China to the Moon - Chang'e 1 and 2, Chinese unmanned lunar orbiters Options

[GravityWaves]

Lunar Programme To Be Open To World
Although China is still in the "initial stage" in tapping the moon and outer space when compared with the United States, Russia and Europe, the nation is catching up, Luan said.
http://www.spacedaily.com/dragonspace.html
The first phase of the Chang'e Project was solely accomplished by China through its own technology, products and designs, said Luan, former director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
However, lunar scientists from Europe, the United States and Russia have expressed their willingness to co-operate with China in its research of the moon and deep space exploration, he said.

Chinese scientists are assembling, integrating and testing to ensure that the mission of the nation's first lunar explorer, Chang'e-1, goes smoothly, a top space official said yesterday.
http://english.people.com.cn/200607/26/eng...726_286707.html
"Fundamental development has been achieved in all five related systems ranging from the satellite, the rocket, tracking and control, ground applications and the launch centre since it was approved two years ago," said Sun Laiyan, head of the China National Space Administration.
The lunar orbiter is scheduled to blast off next year from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sun said at the ongoing eighth International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) Conference in Beijing.

The spacecraft will be 2350 kilograms in weight.
According to the plan, the program will go through four phases.

1. Send a satellite to orbit the Moon
2. Conduct exploration on the surface of the moon through the soft landing of a detector.
3. Collect Moon surface samples using a robot, which will then return to the Earth.
4. Manned missions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang'e_program
According to the schedule, detailed program design of the first step will be completed by September 2004. Research and development of a prototype probe and relevant testing of the probe will be finished before the end of 2005. Design, manufacture, general assembly, test and ground experiments of the lunar probe satellite will be finished before December 2006. In 2007 the Chang'e 1 will blast off.

[climber]

Here's the link to China's lunar program : http://210.82.31.82
Home page is nice where you can see foot prints crossing the moon as well as Chang'E nice logo. I red that the Logo "CLEP" look like the pictogram "Yue" which means "Moon".
Not very informative but nice to see.
Enjoy

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Well the Chinese will certainly get to the Moon, as their hardware is Soyuz-based and the Russians are working to re-engineer the Soyuz vehicle to last for another century ... Héh even for a lunar mission

[GravityWaves]

'People's Daily Opinion'
http://english.people.com.cn/200702/07/eng...207_348107.html
Why does China want to probe moon?

Well the Chinese will certainly get to the Moon, as their hardware is Soyuz-based and the Russians are working to re-engineer the Soyuz vehicle to last for another century ... Héh even for a lunar mission

Soyuz sized rockets can also launch small-medium sized probes like Russia's Venera or Europe's Venus-Express, the Chinese LongMarch rocket family may be used for upcoming interplanetary missions

[NMRguy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6423323.stm

A short story from BBC. China looks to launch Chang'e before the end of the year.

[yaohua2000]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6423323.stm

A short story from BBC. China looks to launch Chang'e before the end of the year.

In fact, the launch is only 40 days away. Chang'e 1 will be blasted off on April 18, can vary by ±1 day.

[elakdawalla]

That was the plan, but the latest information I've heard is that it won't be until October at least. (This is from Lou Friedman, who got it through personal communication with folks in China.)

--Emily

[dvandorn]

You know what I find really fascinating? I'm pretty sure that, given subtle changes in how we transliterate Chinese names these days, Chang'e is named after the same character described by the Houston Capcom to the Apollo 11 crew the morning of Landing Day, July 20, 1969:

Houston: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.

Collins: Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.

-the other Doug

[edstrick]

Perhaps the most interesting data from Chang'e will be the microwave radiometry. Thermo-physical mapping of the moon has been rather neglected since the classic 1960's thermal imagery during a total lunar eclipse showed high-rock abundance areas as "anomalies" due to their higher thermal inertias. The microwave radiometry will penetrate deeper and give some idea of the diurnal temperature variations at probably a few centimeters depth, and thus the density/thermal-conductivity or some such measure of regolith.

Nobody else seems to have been or be planning long wavelength infrared or microwave radiometry and they'll get a unique dataset. (I think one of the other missions, maybe Recon Orbiter or the Japanese Selene may have infrared radiometry/spectrometry at long enough wavelengths to get the pre-dawn signal, but I think most IR work is in the short wave <mostly> reflected IR data.

