The Chinese are being very quiet about this lunar mission!The initial selenocentric orbit was announced at being 100-400 km, presumably "polar" which can be quite a vague term. I would have thought that the orbit would have been lowered by now, but as far as I am aware there have been no Chinese statements about this.
Considering tha "failure" of latest rover, I hope they will not wait until the new rover has safely traveled several hundreds meters before releasing news...
Quote from: mcgyver on 12/28/2018 10:37 amConsidering tha "failure" of latest rover, I hope they will not wait until the new rover has safely traveled several hundreds meters before releasing news...The instrumentation on the rover worked for a long time, only the wheels failed because the Chinese underestimated the effects of lunar soil. And don't forget that the main Chang'E 3 spacecraft is still returning data - the longest-operating unmanned spacecraft on the Moon.
Quote from: Phillip Clark on 12/28/2018 11:33 amQuote from: mcgyver on 12/28/2018 10:37 amConsidering tha "failure" of latest rover, I hope they will not wait until the new rover has safely traveled several hundreds meters before releasing news...The instrumentation on the rover worked for a long time, only the wheels failed because the Chinese underestimated the effects of lunar soil. And don't forget that the main Chang'E 3 spacecraft is still returning data - the longest-operating unmanned spacecraft on the Moon.That's why I used the "quotes"; all instruments worked fine... but the wheels. So it actually turned from a rover to a... lander after a few days, hence as a rover it failed.BTW, I never read about root cause of the failure, any link?
If anyone uses LRO's Quickmap, it shows the sun rising over Von Karman right about now. Landing would be several days later but we are getting there!
Quote from: Phil Stooke on 12/30/2018 05:59 amIf anyone uses LRO's Quickmap, it shows the sun rising over Von Karman right about now. Landing would be several days later but we are getting there!Apollo needed to land with early morning shadows to guide the pilot. Why would a robot landing need sunlight?
Apollo needed to land with early morning shadows to guide the pilot. Why would a robot landing need sunlight?