Astrophotographer Thierry Legault posted a video of his observations of three Chinese “Yaogan” satellites flying in formation : Watch Formation-Flying Chinese ‘Yaogan’ Satellites Slip Silently Through the Stars – Universe Today –
Category Archives: Chinese space
Chinese lunar test vehicle sends great image of Earth and Moon
The Chinese Chang’e 5 T1 spacecraft was launched on October 23rd as a technology test for a lunar sample return mission planned for 2017. The T1 has done a fly-by of the Moon and will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere on Friday and land in Mongolia.
Some great pictures taken from the fly have been posted at xinhuanet.com. More about the images at
Space Calendar for May 26 – June 1, 2014
The latest issue of the Space Calendar from Space Age Publishing is now available: May 26 – June 1, 2014 / Vol 33, No 21 / Hawai`i Island, USA –
The first item is about the status of the Chinese lander and rover on the Moon:
The only nation active on the surface of the Moon, China, maintains successful operations of its Chang’e-3 Lander and Yutu Rover now in Lunar Night 6. Although Yutu has incurred mechanical issues, it continues to respond to ground control teams well past its 3-month given lifetime. Chang’e-3 Lander with Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope and Extreme Ultraviolet Camera, is also expected to perform past its December 14, one-year / thirteen-Lunar Day lifetime.
The spacecraft hibernate / awake cycle is determined by astronomical factors (estimated here by SPC / ILOA), mechanical functions and performance, and ground control teams at the Very Long Baseline Interferometry center in Shanghai and observation stations in Xinjiang, Kunming and Beijing. Chang’e-4 (the twin of Chang’e-3) is being reconfigured due to the mission success; it may launch with different instruments to a new location or be combined with a future mission.
Preparing for Phase 3, the Chang’e-5 sample return mission test satellite is scheduled to launch this June to attempt a Lunar Orbit Transfer and return to Earth. (Image Credit: ILOA, SPC, CNSA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, D. Davis)
See the Change’3/Yutu timetable here.
Yutu lunar rover update
Leonard David reports on the latest info from China on the status of the Yutu lunar rover: Update: China’s Yutu Moon Rover
According to the news outlet, there are “last-ditch efforts” to rescue the ailing lunar rover.
Chinese engineers now say a blockage in the rover’s power circuitry is at fault for issues encountered and specialists are looking to bypass the problem. The trouble has meant that the rover’s main driving mechanism cannot be powered up. Yutu – or “Jade Rabbit” — is currently incapable of activating its wheels or solar panels.
Update on Chang’e 3 mission and Yutu rover
Here’s a summary at The Planetary Society of the Chinese Chang’e 3 lander and Yutu rover mission accomplishments and status: Yutu Update – The Planetary Society.
But the rover did not arrive at the crater, or even reach the lander. It stopped as it was getting close to the lander, apparently because the electronics associated with moving its wheels and solar panels, so probably an important central control unit, failed at that point. I don’t know when it stopped, but the map shown at LPSC is instructive. It shows the daily stops between drives (the rover was only operated when in direct contact with China, for at most half a day at a time), and counting them suggests the fault occurred in the middle part of the day, possibly due to excessive heating which might have been exacerbated by dust buildup on the rover body. But this is conjecture, as I don’t know that each stop occupied only one day.
At any rate, it soon became apparent that the rover could neither move nor fold itself up to protect against the cold of the night. Enormous efforts were made to overcome this, to no avail. As night approached the problem was made public, most memorably by the rover’s Twitter alter-ego itself. Meanwhile the lander continued operating, and I’ll come back to that later. Sunset, and possibly the end of Yutu’s short life, came on 25 January. After a seemingly interminable wait the sun rose again, and a few days later on 12 February both lander and rover woke up. Yutu was more robust than expected. All its instruments, even the fragile cameras, were fine, but it couldn’t move. I don’t know if the lack of movement extends to the robotic arm with the APXS. The instruments may work, but future science would be very limited if the NIR spectrometer and the ground-penetrating radar are limited to always making the same observation.