Apollo 17 carried an scanning IR radiometer, but the PI basically abandoned the data without producing any science results and some attempt later in the 80's or so ran into problems getting the data or something... Somebody tried but I never heard of results.

[remcook]

Lunar Diviner will go up to 200 micron...

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/Master...UNARRO&ex=2

[edstrick]

"Lunar Diviner will go up to 200 micron"

Excellent. That covers temperature ranges of cold high latitude regolith at pre-dawn temperatures.

The multispectral capabilities give them some real ability to sort out rock and "fines" populations on the basis of different temperatures, much the way Viking and follow-on Mars orbiters have done thermal inertia maps, and then "fines thermal inertia" and rock abundance maps.

You have to go to much longer wavelengths to probe below the surface "monolayer" of grains, which the chinese instrument appears to be planned. Later missions need to fly decimeter and meter wavelength sounding instrumentes (like Sharad, and Marsis), together with real ability to measure sub-surface thermal emissions, which may give the ability to observe and map regional heat flow abilities.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Excerpt from the June 11, 2007, issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology:

World News & Analysis
China Delays Moon Mission
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/11/2007, page 31

Craig Covault
Cape Canaveral and Houston

Chinese problems thrust Japan to forefront in Asian Moon race

Printed headline: Moon Mission Delay

China will postpone its first unmanned mission to the Moon by at least 5-6 months, a delay that under current scheduling means Japan will beat China to lunar orbit with a far more ambitious triple-spacecraft launch.

[kenny]

Chang'e launch appears to be imminent. The craft is at the launch site (I don' think they mean pad) and they're selling tickets to Chinese nationals to watch it for about $100.

Buy Chang'e launch tickets

and Leonard David's blog says it will launch by the end of October

Leonard David blog

Kenny

[ustrax]

Chang'e launch appears to be imminent...

One of this days they'll get us all by surprise when they announce the launch of the first human towards Mars...

[nprev]

Chang'e launch appears to be imminent. The craft is at the launch site (I don' think they mean pad) and they're selling tickets to Chinese nationals to watch it for about $100.

Huh. Well, it seems that we should have at least a week's notice before launch, then; gotta give people time to get there, make reservations, etc.

[yaohua2000]

Huh. Well, it seems that we should have at least a week's notice before launch, then; gotta give people time to get there, make reservations, etc.

I booked a seat last Friday, and they told me I will be notified 3 days before the launch.

[nprev]

Thanks for the info, Yao.

Gee, that's sure not much time to arrange travel & find accomodations, though; hopefully there are a lot of hotels nearby & good transportation available to the site.

[SpaceListener]

Does the China Agency Space follow same rules as the NASA for launching rockets? No cloudy, no much winds, and so forth

However, I have checked the weather forecast for Xichang city up to October 25. From now up to Oct 25, there will be showers and light rain. The precipitation chance does not lower than 60% for all these days.

10-Day Business Travel Forecast for Xichang, China.

[kenny]

Now they have narrowed down and announced the date for next week...

Chang'e launch news item

[yaohua2000]

Does the China Agency Space follow same rules as the NASA for launching rockets? No cloudy, no much winds, and so forth

However, I have checked the weather forecast for Xichang city up to October 25. From now up to Oct 25, there will be showers and light rain. The precipitation chance does not lower than 60% for all these days.

10-Day Business Travel Forecast for Xichang, China.

The space center is located 45 km northeast to Xichang city, however.

[tedstryk]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071022/ap_on_...8FC6.RQ7VSs0NUE

Not much longer now!

[yaohua2000]

I have arrived in Xichang city at 2007-10-24 08:02 CST (2007-10-24 00:02 UTC) this morning, and will take bus to the satellite launch center at noon.

It was raining lightly here this morning, but now the sun is shining. Hope it launch on time.

[mchan]

It would be good if you can blog the launch. The things that go on in a Chinese launch would be interesting to hear about in comparison to other launches.

[4th rock from th...]

China's CCTV-9 channel is broadcasting live
http://www.cctv.com/english/index.shtml

[ngunn]

China's CCTV-9 channel is broadcasting live

Tried, but can't get that on our system. Can you post what's happening?

