{"id":16905,"date":"2014-10-23T20:37:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T12:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/chinese-probe-launched-on-round-trip-flight-to-the-moon\/"},"modified":"2014-10-23T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T12:37:09","slug":"chinese-probe-launched-on-round-trip-flight-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/chinese-probe-launched-on-round-trip-flight-to-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese probe launched on round-trip flight to the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A Chinese Long March 3C rocket lifted off at 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT; 2 a.m. Beijing time). Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China launched a demonstrator probe Thursday on a round-trip flight around the moon to test out a heat shield and landing capsule planned for use on a lunar sample return mission in 2017.<\/p>\n

The unmanned spacecraft blasted off on top of a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang space center in southwest China\u2019s Sichuan province, China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Xinhua\u2019s report did not disclose the launch time, but imagery captured inside a Chinese mission control center indicated the launch occurred at 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, or 2 a.m. Beijing time Friday.<\/p>\n

Boosted by a pair of strap-on liquid-fueled engines, the 18-story-tall Long March 3C launcher dispatched the lunar test probe on an orbit soaring 413,000 kilometers, or 256,000 miles, from Earth, according to Xinhua.<\/p>\n

State media reported the spacecraft separated from the upper stage of the Long March rocket as planned, citing China\u2019s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.<\/p>\n

The test flight is a precursor to China\u2019s Chang\u2019e 5 lunar sample return mission.<\/p>\n

Unofficially called Chang\u2019e 5 T1, the demonstrator will swing around the far side of the moon, using lunar gravity to slingshot the craft back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Designed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the probe is on track for a lunar flyby Monday, with the flight expected to conclude with a high-speed re-entry back into Earth\u2019s atmosphere Oct. 31, U.S. time.<\/p>\n

Speeding toward Earth at nearly 7 miles per second, or roughly 25,000 mph, the re-entry capsule will dip into the atmosphere multiple times to slow the craft down before landing in China\u2019s Inner Mongolia autonomous region.<\/p>\n

Such re-entry velocities are faster than Chinese astronauts experience when returning from orbit several hundred miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

The \u201cskip re-entry\u201d will help diminish heat the landing capsule will encounter during descent, experts told the China Daily newspaper.<\/p>\n

The re-entry capsule land under parachute for retrieval by Chinese space officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission is to obtain experimental data and validate re-entry technologies such as guidance, navigation and control, heat shield and trajectory design for a future touchdown on the moon by Chang\u2019e-5, which is expected to be sent to the moon, collect samples and return to Earth in 2017,\u201d Xinhua reported.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Chang\u2019e 5 lunar sample return mission. Credit: CCTV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If successful, the round-trip test flight will precede the start of the third phase of China\u2019s lunar exploration program, officials said.<\/p>\n

China launched two orbiters around the moon \u2014 Chang\u2019e 1 and Chang\u2019e 2 \u2014 in 2007 and 2010 to survey the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

The Chang\u2019e 3 lunar probe landed Dec. 14, 2013, making China the third country to achieve a soft landing on the moon after the United States and the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Chang\u2019e 3 deployed a small rover named Yutu, which drove away from the mission\u2019s stationary landing platform, collecting images, studying the composition of the moon\u2019s soil and rocks, and probing the moon\u2019s underground structure with a ground-penetrating radar.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials said Yutu suffered a glitch in a control system in January, rendering the rover immobile and exposed to cold temperatures during lunar nights, which last two weeks.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Xinhua reported the Yutu rover was losing functionality but still alive after nearly 10 months on the moon, surpassing the craft\u2019s original design lifetime of three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cYutu has gone through freezing lunar nights under abnormal status, and its functions are gradually degrading,\u201d said Yu Dengyun, chief designer of China\u2019s lunar probe mission, in a report by Xinhua.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hoped the moon rover would go farther, and we really want to find the true reason why it didn\u2019t,\u201d Yu told Xinhua in an interview.<\/p>\n

China developed a backup mission for the Chang\u2019e 3 lunar lander. The backup spacecraft, named Chang\u2019e 4, will now help prove systems required for the more ambitious Chang\u2019e 5 mission, Xinhua reported.<\/p>\n

Details on the specific objectives and planned launch date for Chang\u2019e 4 have not been released by China.<\/p>\n

The Chang\u2019e 5 mission will follow with launch in 2017 to scoop up lunar soil and return it to Earth. China also has plans for a Chang\u2019e 6 sample return mission some time before 2020.<\/p>\n

China is studying sending astronauts on lunar missions after scouting the moon with robotic spacecraft, according to official media reports.<\/p>\n

Near-term plans for China\u2019s human space program are focused on constructing a space station in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese Long March 3C rocket lifted off at 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT; 2 a.m. Beijing time). Credit: Xinhua China launched a demonstrator probe Thursday on a round-trip flight around the moon to test out a heat shield and landing capsule planned for use on a lunar sample return mission in 2017. The unmanned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4181,135,205,625],"class_list":["post-16905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-change-5-t1","tag-china","tag-long-march","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}