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China's Chang'e-4 probe resumes work for 15th lunar day
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-18 13:45:36|Editor: Xiang Bo
BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 15th lunar day on the far side of the moon after "sleeping" during the extremely cold night.
The lander woke up at 6:57 a.m. Tuesday (Beijing time), and the rover awoke at 5:55 p.m. Monday. Both are in normal working order, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
The rover, Yutu-2 or Jade Rabbit-2, has traveled 367.25 meters on the far side of the moon, with a plan to drive northwest and then southwest to continue its scientific exploration.
The Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
I wonder what kind of tests are being conducted..
Nations will vie for dominance over the Moon that’s no doubt.
Got me thinking...about a movie ( name ..I’ve forgot) I watched a while ago where the Americans had a slice of the moon and the Chinese had another & they were at war on the moon over resources.
Art imitating life? or other way round?
Scientific Payload and sensor that Yutu 2 China Lunar Rover bringI wonder what kind of tests are being conducted..
Thank you .. good stuffScientific Payload and sensor that Yutu 2 China Lunar Rover bring
- Panoramic Camera (PCAM), is installed on the rover's mast and can rotate 360°. It has a spectral range of 420 nm–700 nm and it acquires 3D images by binocular stereovision.
- Lunar penetrating radar (LPR), is a ground penetrating radar with a probing depth of approximately 30 m with 30 cm vertical resolution, and more than 100 m with 10 m vertical resolution.
- Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS), for imaging spectroscopy that can then be used for identification of surface materials and atmospheric trace gases. The spectral range covers visible to near-infrared wavelengths (450 nm - 950 nm).
- Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN), is an energetic neutral atom analyzer provided by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF). It will reveal how solar wind interacts with the lunar surface, which may help determine the process behind the formation of lunar water.
China's Lunar Rover Unveils Underground Secrets on Far Side of MoonDigging into the Far Side of the Moon: Chang'E-4 Probes 40 Meters into Lunar Surface----Chinese Academy of Sciences
By LI Yuan | Feb 27, 2020
A little over a year after landing, China’s spacecraft Chang’E-4 is continuing to unveil secrets from the far side of the Moon. The latest study, published on Feb.26 in Science Advances, reveals what lurks below the surface.
Chang’E-4 (CE-4) landed on the eastern floor of the Van Kármán crater, near the Moon’s south pole, on Jan. 3, 2019. The spacecraft immediately deployed its Yutu-2 rover, which uses Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) to investigate the underground it roams.
"We found that the signal penetration at the CE-4 site is much greater than that measured by the previous spacecraft, Chang’E-3, at its near-side landing site," said paper author LI Chunlai, a research professor and deputy director-general of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). "The subsurface at the CE-4 landing site is much more transparent to radio waves, and this qualitative observation suggests a totally different geological context for the two landing sites."
LI and his team used the LPR to send radio signals deep into the surface of the moon, reaching a depth of 40 meters by the high frequency channel of 500 MHz - more than three times the depth previously reached by CE-3. This data allowed the researchers to develop an approximate image of the subsurface stratigraphy.
"Despite the good quality of the radar image along the rover route at the distance of about 106 meters, the complexity of the spatial distribution and shape of the radar features make identification of the geological structures and events that generated such features quite difficult," said SU Yan, a corresponding author who is also affiliated with NAOC.
The researchers combined the radar image with tomographic data and quantitative analysis of the subsurface. They concluded that the subsurface is essentially made by highly porous granular materials embedding boulders of different sizes. The content is likely the result of a turbulent early galaxy, when meteors and other space debris frequently struck the Moon. The impact site would eject material to other areas, creating a cratered surface atop a subsurface with varying layers.
The results of the radar data collected by the LPR during the first 2 days of lunar operation provide the first electromagnetic image of the far side subsurface structure and the first 'ground truth' of the stratigraphic architecture of an ejecta deposit.
"The results illustrate, in an unprecedented way, the spatial distribution of the different products that contribute to from the ejecta sequence and their geometrical characteristics," LI said, referring to the material ejected at each impact. "This work shows the extensive use of the LPR could greatly improve our understanding of the history of lunar impact and volcanism and could shed new light on the comprehension of the geological evolution of the Moon’s far side."
This work was a collaboration with the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration at NAOC, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Mathematics and Physics Department of Roma Tre University in Italy, the School of Atmospheric Sciences at the Sun Yat-sen University, and the Insituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell’Ambiente IREA-CNR in Italy.
The subsurface stratigraphy seen by Yutu-2 radar on the farside of the Moon (Image by CLEP/CRAS/NAOC)