Author Topic: LIVE: Chang'e-3 lunar probe and rover Lunar Landing December 14, 2013  (Read 717752 times)

The rover did step off to the north of the lander (the large crater was indeed behind it in the egress photos) but it moved to the south side, where it is imaged here as the smaller dot with the smaller shadow.
--
Don Day

Offline Phil Stooke

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Offline Dalhousie

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The rover did step off to the north of the lander (the large crater was indeed behind it in the egress photos) but it moved to the south side, where it is imaged here as the smaller dot with the smaller shadow.

Thanks
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Zero-G

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this week's issue of Aviation Week has an article on the development of CE-3's throttling main engine.
anybody willing to post it here?
No article, but I have some pics I made at the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2012, where the CE-3 lander's main engine was exhibited together with a short description:
"I still don't understand who I am: the first human or the last dog in space." - Yuri Gagarin

Offline Phil Stooke

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http://english.ihep.cas.cn/prs/ns/201312/t20131230_115114.html

The APXS was used just before going to sleep, so it seems every instrument has now been tested.

Phil

Offline Dalhousie

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http://english.ihep.cas.cn/prs/ns/201312/t20131230_115114.html

The APXS was used just before going to sleep, so it seems every instrument has now been tested.

Phil

Excellent news, looking forward to the next day's activities.
« Last Edit: 01/02/2014 01:03 am by Dalhousie »
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline savuporo

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Quote
Besides, the energy resolution of AXS is estimated to be about 135 @5.9keV, which demonstrates that it is currently one of the best X-ray spectrometer for the planetary exploration in the world.

Reading this, after reading yet another opinion piece on how "china is 40 years behind us in space " ...
Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

Offline Blackstar

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New stamps commemorating the mission.

Offline Apollo-phill

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Another 5 days to go before Change'3 site back in sunlight :-))

A-P


Offline Phillip Clark

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I have been playing with some numbers concerning the "daytime" at the Chang-E 3 landing site.   There is a parameter called the Sun's Selenographic Colongitude which can be found in many astronomical tables.   For example http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/moon/moonkey.html.   This parameter gives the lunar longitude of the "sunrise line" and thus it can be used to estimate the sunrise and sunset times at the Chang-E 3 landing site.

The results which I have are as follows:

Sunrise: (2013) Dec  8.6, (2014) Jan 7.2, Feb 4.1, Mar 7.4, Apr 5.9, May 5.4, Jun  3.9,
                         Jul 3.4, Aug 1.8, Aug 31.3, Sep 29.8, Oct 29.3, Nov 27.9, Dec 27.5

Sunset: (2013) Dec 23.4, (2014) Jan 22.0, Feb 20.6, Mar 22.2, Apr 20.7, May 20.2, Jun 18.6
                         Jul 18.1, Aug 16.6, Sep 15.0, Oct 14.6, Nov 13.1, Dec 12.7

I have estimated the sunrise/sunset times to 0.1 days in the above listing.

Since the spacecraft landed at a middle-latitude it will probably take a little time for the Sun to rise to an altitude which will allow the solar panels to be fully charged.   Then again there is no thick atmosphere to weaken to solar heat as there is on Earth.   Same for the end of operations as sunset approaches.

Of course, the end of operations came after local sunset last month.   I wonder if these dates are when the Chinese decided that Chang-E 3 and Yutu were nicely asleep.

It will be interesting to see how the future activation and deactivation dates fit with the above listings.
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline Phil Stooke

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Nice idea but the dates all look a bit too early to me - are you possibly switching east and west longitudes?  For instance it was my understanding that Yutu shut down on Dec. 26 (and the lander on Dec. 25), meaning sunset would be more like the 27th.

Phil

Offline knotnic

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I used the JPL Horizons web interface and the coordinates from the LROC team (44.1214°N, 340.4884°E, 2640 meters elevation).  This gives the following RTS (Rise, Transit, Set) times for the sun at Chang'e-3 site as follows for one year from  Dec 2013.

(Note this refers to the geometric horizon defined by the reference ellipsoid (doesn't take terrain into account) but should be good within a few minutes at worst.)

Date__(UT)__HR:MN     Azi_(a-appr)_Elev
****************************************
 2013-Dec-11 15:39 *r   88.2308  -0.2697
 2013-Dec-19 04:38 *t  180.1299  47.1462
 2013-Dec-26 17:35  s  272.1149  -0.2745
 
 2014-Jan-10 05:28 *r   87.6417  -0.2674
 2014-Jan-17 19:08 *t  180.0261  47.4570
 2014-Jan-25 08:35  s  272.3790  -0.2736
 
 2014-Feb-08 20:01 *r   87.6683  -0.2695
 2014-Feb-16 09:23 *t  179.9142  47.3069
 2014-Feb-23 22:20  s  272.0071  -0.2702
 
 2014-Mar-10 10:49 *r   88.3043  -0.2645
 2014-Mar-17 22:59 *t  179.8359  46.7513
 2014-Mar-25 10:37  s  271.1326  -0.2677
 
 2014-Apr-09 01:15 *r   89.3338  -0.2645
 2014-Apr-16 11:44 *t  179.8155  45.9660
 2014-Apr-23 21:39  s  270.0287  -0.2697
 
 2014-May-08 14:53 *r   90.4598  -0.2622
 2014-May-15 23:39 *t  179.8403  45.1774
 2014-May-23 07:55  s  268.9939  -0.2649
 
 2014-Jun-07 03:30 *r   91.3783  -0.2578
 2014-Jun-14 10:59 *t  179.9134  44.5936
 2014-Jun-21 18:06  s  268.3079  -0.2679
 
 2014-Jul-06 15:07 *r   91.8526  -0.2584
 2014-Jul-13 22:04 *t  180.0097  44.3596
 2014-Jul-21 04:47  s  268.1288  -0.2662
 
 2014-Aug-05 02:00 *r   91.7720  -0.2594
 2014-Aug-12 09:16 *t  180.0987  44.5335
 2014-Aug-19 16:28  s  268.5118  -0.2671
 
 2014-Sep-03 12:34 *r   91.1504  -0.2633
 2014-Sep-10 20:58 *t  180.1791  45.0770
 2014-Sep-18 05:24  s  269.3683  -0.2673
 
 2014-Oct-02 23:22 *r   90.1449  -0.2617
 2014-Oct-10 09:24 *t  180.2062  45.8564
 2014-Oct-17 19:34  s  270.4885  -0.2705
 
 2014-Nov-01 10:54 *r   89.0064  -0.2668
 2014-Nov-08 22:42 *t  180.1828  46.6625
 2014-Nov-16 10:36  s  271.5589  -0.2699
 
 2014-Nov-30 23:36 *r   88.0716  -0.2645

Offline Launch Fan

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How long is this mission estimated to continue for?

Offline Phil Stooke

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Three months... just like Spirit and Opportunity.

Phil

Offline jumpjack

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Any smartphone app with Yutu Time around? :-) For MERs there were a couple.
-- Jumpjack --

Offline Lsquirrel

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Chang'e-3's landform camera have taken a picture of earth:

Offline notsorandom

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Chang'e-3's landform camera have taken a picture of earth:
You can really tell that the Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of winter in that picture!

Offline pospa

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Offline Blackstar

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Here are the images in case they disappear.

Offline Robert Thompson

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Seeking a fact check. Prior to this one by Chang'e 3, I cannot locate any photographs of earth *taken on/from the lunar surface* since Apollo 17. True?

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