Author Topic: LIVE: Chang'e-2 (China's second lunar probe) - Long March 3C - October 1, 2010  (Read 265133 times)

Offline input~2

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The fairing was recovered near Suichuan, Jiangxi province, a city NE of the NOTAM prohibited zone.
(source)
« Last Edit: 10/03/2010 02:03 pm by input~2 »

Offline input~2

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One booster was recovered near Jinsha, Guizhou province, in the center of the NOTAM prohibited zone
(source giving indications on the debris -except the first stage - and "fireball" seen from Taiwan)
« Last Edit: 10/03/2010 02:18 pm by input~2 »

Offline robertross

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The fairing was recovered near Suichuan, Jiangxi province, a city NE of the NOTAM prohibited zone.
(source)

Yikes. That looks to have 'just' missed a house off to the right.

Offline Liss

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I have been looking around for accurate times of Earth orbit injection (ie, time of the first third stage shutdown) and the start and end of the trans-lunar injection burn.   Has anyone seen these published anywhere, please?
Phillip, I can list approximate times (seconds from actual lift-off) based on the live TV report and other sources:

609.2 (618.5 plan) First 3rd stage shutdown
1267 Second 3rd stage ignition
1441 Second 3rd stage shutdown
1559 (1533 plan) Spacecraft separation
This message reflects my personal opinion based on open sources of information.

Online Satori

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609.2 (618.5 plan) First 3rd stage shutdown
(...)
1559 (1533 plan) Spacecraft separation


Liss, do you have any clue about what caused the delays? I cannot find any on the usual source...
« Last Edit: 10/04/2010 02:06 pm by Satori »

Online Satori

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From Xinhua, Parts of Chang'e II
« Last Edit: 10/04/2010 03:45 pm by Satori »

Offline Phillip Clark

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Thank you Igor, much appreciated!
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline savuporo

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http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com/2010/10/dispatch-from-change-2-sinus-iridium.html

Quote
"The satellite will eventually be maneuvered into an orbit just 15 kilometers above the moon. At that point, Chang'E-2 will take pictures of moon's Bay of Rainbows area, the proposed landing site for Chang'E-3, with a resolution of 1.5 meters. The spatial resolution of Chang'E-1's CCD stereo camera was 120 meters, said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar orbiter project.

Interesting. I had not seen this before. 15km would be a really low, and very short lived orbit ?
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Offline Lars_J

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Just curious... Other than secrecy, what is the reason for not putting their launch pads by the coast? With so much east-facing coastline, they should have plenty of potential launch sites that would cause much less problems from stages/parts coming down.

Offline cd-slam

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If you look at the map, it would be near impossible for the Chinese to launch rockets from the east coast without the risk of dropping stages on Taiwan, Korea or Japan. None of which would be politically acceptable.

Plus as you mentioned, the secrecy aspect. Would not be hard for the US to station a carrier in the East China Sea to pick up a booster.

Since the farmers shown in the photos actually make serious cash from selling these spent stages for scrap metal, I doubt there would ever be a major protest unless/until there is a serious loss of life (maybe not even then).

Offline Phillip Clark

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http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com/2010/10/dispatch-from-change-2-sinus-iridium.html

Quote
"The satellite will eventually be maneuvered into an orbit just 15 kilometers above the moon. At that point, Chang'E-2 will take pictures of moon's Bay of Rainbows area, the proposed landing site for Chang'E-3, with a resolution of 1.5 meters. The spatial resolution of Chang'E-1's CCD stereo camera was 120 meters, said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar orbiter project.

Interesting. I had not seen this before. 15km would be a really low, and very short lived orbit ?

Remember that there is no atmosphere around the Moon to slow down the satellite and thus produce a rapid orbital decay!

The major effect on the Chang'e 2 (or any other lunar satelite) orbit is from irregularities in the lunar gravitational field, the MASCONs for those of us with memories that go back to the Apollo era.   Depending on how the Chang'e 2 orbit is synchronised with the Moon (will it be in an orbit which repeats its groundtrack?), the MASCONs could have a significant effect on the orbit and cause perturbations which could bring the satellite out of lunar orbit.
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline Phillip Clark

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Just curious... Other than secrecy, what is the reason for not putting their launch pads by the coast? With so much east-facing coastline, they should have plenty of potential launch sites that would cause much less problems from stages/parts coming down.

All three of the satellite launch sites currently in use are using facilities linked to military missile bases which preceeded space applications, and the Chinese would not want these near the coast for security reasons.
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline Lars_J

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If you look at the map, it would be near impossible for the Chinese to launch rockets from the east coast without the risk of dropping stages on Taiwan, Korea or Japan. None of which would be politically acceptable.

Really? I'm looking at the map, and a launch site located just south of Hong Kong would be able to launch straight east *and* south. There seems to be room.