[Toma B]

FLASH: CHINA'S LUNAR PROBE CHANG'E-1 BLASTS OFF

China launched its first lunar probe on Wednesday, first step into its ambitious three-stage moon mission, marking a new milestone in the country´s space exploration history.

According to Xinhua

Congratulations China!!!

[4th rock from th...]

I'm watching via satellite :-) So far so good, nice 3d rendered real time animation of the probe as is flies over the tracking stations and ships. The probe has now separated from the booster and all seems ok! The animations show telemetry exchanges from and to the probe from tracking ships over the Pacific, and the probe doing course corrections.

Low earth orbit is achieved!

[Toma B]

First image of the launch!



Full video of the launch can be seen here

Full video of the launch is now avaiable...

[kenny]

The spacecraft is now in a high earth orbit in preparation for subsequnet trans-lunar engine firings....

Xinhua says: "The Chang'e-1 moon orbiter has entered into a 16-hour orbit at 205 km perigee and 50,930 km apogee, statistics from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) shows. The 2,300-kg satellite will experience four accelerations and is expected to enter earth-moon transfer orbit on Oct. 31 and arrive in the moon's orbit on Nov. 5. "

[ustrax]

Congratulations to the People's Republic of China!



Why do I have this funny feeling that this is just the beggining of something extraordinary?...

[remcook]

everyone's going back to the moon! yay!

[NMRguy]

We indeed seem to be off to our second Renaissance of lunar exploration. I welcome the exposure and interest to our nearest neighbor.

Here's a spacedaily.com article.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Asias_sp..._probe_999.html

[general]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7059356.stm

[Toma B]

Latest News:

China's first lunar probe Chang'e-1 solar panels was unfolded as planned.

[GravityWaves]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5262

By Rui C. Barbosa, 10/24/2007 5:08:55 AMAt the beginning of a 35 minute launch window that opened at 10:05 UTC, a CZ-3A Chang Zheng-3A (CZ3A-15) was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, located in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, carrying the first Chinese lunar probe, Chang'e-1 (ChangEr-1).
....
After leaving Earth orbit on October 31, Chang'e-1 will initiate a five day journey until arrive into lunar orbit on November 5. The first image of the surface is expected at the end of November.

Upcoming robotic Lunar landers and Sample returns ?

With this, China has three objectives: to orbit the Moon, to land on the Moon and to return a sample of the Moon. These objectives will be achieved by, firstly, to launch Chang'e-1 to orbit the Moon, secondly, to launch a spacecraft that will deploy a lunar lander to explore the lunar surface, and thirdly, to implement a sample return mission on the basis of the previous spacecraft.

Details of Chang'e instruments and objectives

The scientific objectives of Chang'e-1 are to obtain three-dimensional images of the lunar surface, precisely ascertain the basic structures and physiognomy of the lunar surface, and to initially map out the lunar geology and structural elements to provide information for the follow-on soft landing.

Objectives also include the ability to detect and analyze the content and distribution of useful elements and types of materials on the lunar surface; to detect the characteristics of lunar soil and calculate the depth of lunar soil on the surface; to explore the space environment between the earth and the moon, and to record initial solar wind data and study the effect of solar activities on earth-moon space environment.

The Chinese probe is equipped with six payloads, with a total of 25 devices in eight instruments. These include and optical imaging system (CCD stereo camera and interferometer spectrometer imager), laser altimeter, Gamma and X-Ray spectrometers, Microwave detector, a space environment monitoring system (with a high-energy solar particle detector and a low-energy ion detector), and a system for the payload data management.

To achieve all its objectives, the Chang'e-1 will have to be manoeuvred to a specific orbital path around the Moon. The probe will achieve a low lunar polar orbit within altitudes of 100 km to 200 km.

There is also talk of a new line of Heavy Lift Rockets. Might not be long before we see some manned circumlunar flight in the Shenzhou, I wonder if they will be reading from Genesis or Leon Trotskiy's books ?

[charborob]

everyone's going back to the moon! yay!

I'm also excited about this so-called "Moon race", but I am keeping a wait-and-see attitude concerning Chang'e. Secretive as the Chinese are, we may only get a few spectacular pictures published for propaganda purposes, and not much else. I hope not, because after 35 years of waiting, I'm starved!

