6 of 8 Chang'e-3 science instruments now active

Students learn about the ongoing Chang'e-3 mission at a primary school in Ganyu, Jiangsu province, on Tuesday. Designers are pleased with the mission's success so far, as experiments have gone more smoothly than expected [Si Wei/China Daily].

Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society has performed a herculean labor, today, pulling together many threads to deliver what might be the best possible description of a "lengthy press briefing by several members of the Chang'e 3 science team," Wednesday.

"I found it to be quite informative," Emily wrote, "not just about the mission but also about attitudes about Chinese space exploration and foreign cooperation. It was useful background for my participation in an hour-long panel discussion on China Radio International's "Today" program."

A link to her detailed summary follows the official China Daily description, below:

Wang Fan
China Daily

Six out of the eight pieces of scientific equipment deployed to the moon with the Chang'e-3 lunar mission have been activated by scientists and are functioning properly, according to scientists working on the mission.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, scientists said that the equipment aboard the Yutu lunar rover and the Chang'e-3 lander had so far been functioning as hoped, despite the unexpectedly rigorous conditions of the lunar environment.

"Except for the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and the visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer, the instruments have all been activated and are undergoing tests and adjustments," said Su Yan, deputy designer of the Chang'e-3 ground applications system.

Zhang He, deputy designer of the probe, said though the temperature disparity is greater than scientists had anticipated, all the equipment on the moon is in "perfect" condition, and optical and ultraviolet-imaging experiments are under way.

Scientists with the ground applications system are expecting to receive a colossal quantity of original data from the rover and lander, which have independent channels to send signals, Su said. The earlier Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 craft only had one channel each, he said.

The mission's success so far has been a relief to Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar probe program. He said the whole process, including the launch, the soft landing, the separation of the rover and lander and the ongoing experiments, have gone "much smoother" than he had expected.

Read the full article at China Daily, HERE.

Big HT: to Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society, for her well-translated transcription of Wednesday's press conference posted HERE.

China and the Moon

Shenzhou 9 lifts off for rendezvous and docking in space

Paul D. Spudis
The Once and Future Moon
Smithsonian Air & Space

With the weekend launch of the latest Shenzhou spacecraft and its successful rendezvous and docking with an orbiting space station, world attention is once again focused on China’s flourishing space program.  Although China’s human spaceflight efforts currently focus on low Earth orbit, in recent years they have sent two robotic orbital spacecraft to the Moon and have announced their intentions for a lunar lander/rover mission.  These efforts lead many in the west to speculate that a presence on the Moon is a likely and realistic goal for China’s space future.  In terms of the possible purpose for such lunar efforts, things are little more vague.  Most assume that China will go to the Moon for reasons similar to the geopolitical motives that impelled America to undertake the Apollo missions.  While some actually welcome China’s aspirations to conquer the Moon, other space observers smirk at their apparent willingness to (as they characterize it) “waste billions of dollars to repeat what America did thirty years ago.”  Others understand why China aims for the Moon.

The United States currently has no strategic space goal.  Many in the U.S. space community argue that the development of commercial launch services through federal subsidies is a goal.  To smooth the path for this approach, calls for consensus have been made by some New Space advocates.  Funding to support the research and development costs of these new commercial services would come by excising chunks of the rapidly dwindling NASA budget.   “Flat or declining” now describes the American civil space program budget and regularly reaching LEO to supply ISS has become our “new” vision.

In contrast, China is conducting an incremental, step-wise effort to gradually but inexorably extend their reach and influence in space, first into low Earth orbit and then into cislunar space and beyond.  Their approach uses a variety of hardware derived from existing systems while adding new capabilities over time.  China appears to be focused and following clear, long-range goals in space.  Because we do not look ahead on timescales of 20-30 years (accustomed instead to a 5-10 year timeframe), we have no long-range strategy to guide what we build or a plan for securing any long-term space goals.

Certainly wide-ranging concerns propel China’s push for human space access, some that can be envisioned now and some that cannot.  But fundamentally, they have accepted the proposition that freedom of space in the 21st century is equivalent to the principle of freedom of the seas that governed 19th and 20th century geopolitics.   In short, such a principle comprises the ability to project power and to protect national interests whenever and wherever China might be confronted within the strategic theater in question, in this case, the domain of cislunar space.

I have written before on the economic, strategic and scientific value of cislunar space, the zone in which virtually all of our space assets and satellites reside.  China intends to preserve her freedom of action by creating a spaceflight capability that can access and use any location of cislunar space, up to and including the lunar surface.  To build a sustainable space program using incremental, cumulative steps, it makes no sense to “leapfrog” over (or to ignore) the intermediate locations from which space faring capability and utility can be demonstrated, established and used.

