Soheil_Esy
Fazanavard فضانورد
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Launch date: Late 2018 June 2018
Launcher: CZ-3B (YXX) CZ-4C
Payload(Country): Chang'e 4(PRC) Relay satellite (中继通信卫星)
Launch site(Country): Xichang(PRC) Xichang(PRC)
Launch pad: LCX LCX
Status: Pending Pending
Orbit type and parameter: Cislunar Cislunar
Remark: Launch code 0X-XX
China Plans First Ever Landing on the Dark Side of the Moon
19.05.2015
The mission, part of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), plans to land the probe and accompanying rover on the far side of the moon.
"We are currently discussing the next moon landing site for Chang’e 4," Chief lunar exploration engineer Wu Weiren told China Central Television. "We probably will choose a site that is more difficult to land and more technically challenging. Other countries have chosen to land on the near side of the moon. Our next move probably will see some spacecraft land on the far side of the moon."
The Chang’e-4 will follow the Chang’e-3, a probe launched in 2013, which carried the Jade Rabbit rover to the lunar surface. Though currently immobile, Jade Rabbit still transmits data back to Earth, and Chang’e-4 would take on a different scientific role.
Much of the Moon’s far side is covered by the South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the largest impact craters in the solar system. If we associate the near side with the face of the happy-go-lucky Man in the Moon, the crater on the far side could have completely reshaped cultural mythologies if the synchronous orbit had been reversed. The Aitken basin could have made the moon appear to be an ominous eye in the sky. An ancient, eternal Big Brother. A body to be feared rather than worshipped.
Topographical map of the South Pole-Aitken basin
It’s not called the "dark side" for nothing.
It is here that the Change-4 will land. Scientists are hoping that the same impact which formed the crater may have also partially excavated parts of the mantle. If those parts of the moon’s interior can be studied, it could offer one-of-a-kind insights into what the moon is made of and where it came from.
The basin would also be an ideal spot to place permanent radio telescopes. These could reach into the depths of space without interference from Earth’s transmissions or atmosphere.
A successful landing on the far side would also give the Chinese tremendous bragging rights. While the dark side of the moon has been observed by various probes, a landing has never been attempted, much less accomplished, largely because it’s more technically difficult.
Chang’e-4 is set to launch in 2020, but before that, Chang’e-5 will makes its way to the moon in 2017. That mission will return with lunar samples. The chronology discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that Chang’e-4 is technically the backup to Chang’e-3, and will keep that number identifier despite launching after Chang’e-5.
Beijing has also planned a mission to Mars. Set to launch sometime around 2020, that probe would also return to Earth with samples, which could be another first, depending on how the space race plays out.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150519/1022336534.html
China unveils plans for far side Moon landing and hints at future ‘lunar base’
2015/07/16
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) has outlined its early plans for putting a lander and rover on the far side of the Moon. No country has attempted such a mission before.
A presentation submitted to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (pdf) states that the robotic mission, currently named Chang’e-4, will launch in 2018 or 2019 and will include a relay satellite.
The paper notes key objectives as performing the ‘first soft landing on the lunar farside in human history’, demonstrating technologies of lunar data relay, landing and roving on complicated terrains of the lunar farside, and lunar night power generation, and a number of scientific goals.
The project will be open to cooperation with other countries and organisations, at the mission level, regarding equipment used, and telemetry, communication and data.
As well as providing a “detailed survey on lunar environment in order to lay a foundation for subsequent lunar exploration mission”, there is, most notably, a proposal for collaboration on “experimental verification for [a] lunar base”.
The CNSA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have been discussing potential cooperation for Chang'e-4, according to an official announcement (Chinese).
The far side of our celestial neighbour, sometimes (erroneously) referred to as the ‘dark side’ of the Moon, cannot be seen from Earth due to gravitational or tidal locking. It had never been observed until the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 probe sent back images in 1959.
Relaying to the 'dark side'
It was first revealed in May that Chang’e-4, a back-up to China’s 2013 Chang’e-3 mission involving a lunar lander and rover and the first 'soft-landing' on the Moon since the 1970s, would aim to soft-land on the lunar far side.
Chang’e-4 will be similar technically to Chang’e-3, but its exploration goals will be redesigned and the payload will be reconfigured.
The relay satellite will be launched first, and put into a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point, a gravitationally balanced area.
The satellite would allow communication between Earth and the rover and lander, with a delay of around two seconds. China went some way to testing this with the service module of a test lunar return mission late last year.
Prestige, prowess and science
As well as earning China a prestigious ‘first’ in space exploration – something that the country’s leaders would be keen to exploit – and demonstrate technical prowess, exploring the lunar far side is of immense scientific interest.
A large chunk of the Moon’s far side is covered by the South Pole–Aitken basin, a huge impact crater that may offer excavated lunar mantle, giving insights into how the Moon formed. Helium-3, an isotope that could possibly be used in future nuclear fusion reactors, is hypothesised to be found there in abundance.