[tedstryk]

I hope this is the beginning of a sustained effort by China.

[remcook]

so far the chinese have kept their promises and their schedule doesn't look too insane, though there's bound to be some slips. they seem to have a quite ambituous, but realistic program.

[nprev]

Congrats & a big thank you to the people of China! Looking forward to the imagery...

[Paolo]

very nice ed on the Asian Moon race in today's Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/...ll/450002a.html
manned exploration fans beware!

[yaohua2000]

Trip to Xichang, part 1

[ustrax]

In orbit!

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Moreover: ESA transmits first-ever telecommands to Chinese lunar satellite:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQVVMHE8F_index_0.html

[charborob]

Chang'e-1 reaches its final working orbit.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/...ent_7023941.htm

[RJG]

yaohua2000,

That's one heck of a train journey! Glad you made it. Look forward to the next installment.

Rob

[charborob]

China to publish first picture of the Moon in 3 days.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/...ent_7133451.htm

[Phil Stooke]

Here it is:

http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/n620682/n639462/132125.html

Phil

[ngunn]

I'm having no luck getting that picture. Anybody else managed it?

[djellison]

The direct link ( http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/n620682/n63...ges/1798638.jpg ) is slightly more reliable - but still exceptionally slow - first one to get it in full, attach it to a post here

Doug

[nprev]

Got it. Now if I could only read the caption...

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

From http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/...ent_7145873.htm


" The area covered by the picture, about 460 kilometers in length and 280 km in width, was located within a 54 to 70 degrees south latitude and 57 to 83 degrees east longitude, according to the BACC.

The area pictured was part of the moon's highland and was mainly composed of plagioclase, a common rock-forming element. On the surface were craters of different sizes, shapes, structures and ages, the BACC sources said.

"The dark patch in the picture's upper right side shows the surface blanketed by basalt, a hard and dense volcanic rock," the sources said.

Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration, said the picture was very clear and of very good quality.

"It shows that the camera and the ground control and application systems are all working normally," said Sun at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

The picture was pieced together by 19 images, each covering a width of 60 kilometers on the moon's surface. The far right of the picture was the first area to be captured by the CCD camera aboardChang'e-1.

All the image data was collected on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 and processed into a three-dimensional picture in several days after being transmitted back to Earth. "


Phil

[yaohua2000]

Got it. Now if I could only read the caption...

The text on the right reads "中国首次月球探测工程第一幅月面图像" (Literally: China's first-time lunar exploration project first lunar surface picture)

The text on the bottom-left is too small, but some characters are still readable, google search the characters that readable reveal the full text: "中国首次月球探测工程第一幅月面图像是由嫦娥一号卫星上的CCD立体相机获得的。CCD相机采用线阵推扫的方式获取图像，轨道高度约200km，每一轨的月面幅宽60km，像元分辨率120m。中国第一幅月面图像共由19轨图像制作而成，位于月表东经83度到东经57度，南纬70度到南纬54度，图幅宽约280km，长约460km。图中右侧60公里宽的条带，是CCD相机开机获得的第一轨图像。" (Translation: China's first-time lunar exploration project first lunar surface picture was captured by the CCD stereo camera of the Chang'e 1 satellite. CCD camera uses the method "xiàn zhèn tuī sǎo" (literally: "linear, matrix, push, scan", not sure how to translate :-( ) to capture images, the orbit altitude was about 200 km, each orbit lunar surface width was 60 km, per pixel resolution was 120 m. China's first lunar surface picture was made up from 19-orbit's image, located at longitude 83 to 57 degrees east, latitude 70 to 54 degrees south, the mosaic image's width is 280 km, height is 460 km. The 60 km wide square-shape bar on the right of the picture was the first image that captured after the CCD was turned on.)

[yaohua2000]

This is a comparison between Chang'e 1's image and Google Moon:

http://bbs1.people.com.cn/postDetail.do?id...5&boardId=1

Here is a bigger version of the image:

http://news.sina.com.cn/pc/2007-11-26/326/419.html

[djellison]

(literally: "linear, matrix, push, scan", not sure how to translate :-( )

I assume they mean Pushbroom like MOC, HRSC, HiRIS etc.

