Chang'e 3: Lunar Day 3 and onwards, Ongoing discussion of the Rover/Lander mission Options

[A.Nemo]

http://tech.scichina.com:8082/sciE/CN/volumn/current.shtml
Chang'E 3 special issue Ⅱ: System Design and Verification

[Paolo]

a rare update from Xinhua Chinese lunar rover alive but weak

[Paolo]

a spectrum from UHF_satcom: Yutu is downlinking data again. I am surprised by how resilient the poor rover is!
http://pjm.uhf-satcom.com/twtr/yutu_130614.jpg

[A.Nemo]

a paper have been published in copuos2014:
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/copuos2014/tech-06.pdf

something about Chang'e-3：
During the day time of the first 4 months, the Lander got 118.5GB original detecting data.
Extreme ultraviolet camera:Obtained more than 600 images in total.
Lunar-based astronomical telescop:Observe the brightness and variances at near-UV band for various celestial bodies. Up till now, more than 32,000 images have been obtained.

The Patroller (Yutu) got 32GB original detecting data

current status:
The 6th moon night by May 23
The Lander is proper functioning
Patroller(Yutu) encountered control fault, part of the loading works normally
Under the abnormal condition and the extreme low temperature, the
patroller(Yutu)’s performances are gradually degenerated

[Phil Stooke]

Very nice - note that the images of the rover and crater can stand quite a bit of enlargement.

I tried to fit the picture of the big rock to this one - they don't join, and they may not be from the same location.



Phil

[Phil Stooke]

This is a list of day-night dates for Chang'E 3, from the International Lunar Observatory Association:

http://iloa.org/media/Chang'e3_Lunar_Day_Night_Cycle.pdf

They have an agreement with the mission to use some of the telescope data from the lander, in exchange for Chinese access to their data from a telescope to be delivered to the lunar south pole by Moon Express.

Phil

[charborob]

a paper have been published in copuos2014:
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/copuos2014/tech-06.pdf

That document is a bit ambiguous about Chang'e 4. It is indicated in the "Roadmap", but not mentioned anywhere else. After the pages about Chang'e 3, the documents skips to Chang'e 5 (sample return in 2017). Could it mean that Chang'e 4 will not be flown?

[Phil Stooke]

I think there is some uncertainty about the role of Chang'E 4, with options including flying an upgraded lander and rover, going to a different destination (Mars, asteroid), or not flying it to focus more on the next mission. If I had any say in the matter I would try to resolve the problem experienced by Yutu and fly the rover to a different site to try to achieve a longer and more productive traverse. The continued survival of the rover despite its inability to protect its systems overnight - and the survival of the lander - shows that the overall design is excellent, and if the mobility problem could be fixed a long and productive traverse should be possible.

Phil

[Paolo]

two popular articles on Yutu on Xinhua today:
The birth of Jade Rabbit
and
Fly me to the moon

[Paolo]

and on Nature's website: China's lunar rover limps into another long night
I understand their desire to publish in Chinese peer reviewed literature, but why go for such a low impact factor publication like Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics?

[aventor.com]

I understand their desire to publish in Chinese peer reviewed literature, but why go for such a low impact factor publication like Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics?

You're assuming that Western funding mechanisms (with resulting concerns about impact metrics) apply in China.
Maybe they don't. Maybe they do science funding differently.
Chinese ties to the chosen publication (RAA) may well be more important to the Chinese.

Admittedly, I'm just speculating. I don't actually know how they do things.

[Phil Stooke]

A very interesting paper has just appeared "in press" in Planetary and Space Science:


Geological Features and evolution history of sinus Iridum, the moon
Original Research Article
In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 25 June 2014
Le Qiao, Long Xiao, Jiannan Zhao, Qian Huang, Junichi Haruyama


It describes the Sinus Iridum area and identifies two landing sites for future missions, "robotic or human". Neither one is at the Chang'E 3 site.


Phil

[wildespace]

China Space page on Facebook has just posted this image from Yutu: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=749390038455333



Not sure if this image has been posted before, or which lunar day and position it is from.

Also found this image of the large boulder, dubbed Dragon Rock: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=737090639685273


I wonder if the brownish colouration in these images is due to camera's texhnical aspects, or is actually what the camera sees. Normalising colours in Photoshop and then enhancing saturation reveals a slightly brownish surface with bluish rocks.

[Phil Stooke]

The first of these images is the one published in that paper referred to just above (EDIT - I mean A.Nemo's post ten posts above this one). It shows the rocky wall of the crater west of the lander, probably the southern part of its western wall. It was taken from somewhere near the Dragon Rock, but it doesn't join the rock image. There are a couple of distant hills which are part of a crater rim west of the western crater.


Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Word from https://twitter.com/uhf_satcom is that Yutu is transmitting again, but no direct word yet from the lander. This is the 8th lunar day for Yutu.


Phil