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September 5th, 2015
Credit: SASTIND
After releasing a test return capsule to Earth, the solar-powered service module first loitered at Earth-Moon L2 and then moved into orbit around the Moon.
Credit: CCTV/China Space Website
Chinese space officials have released new images of the Moon – apparently focused on the landing site of that country’s future Chang’e 5 lunar lander.
Target date for China’s ambitious robotic Moon probe mission is in 2017.
Chang’e 5 is slated to soft land on the moon, snag surface specimens, fly them into lunar orbit, then rocket those samples back to Earth.
Circumlunar mission
In a statement by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), the pictures have a resolution of roughly 3 feet (one meter).
The images were taken by China’s orbiting service module that was sent circling the Moon after a visit to the Earth-Moon Lagrangian L2 position last year.
Pre-launch photo shows China’s experimental craft that completed a circumlunar flight last year. Capsule evaluated technologies for a robotic lunar sample return effort slated for 2017 liftoff.
Credit: CASC/China Space
That service module was boosted on a Long March 3C rocket from China on October 24, 2014. It was part of China’s circumlunar mission that also saw flight of an experimental capsule – often called the Chang’ e 5-T1 test mission – that made a fiery, skip re-entry and parachute landing back to Earth. The capsule was recovered in Siziwangqi in Inner Mongolia of China on November 1, 2014.
Shakeout voyage
The long looping roundtrip between Earth and the Moon, then having the service module park itself in lunar orbit, mimics a variety of shakeout actions to be taken by the Chang’e 5 robotic lunar exploration project.
SASTIND noted that the current service module circuiting the Moon is in good condition and will carry out further scientific experiments to study the lunar gravity field.
For an interesting video that depicts China’s Chang’e 5 mission, go to:
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