Much of the published speculation on China’s interest in the Moon focuses on mining the Moon for the nuclear fusion fuel 3He or substances found on the lunar surface, such as titanium or rare earth elements.  In fact, one of the simplest substances found on the Moon has enormous value in space – water.  Water can be used to support human life, as a medium of energy storage, and as rocket propellant.  Water is the currency of spaceflight and one of the most valuable, usable substances we could obtain from any extraterrestrial object.

If I wanted to establish a secure foothold for my country in cislunar space, I would secure the territory near the poles of the Moon.  We know from the results of several recent probes that the lunar poles contain billions of tons of water, much of it chemically unbound as ice, a particularly easy form to harvest, concentrate and use. Material and energy resources, concentrated together in a compact location are assets of immense economic and strategic value.  Wars have been waged over less.

International treaty prohibits claims of extraterrestrial territory by national entities.  But treaties are “gentlemen’s agreements” and sometimes nations do not behave like gentlemen.  There is no mechanism to enforce the 1967 Outer Space Treaty except for a given country’s unwillingness to undergo international opprobrium.  Moreover, a country can withdraw from the treaty at will.  China tends to do what it wants to do, unless the economic or political price is perceived to be too high.  The potential of the Moon and cislunar space may outweigh their sense of geopolitical risk or concern about international ostracism.

What does this mean for the United States?  To listen to many in the space press, nothing.  A quick yawn and then back to propagandizing for more federal dollars to be passed on to new space companies.  But ultimately, it could mean that their libertarian dreams of a profit-making space frontier will never come to pass.  If free market capitalism and democratic political institutions are to have a future in the new frontier of space, entities, investors and consumers who share these values must secure a notable presence.  If the United States has a vigorous civil space program that creates a permanent presence there, such a system may have a chance to take root.  Conversely, our absence is almost a guarantee that our system and values will not be the guiding paradigm on the new frontier.

For many observers, an absent America (or with a mere supporting role) would be acceptable.  They believe America is what’s wrong with the world and that it’s high time that we step aside (in their opinion to one of subservience and irrelevance – certainly not one of power projection or as an economic engine and technology driver).  Parties (and countries) that lead make the rules.  While China has a great industrial base and a large, seemingly market-based economic system, it is actually a system of big government corporatism, where central planners decide which industries shall be allowed to grow and in what direction – capitalism, under total governmental control.

China is a rapidly advancing technically and is one of our largest trading partners, attributes beneficial in relationships between equals.  Historically, once a shift occurs in the status of partners, relationships change.  Because China’s influence in the world is growing, it is vital that we discuss and weigh these facts.  Our national economic and security interests cannot be jeopardized by a misguided rush to hand our space future over to companies who are in the imagining stage of what China just accomplished this weekend.

Originally published at his Smithsonian Air & Space blog The Once and Future Moon, Dr. Spudis is a senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the author and are better informed than average.

China issues new space Five Year Plan

From a 2006 exhibit diorama, China's latest white paper reiterates the PRC will continue efforts aimed toward an eventual manned landing on the Moon [CNSA/CLEP].

Marcia S. Smith
SpacePolicyOnline

China issued a new "white paper" today describing the achievements of its space program over the past 5 years and outlining its plans for the next 5 years.   China issued such white papers in 2000 and 2006, and the 2011 version offers little that is new.

According to the English-language version published on Xinhua's website, China has relatively modest plans for its space program, most of which were previously known.  No ground-breaking plans were revealed.

"In the next five years, China will strengthen its basic capacities of the space industry, accelerate research on leading-edge technology, and continue to implement important space scientific and technological projects, including human spaceflight, lunar exploration, high-resolution Earth observation system, satellite navigation and positioning system, new-generation launch vehicles, and other priority projects in key fields. China will develop a comprehensive plan for construction of space infrastructure, promote its satellites and satellite applications industry, further conduct space science research, and push forward the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of China's space industry."

As China has indicated in the past, it is developing at least three new launch vehicles for various purposes.  A Delta-4 class launch vehicle, Long March 5, is expected to begin operations from a new launch site on Hainan Island in 2014.   Designed to place 25 tons into low Earth orbit or 14 tons into geostationary orbit, it will be the largest of China's space launch vehicles.  China also is developing a new small launch vehicle, Long March 6, and a new mid-sized rocket, Long March 7, both of which are mentioned in the white paper.  No plans for a heavy-lift launch vehicle were announced today, however.   Instead the white paper says only that China will "conduct special demonstrations and pre-research on key technologies for heavy-lift launch vehicles."

