China to the Moon - Chang'e program, Chinese unmanned lunar mission Options

[smh]

I can't find any information on how the RTG is powered? Does China have it's own PU-238?

[Astro0]

Nice article by Emily compiling all the information available on the Chang'E 3 mission.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakda...nar-lander.html

Hey, and is that my illustration of the rover on the Moon I see??!!
Yes, shameless self congratulations

You're welcome science fans

[Cosmic Penguin]

Ouyang Ziyuan is reporting that the launch of Chang'e 3 may come as soon as June 2013! That's much earlier than what I have expected......

Source in Chinese

[Paolo]

A paper (in Chinese) on the design of the Chang'e sample return drill. it includes a nice CAD view of the probe
Design and Analysis of Automatic Drilling Sampling Mechanism for Lunar Exploration

[Cosmic Penguin]

Just saw a Chinese news report interviewing the person in charge of rocket production for the CE-3 launch (plus others of the same series) that the launch is scheduled in early December! (Chinese source)

Also I have translated another article a week before that roughly gives out the tests that have been completed and still needs to be done before launch (Chinese source):

Completed

- Flight hardware development and acceptance
- Lander / rover final assembly and combined testing
- Electromagnetic compatibility tests
- Lander / rover separation and release testing
- Mechanical force testing

Coming up

- Thermal balance and vacuum testing
- Modal strength testing on key components (wheels and landing gears?)
- Mission simulation with the spacecraft control center at Beijing

[Phil Stooke]

Thanks for this. Late in the year is what had been expected for a few years, but I had been quite excited with the idea it might happen in June! Anyway it will be a very interesting mission. I hope we will get frequent updates on its activities.

Phil

[Cosmic Penguin]

Anyone have seen information (papers, abstracts, presentations etc.) about what is expected at Sinus Iridum (geology etc.) and the scientific operations on the Moon for CE-3? I had a cursory check on the planned presentations at LPSC 2013, and was disappointed to see only two (and not quite what I am trying to find):

Studying on the Calibration Method for Chang’E-3 Pancam.


Relative position determination between lunar lander and rover using same beam VLBI technique.

I really wanted to see what can be expected for the first lunar in-situ exploration mission in almost 40 years......

[machi]

Cosmic Penguin:

This is pretty easy, you can find available sources via Google Scholar.
Here is geologic map of Sinus Iridum area - USGS IMAP602.

[Cosmic Penguin]

Heh, I was just ranting on the lack of information on the science instruments on Chang'e 3, and then I went to Google Scholar and found a bunch of them - I think members with access to these papers will find them interesting to read.

The links in italics are available to the general public.

(List will be updated as I find more related papers)

Lander

PanCam: (none found yet)

Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT): 1.

Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUV) (for plasmasphere studies): 1. 2.


Rover

PanCam: 1. 2.

VIS/NIR Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS): 1.

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): 1.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR): 1. 2. 3.

Hope this helps.

[Paolo]

open access paper:
Potassium Map from Chang'E-2 Constraints the Impact of Crisium and Orientale Basin on the Moon

[Phil Stooke]

This report (right at the end):

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/04/chi...ch-2d-gaofen-1/

says Chang'E 3 will launch in December.

Phil

[Cosmic Penguin]

The Chinese are now doing the final major test - thermal testing - for the lander and rover right now (since sometime in April actually). And yes it seems that early December is what the Chinese are heading for the launch.

And I got a bunch of high-res photos of the spacecraft being processed for testing! Link

[elakdawalla]

What's the provenance of those photos? They're watermarked "China Space News" but I don't find a website or organization called that, at least not in English. Can you link to the Chinese website that they originated from? Is it a Chinese language periodical? I see an Amazon listing for a magazine with that title.

[Paolo]

I think pics were first posted here http://210.82.31.84:9000/rp/fs/cp/98/36/20...4/content_0.htm