Chang'e-4 farside landing mission Options

[A.Nemo]

Preliminary Suggestions for International Cooperation on Chang'E-4 Lunar Probe
Xu Y. (China)
http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/pres/copuos2015/...2015tech08E.pdf

An Introduction of Chang’E-4 Probe:
Probe（Lander,Rover）+ Relay Statellite
Soft-landing on lunar farside
Landing and roving exploration
Will be launched between 2018 and 2019

the probe:
Chang’E-4 probe，lander and rover have the same technical status with the Chang’E -3; but exploration will be redesigned; the payload will be reconfigered; The name of the probe might be changed.
Chang’E-4 probe is a backup spacecraft of Chang’E -3 probe. By now, all platform products of the probe have been manufactured, waiting for further AIT.
The probe will be launched by a long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Statellite Launch Center(XSLC) which is the same way with the Chang'E-3 between 2018 and 2019

The relay statellite:
will be first launched into a lunar transfer orbit about the end of 2018 in the whole mission, then starts its earth-to-moon jurnery alone, and will enter and run in a Halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 point; the design life is 3 years.
would provide relay service for the probe and the Earth, and carry out exploration.

Engineering objectives are as follow.
To realize the first soft landing on the lunar farside and perform exploration in human history.
To demonstrate technologies of lunar data relay, landing and roving on complicated terrains of the lunar farside, and lunar night power generation;
To perform further detailed survey on lunar environment in order to lay a foundation for subsequent lunar exploration mission.

Tentative Scientific objectives are as follow.
To study lunar surface dust features and its formation mechanism;
To perform in-situ measurement of lunar surface residual magnetism
and study its interaction with solar wind;
To study lunar surface temperature and particle radiation environment;
To perform lunar surface topology and material composition analysis,
shallow-layer structure survey and study;
To explore and study lunar interior structure of spheres;
To perform lunar based VLF astronomical observation and study

[djellison]

I think those are just symptoms of SSTV ham radio downlink.

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, looking at it now I'm inclined to agree.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

http://www.spaceflightfans.cn/39192.html#more-39192


Summarizing from the above link, using Google translation:


The Chang'e 4 rover will have a name soon. A competition was held starting on 15 August, and on 18 September a shortlist of the many submitted names was announced after a meeting in Beijing.


The shortlisted names are:

dream-by-dream
Guangming [= bright or brightness]
Yutu No.2
exploration
journey
elf
fearless
Wangshu (one of the former kingdoms of China 1000 years ago)
walker
golden rabbit


(the first one looks like a bad translation)

The final name will be picked in October.


Phil

[Explorer1]

Golden rabbit sounds really fun! It has my vote (for what it's worth...)

[Phil Stooke]

Phil

[Xerxes]

My Chinese is just ok, but I would translate them like so:

逐梦 = Dream Chaser
光明 = Bright (literally, but also as in a bright future)
玉兔二号 = Jade Rabbit #2
探索 = Explorer
征途 = Trek (like a long voyage, but not the same word as in Star Trek, oddly)
精灵 = Genius
无畏 = Fearless
望舒 = To Spread Across the Moon / To Spread Our Hopes (this one is sort of a subtle pun that's hard to translate)
行者 = Walker (as in the sense of walking the Earth like an ancient monk)
金兔 = Gold Rabbit

[Phil Stooke]

Thanks!

And now Andrew Jones has these meanings:

逐梦 - Zhu Meng (chasing the dream, dream catching)
光明 - Brightness
玉兔二号 - Yutu II (Jade Rabbit 2)
探索 - Exploration
征途 - Expedition
精灵 - Genius (Fairy or elf)
无畏 - Fearless
望舒 - Wang Shu (a god that drives for the Moon in Chinese mythology; also can be used to refer to the Moon)
行者 - Stroller or Hiker
金兔 - Golden Rabbit

https://gbtimes.com/change-4-shortlist-of-1...s-space-program


EDIT: I would interpret 'genius' like the latin 'genius loci', or spirit of a place, associated with a place, rather than the modern English meaning of Genius.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/dashboard/pages_en/pics-b.html

This website posts pictures from the little student camera (from the Harbin Institute of Technology) on Longjiang 2 (also know as DSLWP-, which can be commanded by radio amateurs on Earth. One of the most recent is this one:




- showing the farside and Earth. The green channel is severely underexposed so this is processed to remove a purplish tint and to brighten the image.

Phil

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/dashboard/pages_en/pics-b.html

This website posts pictures from the little student camera

Really cool.
It's a pity they don't release any timestamp, which would allow an amazing animation!

[Phil Stooke]

Here's another with a few missing lines.

The time data may be available. I will look for it.

Phil



EDIT: more data here:

https://charon.camras.nl/public/dslwp-b/

See also this very useful blog:

https://destevez.net/

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

I wonder what this sat will see while Chang'e4 is incoming.

[Phil Stooke]

Check out this excellent blog by Daniel Estevez:

https://destevez.net/2018/11/november-dslwp...moon-and-earth/

- and if you go right to the end you will find an animation exactly like that mentioned above by mcmcmc.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

And a mosaic of two recent images (Mare Humboldtianum* in the top right corner)

Phil



EDIT: * corrected 'Moscoviense' to 'Humboldtianum' above - how could I have made that silly mistake?

[Phil Stooke]

Chang'e 4 launch set for tomorrow. We still don't have the rover name yet.

Phil

[nogal]

It seems that the name was to be decided by an on-line vote, similarly to Chang'e-3 rover, and the most popular was 光明 - guangming ("Brightness"). However a committee was supposed to have made a final choice by late October.

See https://gbtimes.com/online-vote-decides-top...ide-of-the-moon

The article has other interesting info on the mission and links to many relevant pages. In here it says that live coverage of the launch seems unlikely.
Fernando
Edit: Liftoff was successful and Andrew Jones has tweeted an unofficial video stream