Assertions by Chinese "experts" quoted in the Chinese media over the past several years that China was planning to send taikonauts to the Moon in this decade appealed to those who wanted to catalyze another "Moon race," but could not be traced back to official government policy.   Today's document, which presumably represents official policy, says only that China will conduct studies "on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing." 

Read the full story HERE.

Chang'e-1 maps Moon's Helium-3 inventory

An interpolation of the total amount of Helium-3 per square meter "fixed" in the lunar regolith (ppb/m2), from "Global inventory of Helium-3 in lunar regoliths estimated by a multi-channel microwave radiometer on the Chang-E 1 lunar satellite," F. WenZhe, et al., Chinese Science Bulletin, December 2010, Vol. LV, No.35. Scarce on Earth, Helium-3 is a strategic ionized element and projected future source of clean energy. Likely a bi-product of solar incidence, as interesting as it's interpolated abundance in nearside mares Tranquillitatis, Fecunditatis and Oceanus Procellarum is it's apparent lack in similar landscapes. While the methods used to indirectly locate and map Helium-3 on the Moon is not new, the study may be of the highest resolution ever publicly released, Point HERE for a full-resolution view [Fudan University/Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris].

Fa WenZhe & Jin YaQiu
Fudan University &
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Helium-3 (3He) implanted by solar wind in the lunar regolith is a valuable resource because of its potential as a fusion fuel. On the basis of the Apollo regolith samples, a linear relationship between 3He abundance and solar wind flux, optical maturity and TiO2 content has been presented. China successfully launched its first lunar exploration satellite Chang-E 1 (CE-1) on October 24, 2007. A multi-channeled microwave radiometer was aboard the satellite with the purpose of measuring microwave thermal emission from the lunar surface layer. From the multi-channel brightness temperature (Tb) observed by CE-1, the global distribution of the regolith thickness was inverted from the multi-channel Tb, and was used to evaluate the total amount of 3He per unit area in the lunar regolith. The global inventory of 3He was estimated as being 6.6×108 kg; 3.7×108 kg for the lunar nearside and 2.9×108 kg for the lunar farside.

Helium-3 (3He) is a clean, safe and non-radioactive fusion fuel. Compared with traditional fusion reaction of using 3H, the reaction involving 3He does not generate any high-energy neutrons and does not produce prolonged radioactivity, and hence is not dangerous to a reactor or the environment.

Terrestrial sources of 3He are extremely rare and the total inventory is only about 2.0×104 kg. Because there is neither a geomagnetic field nor an atmosphere on the Moon, solar wind particles can impinge directly upon the lunar surface and hence be captured by lunar regolith particles. As a consequence, a significant amount of solar wind elements (such as helium) have accumulated in the regolith during the long geological history of the Moon.

Significant work has been done to estimate the 3He implantation and abundance in the lunar regolith during the last few decades, based on the returned regolith samples from the Apollo and Luna missions. However, there has been a need to have a precise lunar regolith thickness distribution map of the whole lunar surface to determine the quantities of 3He present.

China successfully launched its first lunar exploration satellite Chang-E 1 (CE-1) on October 24, 2007. A multichannel microwave radiometer was aboard the satellite and had the purpose of measuring microwave thermal emissions from the lunar surface layer. From the analysis of the primary CE-1 observations, consisting of the brightness temperature (Tb) (from November 2007 to February 2008), Fa and Jin successfully inverted the global distribution of regolith thickness. This newly acquired dataset provided an opportunity to quantitatively estimate the global inventory of the 3He accumulated in the whole regolith.

In this study, by combining the models of normalized solar wind flux over the lunar surface, the global distribution of TiO2 content and the surface optical maturity derived from Clementine UVVIS multi-spectral data, a linear relationship between 3He abundance, TiO2 content and surface optical maturity can be derived for the global distribution of 3He in the lunar near-surface layer (thickness less than 1 μm). Using the newly acquired global distribution of the regolith thickness obtained from CE-1 multi-channel radiometer observations, the total amount of 3He per unit area in lunar regolith can then be obtained.

Read the Study, HERE.