Doug

[elakdawalla]

yaohua2000, thank you so much for the link to the full-resolution image and the translation of the text!

Here's a question: the full-resolution image is a color JPEG. Is the image actually a color image or a grayscale one? I'm pretty sure it's grayscale, but thought I'd check with wiser image processors...comparing the channels, there seems to be no more than 3-4 DN variation between them, but I know that the Moon is a gray place and am wondering if such small variations in DN could be an artifact of the JPEG compression.

--Emily

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Does that photo show the Biela crater and surroundings?

[elakdawalla]

I'm just tracking that down now. With comparisons to the Lunar Orbiter atlas, I find:

The 66-kilometer-diameter crater Gill is just to the lower right of center in this image. Cut off at the upper left side is 91-kilometer Pontecoulant. At the bottom edge is 94-kilometer Helmholtz.

See
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_or...n/info.shtml?86
and
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_or.../info.shtml?524

--Emily

[tedstryk]

I am not sure, but I think it is colorized. However, it also may be a color image balanced around an arbitrary neutral point and with most variation in color beyond the limits of discernment. The color variations don't seem to recognize the dark mare material boundaries (or any morphological features), which leads me to say it is colorized. However, it could be that it is truly a color image of a relatively colorless scene, in which case the variations are due to instrument noise.

[charborob]

Here's an interesting piece of news from Xinhua (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/02/content_7187500.htm)

Data from Chinese lunar orbiter available to all
SHANGHAI, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Scientists and astronomy enthusiasts all over the country all have access to data sent back from China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e-I, a leading scientist in the program said here Sunday.
Ouyang Ziyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, said at present the scientific instruments on board Chang'e-1 have all gone into operation and the satellite is sending back 3 trillion of data per second. The total data volume will reach 28 T (1 T is equivalent to 1,000 G) next year.
"The money used for the Chang'e project comes from the taxpayers and, therefore, the data should also be made public. Any scientist or astronomy lover can apply to the state in accordance with certain procedures to obtain data he needs," Ouyang said.


It seems that you need to be a Chinese citizen to have access to the data. The article doesn't mention what are the "certain procedures" to follow in order to obtain the data. Any Chinese UMSF member care to look into this?

[GravityWaves]

Latest News:

I see that a lot of news agencies today seem to be running with the story that China's lunar photo is a fake. The news report is based on internet rumors which say its a copy of a photo taken in 2005 by NASA

[djellison]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...3/wchina103.xml

The two are obviously not the same image, and if confirmed, that extra crater is an astonishing find.

Doug

[Phil Stooke]

The 'new' crater doesn't look at all fresh in the high resolution version. Is is a bad seam in the mosaic? I can't see any other evidence of a bad seam, but it might be.

Phil

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Well, this photo is obviously *not* fake, because it's difficult to "Photoshop" the angles of the shadows.

And I don't think this is the right place to discuss conspiracy theories. I'm tired of this awful Apollo Moon Hoax, because the situation in Bulgaria is bad enough and every time I start to talk about astronautics I get the same - the "Americans never went to the Moon." I really don't want to hear any more rumours that even unmanned Moon missions are fake.
I have a web site that was supposed to be dedicated to spaceflight. Now it's a place to debunk hoax theories and it's sad that people believe in this nonsence.

[elakdawalla]

Also, what NASA spacecraft would have taken a picture in 2005? Perhaps they refer to a Clementine mosaic released in 2005 -- is that it? I think that they are in fact showing part of the Clementine base map.

Here is an original Clementine image (not from the base map) of the same area. It's a 750 nm UVVIS image. (Source)


The Telegraph article showed a crop from a low-res version of the Chang'e image. Here is a crop from the full-res Chang'e image, which does indeed seem to show a new feature in the position highlighted in the article. What do you think, Phil?


A closeup on the area:


My two cents: look how much more detail is visible in the Chang'e image, even though they are at similar resolutions, and even though the Chang'e image has been JPEG-compressed, while the Clementine one is original data presented in GIF format, so it's losslessly compressed...

--Emily

[elakdawalla]

Aha -- I figured it out! The apparent new feature is a result of an image seam, as Phil suggested. Here's a sloppily reconstructed version.