The far side of the Moon has been gaining interest in recent years, having previously been popularised by the 1973 Pink Floyd album ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’.
Exploration of the far side was highly recommended for exploration in the influential 2013-2022 Decadal Survey, while Johann-Dietrich Woerner, the new Director General of ESA, recently proposed establishing a ‘Moon village’.
http://gbtimes.com/china/china-unveils-plans-far-side-moon-landing-and-hints-future-lunar-base
2016-1-23
http://img.cjdby.com/data/attachment/forum/201601/23/195331j7nzxniit7x991ei.jpg.thumb.jpg
http://img.cjdby.com/data/attachment/forum/201601/23/195352e1zhp6xixeivoc8x.jpg.thumb.jpg
http://img.cjdby.com/data/attachment/forum/201601/23/195411okttrqkkzd68i6fk.jpg.thumb.jpg
http://lt.cjdby.net/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=2141396&pid=66810243
12 Oct 2015
China space admin chief Xu: Lunar sample return mission in 2017, lander on far side in 2018, lander/rover combination in 2020.
https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/653525359216959488
CE-4 lander and rover
12 Jan 2016
https://mmbiz.qlogo.cn/mmbiz/icZklJ...yonJL2FxxEauC6ibGNtV0KTRmSKU3dg/0?wx_fmt=jpeg
Chang'e-4 Lunar Rover
http://www.guokr.com/post/716318/
Both the CE-4 lander and relay satellite would be able to carry a small payload such as experiments conceived by students.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYhtH_5UsAEZ1zR.png
https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/686918943672373248
Requirements:
1. Mass: Total mass of the single payload not exceeding 3kg.
2. Vacuum: the ability to withstand and operate in a vacuum environment.
3. Temperature: short-term work must withstand -80 ℃ ~ + 80 ℃ temperature environment. Over the long-term Moon night must be able to withstand -180 ℃ ~ + 80 ℃ temperature environment.
4, Volume: Volume constraints with different installation location varies, not in this particular provision.
5. Power: operating power should be controlled as far as possible within the 20 W.
Chang'e-4 mission objectives is to achieve a soft landing on the far side of the Moon and achieve a Earth-Moon L2 point relay communication, in place to carry out detection, detection and patrol surrounded the Earth-Moon L2 point detection, and detection data processing and analysis. Side of the moon in order to achieve a soft landing and automatic inspections investigation as symbol of success.
https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/686918943672373248
Sino-Russian cooperation
2015-Sep-10
The two sides agreed to cooperate in the field of lunar exploration and Mars, and Russia hopes to take the opportunity to equipped with Russian scientific instruments, China's Chang'E-4 lunar probe. The two sides will study the technical feasibility.
http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293907/n11368223/16831220.html
2016-01-17
Russia will cooperate with Chang'e-4 lunar dust measuring instrument
The lunar rover could carry a Swedish neutral particle detection instrument
At the same time, some instruments will be removed, including the lander's optical telescope and extreme ultraviolet camera, the rover's particle induced X-ray spectrometer.
http://china.cnr.cn/xwwgf/20160117/t20160117_521156107.shtml
12 Oct 2015
China space chief Xu: Lunar & Mars explore progressing side by side w/ us. We're open to partners, especially in far-side lunar mission.
https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/653531440227946497
CE-4 relay satellite
2015-12-31
Relay orbits about the Earth-Moon collinear libration point shave significant value on the exploration of the lunar farside, but have complex kinetic characteristics in the nature, thus the orbit maintenance has always been focused in the deep space navigation and control field. This paper explores orbit maintenance technology of the relay orbit about the collinear Earth-Moon libration points under the real dynamical conditions. First, based on the restricted three-body problem, the mathematic model of relay orbit station-keeping with the real dynamical model is analyzed. The continue-circling method is presented for the relay orbit maintenance with the two control styles, i.e., the Halo style and the Lissajous style. Second, with the third-body gravitation and the solar radiation pressure perturbations considered, the method is tested and analyzed by using the numerical simulations to achieve the control frequency and the corresponding velocity increment required by the relay orbits with different amplitudes. According to the simulations, the Lissajous style is suitable to the orbit maintenance with a control interval of 7.4 days and a velocity increment less than 20 m/s/a. Furthermore, the method has been successfully applied in Chang'e-2 and Chang'e-5T1 extended missions and can provide a beneficial reference for the future Chang'e-4 mission.
http://www.chinaspaceflight.com/usr/uploads/2016/01/04/1451910926232002.png
http://www.chinaspaceflight.com/satellite/Deepspace/CE-4/CE-4.html
http://jdse.bit.edu.cn/sktcxbcn/ch/reader/view_abstract.aspx?file_no=20150404&flag=1
CE-4 relay satellite's antenna
(From Tianlian-1)
23 Jan 2016
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZd6wh9UsAAvzfT.jpg
https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/691156043590557696
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