Are we there yet Mom ?
China has successfully carried out the world’s first soft lunar landing in nearly four decades. China’s next ambitious step is a space station, then to eventually have a Chinese astronaut set foot on the moon.
The Chang’e 3 lander touched down on our nearest neighbor following a 12 minute landing process. The unmanned craft is named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon. It carried a six-wheeled moon rover called “Yutu,” or “Jack Rabbit,” apparently being referred to as the goddess’ pet. After touching down on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon, the rover was slated to separate from the Chang’e eight hours after the landing and embark on a three-month long scientific exploration mission.
China’s space program is an enormous source of pride for the country and becomes the third country to carry out a soft landing on the moon following the United States and the former Soviet Union. The last one was in 1976.
“It’s still a significant technological challenge to land on another world,” said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane’s Space Systems and Industry. “Especially somewhere like the moon which doesn’t have an atmosphere so you can’t use parachutes or anything like that. You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don’t end up in a crater or on top of a large rock.”
China’s state-run Central Television showed a computer generated image of the Chang’e 3 lander’s path as it approached the surface of the moon, explaining that for about a 12 minute landing period it would have no contact with Earth. It was able to broadcast images of the moon’s surface as it approached and was within just hundreds of meters from the surface.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 becoming the third country to accomplish this independently as well and plan to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that. “They are taking their time with getting to know about how to fly humans into space, how to build space stations … how to explore the solar system, especially the moon and Mars,” Bond said. “They are making good strides, and I think over the next 10, 20 years they’ll certainly be rivaling Russia and America in the area and maybe overtaking them in some areas.”
Click here to read my original report on China’s space program: https://fggam.org/fly-me-to-the-moon-or-not/