Updates A Chinese Cow Jumps Over The Moon... Chang'e 5-T1 reentry demo mission, October 2014

[MaverickSawyer]

Huh. That's... smaller than I thought it would be.

That said, well done China!

 

[Unstung]

That's larger than what I expect for a sample return capsule. The reentry vehicle's appearance is very similar to the Soyuz descent module. The capsule appears to be able to return several kilograms of regolith.

The Soviet Luna return capsules are the fairest comparison and they only weigh 34 kilograms. They returned only about 100 grams of soil each.

---------- Post added 11-01-14 at 06:00 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-31-14 at 07:28 PM ----------

I found some answers, and many more details about Chang'e 5, here. The ascent vehicle will be able to carry "up to 2 kilograms of lunar material". However, the drawing of the Chang'e 5 stack looks very different than the test vehicle that copies the designs of Chang'e 2 and Shenzhou.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

You know what? The Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft has moved to a high elliptical orbit around the Earth after separating the descent capsule, where this photo of the Earth and the Moon was captured on November 9:

....and it has moved into an orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point 5 days ago! Serving as a technological demonstrator to test flying skills for the Chang'e 5 lunar sample mission, it will eventually move to a lunar orbit some time later. :hmm:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Forgot to mention this last month, but this spacecraft has already been orbiting the Moon since January 10 and has completed some rendezvous technique dry runs over the last few weeks. More test will follow up into springtime...

Here's a composite of lunar phases as seen from its monitoring camera while at EM-L2:

 

[Soheil_Esy]

China Gets One Step Closer to Completing its Ambitious Lunar Mission

19:24 08.03.2015

China successfully tested unmanned docking on the lunar orbit this week to determine whether key technology planned to be used in its Chang'e-5 mission to the Moon was working, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND).

The Chang'e-5 probe, set to be launched in 2017, is expected to land on the Moon, collect 4 lbs. of samples and return back to Earth.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150308/1019228782.html#ixzz3WdPciqeq

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

19:24 08.03.2015

China successfully tested unmanned docking on the lunar orbit this week to determine whether key technology planned to be used in its Chang'e-5 mission to the Moon was working, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND).

The Chang'e-5 probe, set to be launched in 2017, is expected to land on the Moon, collect 4 lbs. of samples and return back to Earth.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150308/1019228782.html#ixzz3WdPciqeq

This Russian source gets it all wrong - they were just testing rendezvous techniques by simulating a docking in low lunar orbit. :facepalm:

 

[Soheil_Esy]

Relaying to the 'dark side'

2015/07/16

It was first revealed in May that Chang’e-4, a back-up to China’s 2013 Chang’e-3 mission involving a lunar lander and rover and the first 'soft-landing' on the Moon since the 1970s, would aim to soft-land on the lunar far side.

Chang’e-4 will be similar technically to Chang’e-3, but its exploration goals will be redesigned and the payload will be reconfigured.

The relay satellite will be launched first, and put into a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point, a gravitationally balanced area.

The satellite would allow communication between Earth and the rover and lander, with a delay of around two seconds. China went some way to testing this with the service module of a test lunar return mission late last year.

http://gbtimes.com/china/china-unveils-plans-far-side-moon-landing-and-hints-future-lunar-base

 

[Soheil_Esy]

China's lunar orbiter takes "zoom-in" images of Moon for a future Moon landing mission

2015-09-02

China obtained detailed images of a planned Moon landing site on Wednesday, where a future Chang'e-5 mission is expected to conduct a soft landing and collect samples.

The pictures, with a resolution of 1 meter, were captured by an orbiting service module put in place by the country's returned unmanned lunar orbiter launched in October last year, according to a statement by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).

The SASTIND said the pictures were taken by at a point 30 km from the Moon between Sunday and Wednesday.

The module also simulated moves and the controlling process expected to be conducted by the orbiting and ascender modules of the Chang'e-5 probe prior to a scheduled rendezvous by the two modules in the Moon's orbit.

The statement said the current service module is in good condition and will carry out further scientific experiments to study the lunar gravity field.

The latest mission is to obtain data for the Chang'e-5 probe scheduled for 2017, which will see an unmanned spacecraft land on the Moon, collect samples and return to Earth.

Double-resolution wide-field camera

Double-resolution narrow field of view camera
http://www.chinaspaceflight.com/satellite/Deepspace/CE5T1/161.html

http://www.icrosschina.com/news/2015/0902/17908.shtml

CE5T1 souvenir gift

8 Sep 2015

https://twitter.com/timmermansr/status/641198820714500096