--Emily

[tedstryk]

It is clearly a double image of the same crater, caused by improper assembly of the mosaic - this is common on early releases in a mission.. On the new image, you may notice that the crater within the crater on the left side is visible, just as in the Clementine image, but the crater abruptly fades out to the right. On the "upper crater" in China's new image, the crater fades out at about the same place horizontally in the image, which in this case is on the left side. If you look at the little crater along the rim at the 2:00 position, it is in exactly the same place in both images. Looking below the crater, you will also notice the slightly diagonal (close to vertical) little trough visible in the Clementine image is also double.

[tedstryk]

Aha -- I figured it out!

--Emily

You beat me to it while I was typing

[nprev]

Bravo...not only imagesmiths, but imagesleuths! Well done, Emily & Ted!

[nop]

I found cool 3-D images taken by Chang'e at a Chinese news site:
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-12-02/150914433606.shtml

[Tom Tamlyn]

Alan Boyle, MSNBC's science blogger, offers Emily some well-deserved kudos for her sleuthing and her characteristically clear and persuasive write-up, which should be definitive.

TTT

This post has been edited by Tom Tamlyn: Dec 4 2007, 11:34 PM

[mps]

msnbc cosmic log says: "Lakdawalla's explanation would be embarrassing for Beijing, but it makes the most sense as the solution to this week's moon photo mystery."

I wouldn't want to be the poor guy who processed that image...

[remcook]

amazing story on the blog Emily. well done! This kind of stuff really brings solar system exploration to your own living room!

[elakdawalla]

I wouldn't want to be the poor guy who processed that image...

Actually I think whoever processed the image did a nice job -- it's a really pretty product. If anyone should feel embarassment it's the chief scientist who pointed out that feature as a new crater, but really even that wouldn't have been a big deal if it hadn't been wrapped up in the fakery story. It's like that first Viking photo that was erroneously given a blue sky. A mistake early in a mission that can be fixed later -- but unfortunately not before it spawns a million conspiracy theories.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I think the lesson here is that when there are whole data sets available on the Internet in an unprocessed format, it's not hard for regular people to argue against conspiracy theories. I think the Chinese might benefit from posting some of the original image strips in question so you can see what the raw materials were for their beautiful image.

--Emily

[Moon Saloon]

.

[Phil Stooke]

New Chang-e 1 images here:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/...ent_7221256.htm

(go to page 3 for the new item, the Alphonsus area of the central nearside)


Come on Kaggers! They're going to ovetake you in the PR stakes.

Phil

[elakdawalla]

With a little help from some Chinese readers I found a couple other interesting sites with images.

Here's a different view of the first image released:

(From here)

And a large gallery of interesting images, graphs, etc (unfortunately with large watermarks) here.

Anybody want to wade through it with Google translator and see what we're looking at?

--Emily

[elakdawalla]

Here's a pretty image:
http://www.clep.org.cn/index.asp?modelname...ng&recno=24

The Google translation of the caption is less than clear.

Moon Lents impact craters near the back of a typical morphology of radiation impact, geo-diameter hole about 30 Km from impact craters Center radial projectile substantial highlighted substances (based on regional geological background, it should be based Fractal plagioclase rock debris), which Class of impact craters formed in the usually late. 本图是由5轨CCD正视影像数据拼接而成的，数据获取时间为2007年12月4日。 This map is addressed by the five-track CCD image data from the splicing, data acquisition time for the December 4, 2007.

Can any of you who read Chinese help? Has this image been posted elsewhere at higher resolution?

--Emily

[Paolo]

Full inline quote removed --Emily

It has also been posted here http://www.lpod.org/?m=20071212

[Phil Stooke]

Here's a link to a new Chang-e 1 image. A polar region. Only a low res version initially, but it should come out at full resolution soon. Maybe our Cinese colleagues can help us find it.

Phil Stooke


http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615708/n620172/n67...578/143044.html

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Nothing new 'Made in China' since last week?
Well at least we'll have Chandrayaan-1 (India) passing the Moon next April and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA) taking a look at the South Pole by November of this year...

