Quote from: Duck on 12/15/2013 04:45 pmThat footage is incredible. I so wish we'd had something like that for MSL! NASA needs to get it into their heads that the public need to actually see is happening in order to get them interested in what's going on!Unfortunately, despite the great imagery from the Chang'e 3 mission, the public is very unaware of what's happening. Poor media coverage and bad timing (Mandela's funeral taking the headlines) are among the reasons. However, I suspect and fear that there is another reason: very few people care about space travel, Moon landings and so on.
That footage is incredible. I so wish we'd had something like that for MSL! NASA needs to get it into their heads that the public need to actually see is happening in order to get them interested in what's going on!
Quote from: mlindner on 12/16/2013 01:51 amI'm still waiting for proper releases of the video footage not from poor TV screencaps after multiple bad digital re-encodes. This is a failure of the Chinese government IMO.<video snip>
I'm still waiting for proper releases of the video footage not from poor TV screencaps after multiple bad digital re-encodes. This is a failure of the Chinese government IMO.
Quote from: Hungry4info3 on 12/16/2013 01:56 amQuote from: mlindner on 12/16/2013 01:51 amI'm still waiting for proper releases of the video footage not from poor TV screencaps after multiple bad digital re-encodes. This is a failure of the Chinese government IMO.<video snip>I was including that in my statement. Where's the raw mpg? And photos without news media watermarks.
With that attitude I doubt any release would satisfy you.
Quote from: Dalhousie on 12/16/2013 01:23 amI was beginning to wonder whether I would ever see a return to the lunar surface. I am the opposite of underwhelmed. When I watched the live broadcast I had tears in my eyes.My dad saw the landings live, but I never did. I grew up hearing about it all the time. I'm rather surprised at the outpouring of emotion thats been going on in this topic considering its a rover, and its just the Moon. Rover on Mars, yes exciting. People ANYWHERE, definitely exciting. Awesome pictures of the Moon, yes exciting. Poor images of the moon, not so much.We've been getting great imagery from LRO and Kaguya of late so this is all rather, well, dull. I had no emotional response to this at all.
I was beginning to wonder whether I would ever see a return to the lunar surface. I am the opposite of underwhelmed. When I watched the live broadcast I had tears in my eyes.
It's great that you can share how underwhelmed and unimpressed you are with this, but some of us do find it interesting.
Quote from: mlindner on 12/16/2013 01:51 amI'm still waiting for proper releases of the video footage not from poor TV screencaps after multiple bad digital re-encodes. This is a failure of the Chinese government IMO.
One thing I don't see is a color reference plaque to aid in color correction and white balance of the images, like we see on the Mars landers. One red flag doesn't help much.
The sunward solar panel on Yutu is tilted down. Have we read if this is an error in deployment or is it an an active controlled measure to maximize electric power generation or optimize the thermal environment for the rover?
Quote from: Star One on 12/15/2013 06:39 pmQuote from: pospa on 12/15/2013 04:17 pmQuote from: Star One on 12/15/2013 04:08 pmTalking of Chang'e 4, will that be that launched on the same launcher as this one or are they going to put it one of their new launchers? Afterall to do sample recovery I would think they'll need a higher capacity launcher. No, Chang'e-4 is going to be copy HW of CH'e-3 including LV, with mission goals more focussed on science compare to Ch'e-3 which is more technology demonstration mission.Sample return missions will be then Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5.I had heard that Change'e 4 was the backup to 3, therefore I thought it would be used to test out a new launcher?Ah, sorry for my mistake, sample return mission should be Chang'e-5 only. It is planed to launch it on CZ5-E in 2018. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_ProgramAnd yes, Ch'e-4 was the back up of Ch'e-3, and should fly in 2015.
Quote from: pospa on 12/15/2013 04:17 pmQuote from: Star One on 12/15/2013 04:08 pmTalking of Chang'e 4, will that be that launched on the same launcher as this one or are they going to put it one of their new launchers? Afterall to do sample recovery I would think they'll need a higher capacity launcher. No, Chang'e-4 is going to be copy HW of CH'e-3 including LV, with mission goals more focussed on science compare to Ch'e-3 which is more technology demonstration mission.Sample return missions will be then Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5.I had heard that Change'e 4 was the backup to 3, therefore I thought it would be used to test out a new launcher?
Quote from: Star One on 12/15/2013 04:08 pmTalking of Chang'e 4, will that be that launched on the same launcher as this one or are they going to put it one of their new launchers? Afterall to do sample recovery I would think they'll need a higher capacity launcher. No, Chang'e-4 is going to be copy HW of CH'e-3 including LV, with mission goals more focussed on science compare to Ch'e-3 which is more technology demonstration mission.Sample return missions will be then Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5.
Talking of Chang'e 4, will that be that launched on the same launcher as this one or are they going to put it one of their new launchers? Afterall to do sample recovery I would think they'll need a higher capacity launcher.
Thanks for the link & no doubt we'll see Chang'6 as well as its backup. Makes you wonder what Chang'e 7 will be.
(Reuters) - China aims to launch its next unmanned lunar probe in 2017, with the key aim of collecting and bringing back lunar samples, an official said on Monday, after the country's first probe landed successfully on the moon over the weekend.The development of the Chang'e 5 probe, tasked with the moon sampling mission, is well underway and it is expected to be launched around 2017, a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said.
I normally have much more reaction to these things, but this whole thing has me rather underwhelmed. Maybe because I've always thought landing on the Moon would be easy with modern technology?
Quote from: Comga on 12/15/2013 11:28 pmOne thing I don't see is a color reference plaque to aid in color correction and white balance of the images, like we see on the Mars landers. One red flag doesn't help much. When we say colour calibration... what exactly are we going for? To mimic how something will look to the human eye? How is that objective? Also, apart from sensor drift, and different electronic noise etc. - what optical difference exists between the Earth and the moon environment that requires re-calibration once on the moon? A moonwalker would also face these different optical conditions (outside of his helmet i.e.) too .... so are we really calibrating, or distorting?
Nice special overview of rover in English by CCTV that even kids can followhttp://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20131215/104112.shtmlAnd indeed, their mast cam and high gain antenna are on the same pan unit
Flipped over and in HD:<video snip>
I wouldn't call what we're seeing "great" imagery honestly. It's great as compared to Apollo, because you're comparing modern technology to analog color wheel 10 fps footage. I'm still waiting for proper releases of the video footage not from poor TV screencaps after multiple bad digital re-encodes.
This is a failure of the Chinese government IMO.