Author Topic: LIVE: Chang'e-3 lunar probe and rover, CZ-3B - Xichang - December 1, 2013 (Read 488652 times)

plutogno · « **Reply #100 on:** 03/12/2013 05:06 pm »

Quote from: Danderman on 03/12/2013 05:05 pm

Surveyor would have been a little over one metric ton.

IIRC Surveyor was about one ton (metric) at launch, i.e. including the retrorocket (which made about 2/3 or the mass)

Phillip Clark · « **Reply #101 on:** 03/12/2013 05:12 pm »

The Soviet Luna sample-return spacecraft were about 5,300 kg at launch and 1,880 kg on the lunar surface. The Lunokhod missions were slightly heavier at launch but slightly lighter on the Moon - Luna 17 was 1,836 kg, including the 756 kg rover.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #102 on:** 03/14/2013 06:30 am »

Quote from: Blackstar on 03/12/2013 03:09 pm

Anybody got any dimensions on this? How does it compare to Surveyor and Lunokhod?

I note the four landing legs.

The lander body has an internal volume of about 3-4 cubic meters (http://bbs.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=451&pid=243089), so that's about 1.5 meters on each side. This puts it at much beefier than Surveyor, and roughly the same size as the Lunokhod lander. The Phoenix Mars lander has a roughly same sized science instruments deck (but with a much smaller propulsion unit).

The rover is best described as a 80% model of Spirit / Opportunity (with a slightly smaller camera mast / HGA / robotic arm for spectrometer sensor heads and rock sample retrieving) with smaller rectangular solar panels and Lunokhod-style boogies and wheels. That puts its body at roughly the same size as the Lunokhod, but much lighter than it or the MERs (120 kg, vs 750 kg for the Lunokhod or 175 kg for Spirit / Opportunity).

Unfortunately I don't think there will be official figures for dimensions until closer to launch, so all the information above comes from my Mark I eyeballs.

I think it should be more or less in the right ballpark though.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #103 on:** 03/17/2013 02:48 pm »

I was able to dig up quite a bit about the lander, rover, science instruments and mission operations. Take this conference proceedings about surface operations of the rover for instance (free access): it shows that the lunar transfer will be about 5 days long, followed by a nearly 10 day orbital period before doing the EDL.

With this information, the given early December launch date and Sinus Iridum having sunrise on December 13-14, I am now guessing Dec. 1-5 for launch with landing at around Dec. 15-19.

I have also made a list of available papers (some to the public, others via subscription) about the science instruments at UMSF.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #104 on:** 04/02/2013 08:33 am »

All the rocket engines to be used for launching CE-3 has been completed and passed reviews by its producer, the Chinese Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology, and handed over to the CALT. The article also shows that CZ-3B s/n Y23 will be used for the launch late this year.

Source: http://www.aalpt.com/www/newcontents.asp?leaf_id=1817

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #105 on:** 05/08/2013 03:09 pm »

CE-3 is now baking and freezing inside the thermal testing chamber in CASC's Beijing plant since sometime in April.

Steven Pietrobon · « **Reply #106 on:** 05/09/2013 08:27 am »

The lander certainly looks very big! Notice how small the landing feet are. I presume the Chinese are using the knowledge from Apollo about how hard the Lunar surface is.

hal9000 · « **Reply #107 on:** 05/09/2013 08:53 am »

Quote

The lander certainly looks very big!

It certainly does. The rover looks very small on top.
I'm guessing that the lander will be basically the same for Chang'e-5, so its oversized as such for this mission, but they get to prove the design for future missions

Phillip Clark · « **Reply #108 on:** 05/09/2013 11:18 am »

Quote from: hal9000 on 05/09/2013 08:53 am

Quote
The lander certainly looks very big!

It certainly does. The rover looks very small on top.
I'm guessing that the lander will be basically the same for Chang'e-5, so its oversized as such for this mission, but they get to prove the design for future missions

It makes sense to standardise the descent stages.