EDIT: after some reading, it does appear that there is some sort of rocket launch facility on Hainan Island, under construction according to some sources ( http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/china/sanya.htm ) . That is a location I would have expected.
« Last Edit: 10/05/2010 03:32 am by Lars_J »

Offline cd-slam

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There is a thread for the Hainan launch facility.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=6524.0

But it had been dormant for some time. I wondered if the issues on staging etc mentioned had anything to do with it? 

Offline wbhh

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a video of the first trajectory correction
during 70s
http://v.ku6.com/show/OGzD-eTxjfDq9Ynh.html

Offline osiossim

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Debris pictures from CZ-3B;







« Last Edit: 10/05/2010 02:05 pm by osiossim »

Offline Apollo-phill

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With Chang'e-2 fast approaching the Moon any updates from the Chinese media ?

Also, any news on images I understand they were going to take from Chang'e-2 ,  of the Earth and Moon , whilst enroute ?




Phill P.
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Using on-line translation from http://www.clep.org.cn/index.asp?modelname=cegc%5Fxwsd%5Fzxdt%5Fnr&FractionNo=&titleno=cegczxdt&recno=217

Chang'e II amended again to cancel the middle of track will be scheduled for tomorrow to enter lunar orbit 
 
Time: October 5, 2010 
 
[ National Space Agency News Network October 5 ] Technology and Industry for National Defense from the message : " Chang'e II " mission commander Command Control Communications , Beijing Aerospace Control Center Director Zhu Min, told reporters this morning, just as the first intermediate Modified to meet the accuracy requirements orbit track , " Chang'e II "satellite originally planned amendments to be carried out again to cancel half-way track , is expected to be scheduled for tomorrow to enter lunar orbit.

According to Zhu was introduced in October 2nd half-way track to implement the first amendment , the Beijing Center for attitude control to establish a precise disturbance compensation model , through careful calculation and repeated review of the satellites orbit the middle of the first successful implementation of the amendment. Track from the revised measurement results analysis, the control is very precise , satellite arrived in recent months to meet the braking point accuracy. Therefore , the original plans for the two subsequent amendments no longer be half-way . This indicates that China's space orbit determination and control technology to achieve precise level. Successive half-way track to cancel the amendment will be " Chang'e II "satellite save some fuel for the lunar orbit satellite in lunar exploration work carried out to provide more power support.

"Chang'e II " on October 1 satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the evening launch , the solar wing has launched a surveillance camera shot chart test , X -band monitoring and control test , ultraviolet navigation test , the solar wind plasma detectors , and other science Test.

As of 11 am today , " Chang'e II "satellite has been flying in space of 88 hours, from about 345,000 km above the ground . Tomorrow morning, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center will be the first time in recent months, the satellite brake operation cycle of the satellite into a 12 -hour elliptical lunar orbit.

Source:National Space Agency Network 
Editor:Zhao Rui 

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Using on-line translation from http://www.clep.org.cn/index.asp?modelname=cegc%5Fxwsd%5Fzxdt%5Fnr&FractionNo=&titleno=cegczxdt&recno=216

Chang'e II satellite first science data return 
 
Time: October 5, 2010 
 
According to China Central Television reported , is " Flight to the Moon " in transit "Chang'e II " back this morning, the first satellite orbit data . As of 7 am , the first scientific data has been received , the capacity in the 1.6G.

Following two successful evening 's first start after the scientific instrument , is the "Chang'e II " the evening of 4 satellites have two scientific instruments turned on. At this point, "Chang'e II " satellites are equipped with the γ-ray spectrometer , solar high-energy particle detector and solar wind ion detector smooth start , and " Flight to the Moon " in advance the way they have all been successful instrument to open the boot . These devices are mainly used in space exploration between the earth and the moon .

Beijing at 18:59:57 on on October 1 , China Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the " Long March III C " carrier rocket , the " Chang'e II "satellite successfully into orbit. "Chang'e II " carrying a total of 7 satellite detection equipment , including CCD stereo camera, laser altimeter , γ -ray spectrometer , X -ray spectrometer , microwave detector, solar energetic particle detector and solar wind ion detector, the total payload weight About 140 kg.

" Chang'e II " flight of about 112 hours flying to the moon , during this period will be 2-3 times orbit correction. When the satellite reaches a specific location near the moon , the implementation of the first time in recent months, brake, 100 km into the points in recent months , periodic 12-hour elliptical orbit the moon . After two points in recent months, and then braking into the full moon height of 100 km polar orbit . Upon completion of in-orbit testing and technical validation, " Chang'e II "satellite will enter the 100 km × 15公里elliptical orbit around the moon , filming "Chang'e III " Rainbow Moon Bay preselected landing zone images, and verify that the rapid determination of rail and other related technologies . 1-2 days after the satellite orbit 100 km return , carry out scientific exploration tasks.
 
Source:National Space Agency Network 
Editor:Zhao Rui

Offline Apollo-phill

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Thanks Rui for the update.


Looking toward tomorrow for Chang'e-2 lunar orbit injection :) :)


Apollo-phill
UK


 

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