Remember when the USA was the leader and light of the free world... Before the dark lord took over?
Can we be sure they really go to the moon? How do we know they are not using ‘ghost mission’ like the build ‘ghost cities’? Seriously, I don’t believe much of what China spews forth.
Can we be sure they really go to the moon? How do we know they are not using ‘ghost mission’ like the build ‘ghost cities’? Seriously, I don’t believe much of what China spews forth.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_SPACE
China safely soft-lands rover on the moon
BEIJING (AP) — State media say China has safely carried
out the world’s first soft landing of a space probe on
the moon in nearly four decades.
State television showed pictures of the moon’s surface
as the Chang’e 3 lander touched down Saturday evening.
The lander carries a moon rover called “Jade Rabbit”
that will separate from the lander and embark on a
three-month scientific exploration.
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