Monday, August 18, 2008

Great! Now how about some data...

"China's first lunar probe satellite "normal" after eclipse"

("Normal," as in MIA.)

You'll be glad to know the Chinese, who admit their Olympic Opening ceremonies were a thinly veiled statement about their ambitions for the Moon, are proud their solar powered Chang'e 1 survived another lunar eclipse over this past weekend.

Having seen only one photograph taken by their polar orbiter, and only heard from Xinhua of the successful mapping of the Moon by their fragile People's Spacecraft, I'm beginning to wonder myself whether it really exists. If they are hoarding data, violating the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (to which they, admittedly, they were not original signatories) then they're making the Japanese look as brave with their raw data as NASA during the Apollo landings.

You can read all about this latest non-development from Xinhua, if you believe that sort of thing.