Over about 12 dramatic minutes, China's Chang'e-4 probe descended and softly touched down on a crater on the far side of the moon on Thursday.

Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, said Chang'e-3 landed on the Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, on the moon's near side, which is as flat as the north China plain, while the landing site of Chang'e-4 is as rugged as the high mountains and lofty hills of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Chinese space experts chose the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin as the landing site of Chang'e-4. The area available for the landing is only one eighth of that for Chang'e-3, and is surrounded by mountains as high as 10 km.

Unlike the parabolic curve of Chang'e-3's descent trajectory, Chang'e-4 made an almost vertical landing, said Wu.

"It was a great challenge with the short time, high difficulty and risks," Wu said.

The whole process was automatic with no intervention from ground control, but the relay satellite transmitted images of the landing process back to Earth, he said.

"We chose a vertical descent strategy to avoid the influence of the mountains on the flight track," said Zhang He, executive director of the Chang'e-4 probe project, from the China Academy of Space Technology.

Li Fei, one of the designers of the lander, said when the process began, an engine was ignited to lower the craft's relative velocity from 1.7 km per second to close to zero, and the probe's attitude was adjusted to face the moon and descend vertically.

When it descended to an altitude of about 2 km, its cameras took pictures of the lunar surface so the probe could identify large obstacles such as rocks or craters, said Wu Xueying, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-4 probe.

At 100 meters above the surface, it hovered to identify smaller obstacles and measure the slopes on the lunar surface, Wu said.

After calculation, the probe found the safest site, and continued its descent. When it was 2 meters above the surface, the engine stopped, and the spacecraft landed with four legs cushioning against the shock.

Source: Xinhua News

Related Links
China Space Corporation
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Women will make up to half of Russia-US Moon flight simulation crew
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019
Women will account for up to half of the crew that will be engaged in the second stage of a joint Russia-US project SIRIUS, which is designed to simulate the conditions of a flight to the Moon, Mark Belakovsky, a representative of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP RAS), said. "On 9-10 January [2019], there will be a medical commission that will select 10 people, who will begin their training starting from January 14. The crew will comprise six people. In ... read more