[meteorite-list] Chinese Probe Launched on Round-Trip Flight To The Moon

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1410/23change5t1/

Chinese probe launched on round-trip flight to the moon
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
October 23, 2014

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 spacecraft blasted off on top of a Long March 3C rocket from 
the Xichang space center in southwest China's Sichuan province, China's 
state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua's 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.

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.

State media reported the spacecraft separated from the upper stage of 
the Long March rocket as planned, citing China's State Administration 
of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The test flight is a precursor to China's Chang'e 5 lunar sample return 
mission.

Unofficially called Chang'e 5 T1, the demonstrator will swing around the 
far side of the moon, using lunar gravity to slingshot the craft back 
to Earth.

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's atmosphere Oct. 
31, U.S. time.

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's Inner Mongolia autonomous 
 region.

Such re-entry velocities are faster than Chinese astronauts experience 
when returning from orbit several hundred miles above Earth.

The "skip re-entry" will help diminish heat the landing capsule will encounter 
during descent, experts told the China Daily newspaper.

The re-entry capsule land under parachute for retrieval by Chinese space 
officials.

"The 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'e-5, which is expected to 
be sent to the moon, collect samples and return to Earth in 2017," Xinhua 
reported.

If successful, the round-trip test flight will precede the start of the 
third phase of China's lunar exploration program, officials said.

China launched two orbiters around the moon -- Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 
-- in 2007 and 2010 to survey the lunar surface.

The Chang'e 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.

Chang'e 3 deployed a small rover named Yutu, which drove away from the 
mission's stationary landing platform, collecting images, studying the 
composition of the moon's soil and rocks, and probing the moon's underground 
structure with a ground-penetrating radar.

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.

Earlier this month, Xinhua reported the Yutu rover was losing functionality 
but still alive after nearly 10 months on the moon, surpassing the craft's 
original design lifetime of three months.

"Yutu has gone through freezing lunar nights under abnormal status, and 
its functions are gradually degrading," said Yu Dengyun, chief designer 
of China's lunar probe mission, in a report by Xinhua.

"We hoped the moon rover would go farther, and we really want to find 
the true reason why it didn't," Yu told Xinhua in an interview.

China developed a backup mission for the Chang'e 3 lunar lander. The backup 
spacecraft, named Chang'e 4, will now help prove systems required for 
the more ambitious Chang'e 5 mission, Xinhua reported.

Details on the specific objectives and planned launch date for Chang'e 
4 have not been released by China.

The Chang'e 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'e 6 sample 
return mission some time before 2020.

China is studying sending astronauts on lunar missions after scouting 
the moon with robotic spacecraft, according to official media reports.

Near-term plans for China's human space program are focused on constructing 
a space station in low Earth orbit.