Chang'e 4 landing on the Moon - an overview
03 January 2019
An overview of the landing sequence
Breathtaking high dive! How Chang'e 4 landed fully automatic and autonomous on the Moon's far side - explained in a video
China makes breakthrough in atmospheric monitoring
04 January 2019
A number of core instruments onboard the Gaofen 5 satellite recently passed the on-orbit test, marking a breakthrough for China in monitoring air pollutants, greenhouse gases and aerosols. The three payloads -- an Environment Monitoring Instrument, Greenhouse-gases Monitoring Instrument and Directional Polarization Camera -- were developed by Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (AIOFM).
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To the Moon and beyond: Why China is aiming for the stars
04 January 2019
It’s never been done before, even by space-faring nations with decades of experience. But on 03 January, China became the first to land a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon. Although its fourth lunar mission marks a historic first, China’s space agency doesn’t usually target splashy goals.
“This is the first time, really, that they’ve struck out to do something very different and very new,” says Brian Harvey, author of “China in Space: The Great Leap Forward.” “There’s not a mad rush of missions or anything like that. They’re gradually building up a lot of expertise, a lot of knowledge so that they’re in a very strong position” to achieve ambitious goals in the future. China’s lunar programme, Mr. Harvey says, has methodically ticked off the sequence of achievements set out by the U.S. and the USSR during the original space race. Landing on the far side of the Moon was part of the USSR’s plan, too, but the Soviet Union never achieved that, and the U.S. didn’t make it a priority.
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3 for 4 and 2 - The 3 main challenges for Chang'e 4 and Yutu 2
04 January 2019
A lander, rover and relay satellite named Queqiao jointly completed the landing, and now serve to communicate between the Moon and Earth, said Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the Chang'e 4 probe, from the China Academy of Space Technology. The mission has conquered at least three difficulties so far.
The first was to position the Queqiao relay satellite at the second Lagrangian (L2) point of the Earth-Moon system, about 79,000 km from the Moon and 40,000 km from Earth, where it can see both Earth and the Moon's far side.
The second, Sun said, was to guarantee the accuracy and reliability of the relay satellite for Moon-Earth communication and to access the probe's control system. The third was the safe landing of the probe in the designated area, which has many geological features, said Wu Weiren, the Chief Designer of China's lunar probe programme. “If the probe couldn’t find a safe landing area, it would have kept adjusting itself until a relatively safe spot was found,” Sun introduced.
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