[elakdawalla]

A very happy New Year to all our Chinese members! It seems singularly appropriate to this board that it should now be the Year of the RAT

(PhilCo, this may be why there has not been much news lately from the East. You don't get much out of the West over Christmas holidays either.)

--Emily

[mps]

Chang'e-2 to be launched around 2009

[Phil Stooke]

A hint from a source I cannot identify... that Chang-e 1 may be having data transmission difficulties. I don't know if this means on the spacecraft itself, though it sounds like it. To be honest I know nothing, but this statement is circulating.

Phil

[europanorama]

A hint from a source I cannot identify... that Chang-e 1 may be having data transmission difficulties. I don't know if this means on the spacecraft itself, though it sounds like it. To be honest I know nothing, but this statement is circulating.

Phil

where are the promised 3d-stereo-images? at least anaglyphs?
michael przewrocki

[Phil Stooke]

Only fair to add now that the hints I spoke of may have been wrong! Sorry about that.

As for the stereo etc. - you can expect to wait years for that, except for occasional press releases or big conferences.

Phil

[charborob]

This short article on Xinhua news agency about Chang-e:
China almost done with map of moon surface

I'm wondering if we will ever see any pictures.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_To...1_Data_999.html

That's interesting...

Where to expect the information?

[djellison]

Sounds like it'll be a fairly controlled release. I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

They planned to release something during the Games ...

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Well, almost two weeks passed, and nothing new...

[Hungry4info]

I remember a while back that someone found that one of the Chang'e 1 images of the lunar surface was doctored up a little. I wonder how accurate this "700 hours" of data would be. But then again, I desperately want a nice lunar map for Celestia...

The information is being sent

...to domestic authorized users and the European Space Agency

I don't know which would be harder, getting the information from the Chinese, or the ESA.

[ugordan]

one of the Chang'e 1 images of the lunar surface was doctored up a little

The seams between imaging strips were blended in to make the result more aesthetically pleasing. The pointing/position knowledge wasn't good enough to do this automatically at that point in time.

You'd be surprised how much many of the other space images are "doctored" before release.

[scalbers]

I desperately want a nice lunar map for Celestia...

This one might work for the time being, based on Clementine data...

http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#MOON

Steve

[Hungry4info]

full inline quote removed

That's the one I use currently. I'm hoping once LRO is finished, we can get a better map. I mean not to devalue your work, you do a lot of good work with your maps and I do appreciate it. I'm one of those, though, that wants to be able to see gum on the sidewalk in my virtual textures for Celestia.

My Earth texture is 32,000 x 16,000 px (if anyone knows where to find one that is larger, please say something). I deeply desire a lunar map of similar proportions with excellent resolution. I figure that a 32,000 x 16,000 px map for the moon should give a resolution of somewhere around 300 m per pixel.

I guess the thing to do is head over to the USGS Map-a-planet and download a bunch of pictures and stitch them together later, lol. I'll go do that now.

[Hungry4info]

I found new toys at the USGS site. If anyone wants a 16,384 x 8,192 px map of the moon, you can get it here until Aug 20.
http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/order/I_Am_Aliv...moon00n000.html

[scalbers]

Thanks for your comments Hungry...

I usually stick to 8K maps as that is the biggest I can easily produce and/or display (e.g. with Celestia). Good to know about the larger moon one at the USGS, and the potential with the Chinese probe data.

I think the Blue Marble Next Generation from NASA would be a good one to check for Earth. It supposedly goes up to 500m resolution, so if that's true it would be quite a lot of pixels.

Steve

[jekbradbury]

I happen to have a 20K x 10k map (same Clementine/USGS Map A Planet source) lying around from an attempt to create a moon overlay for Google Earth; I have uploaded it in case it will be of use to anyone (it's centered 180 degrees off from the USGS ones, and is too big (104 Mb) for me to edit).

http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Get.aspx?i...a0-5913890be569

It should be available until the 28th.

[Phil Stooke]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/...nt_10347379.htm

Chang-e's big global photomosaic on dispay. Let's hope we get to see it online at some point.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Here's a bigger version

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2008/chinamoonmap.l.jpg

Phil

[djellison]

Forgive my ignorance - but if it ever gets 'out' of China - will this represent a better base map than, for example, the Clementine stuff on map-a-planet?

Doug