Chang'e-2 sets stage for future Moon missions

China's second lunar orbiter Chang'e-2 began as back up for Chang'e-1 (2007-2009). Scheduled for a possible October launch, Chang'e-2 should arrive sooner, orbit the Moon closer and gather better data. If all goes well the vehicle should allow rehearsal opportunities for China's first soft landing on the Moon in 2013, and a better camera on Chang'e-2 may gather 1 meter resolution photographs of preferred landing sites.

China's unmanned space program has only one deep space target: the Moon. The United States may be preparing to abandon manned exploration of the lunar surface but the new era of international lunar exploration, a 'second moon race,' continues. India, Russia and China may each have achieved soft landings there before the U.S. deploys the first, if any, of planned nodes for an International Lunar Network (ILN). After Chandrayaan-2 and Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4 may return the first lunar samples to Earth since the Soviet's Luna 24 in 1976.

From Xinhua -- China's second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, will transition much faster than its predecessor, reaching lunar orbit in a shorter period of time, a top Chinese space scientist told Xinhua Friday.

China launched Chang'e-1 from Sichuan October 24, 2007. The first of China's planned unmanned lunar missions ended a 16-month mission March 1, 2009 when it was intentionally de-orbited into Mare Fecunditatis.

"It is estimated Chang'e-2 can reach lunar orbit within five days, compared to 13 days, 14 hours and 19 minutes for Chang'e-1," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist at the China Lunar Exploration Project, told Xinhua.

"China had not been to Moon before Chang'e-1 so we were very prudent and adjusted its transfer orbit in a very slow manner. It traveled 2.06 million kilometers before lunar orbit insertion," Ouyang said. "It's different now. We are more certain about the launch and can send Chang'e-2 directly to the moon, and we have also planned the transfer orbit to reach the Moon within five days."

Plans call for Chang'e 2 to orbit 100 km closer to the moon with a higher resolution camera, he said.

According to China's three-phase lunar exploration 'road map,' the country will first launch the Chang'e-2 and afterward soft-land Chang'e-3 on the moon in 2013 and, in 2017, Chang'e-4 will return a lunar sample to Earth.

Experts have speculated the Chang'e-2 mission will allow China to begin mastering soft-landing techniques for Chang'e-3 and 4, short of terminal descent. Careful lowering of its orbit to rehearse everything short of terminal descent that otherwise might begin after passing perilune could allow low passes over an intended target and an opportunity to take high-resolution photography.

Public mock-up of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) Chang'e-4, in development for a soft landing on the Moon in 2013. China's methodical dual-track developmental plans, its manned and unmanned (lunar), space programs seem devoted more to engineering design capability over science [Xinhua].

The global image of the Moon obtained by Chang’E-1: Data processing and lunar cartography

The digital elevation model (DEM) from the Chang'E-1 laser altimeter, used for geometric correction of the CCD photography [CNSA/CAS/CLEP].

LI ChunLai, et al.
Science China, Earth Sciences
August 2010 (Vol.53 No.8)

The global lunar image of the first phase of Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) is the first image to cover all over the surface of the Moon. It will serve as a critical foundation for succeeding exploration and scientific research.

In this paper, the acquisition, characteristics, and data quality of Chang’E-1 Charged Coupled Device (CCD) image data are described in detail.

Also described are the methodology and procedure of data processing. According to rule of planetary cartography, the image data has been processed, geometrically corrected, and then (made into a mosaic) and merged to a scale of 1:2,500,000. The results of data processing and charting show the image data of Chang’E-1 CCD and its geometric precision meet the demands of charting a map in the scale of 1:2,500,000.

The relative geometric positioning precision of the global image is better than 240 meters, and the absolute geometric positioning precision is slightly better than that of the ULCN2005 and Clementine lunar basemap (v. 2.0). The plane positioning precision is approximately 100–1500 meters. The global image is proven to be the best global image of the Moon so far in terms of space coverage, image quality and positioning precision.

Download the RESEARCH PAPER (PDF), HERE.
Google Scholar, August 6, 2010

Chang’e I research reported published

An extra sharp high-altitude photograph of Rima Sharp, at the 'narrows' junction of Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Frigoris (46.7°N, 349.5°E) swept up by Chang'e-1 (2008), China's first lunar orbiter [CNSA].

NLSI (Staff) - The scientific research achievements of China’s circumlunar satellite Chang’e I have now been published, China National Radio’s website reports.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, disclosed that 1.37TB of data was captured by Chang’e 1 during its operation from October 24, 2007 to March 1, 2009. Following processing, analysis and study, 2.76TB of data products have been obtained.

The scientific research achievements include a full moon picture, a full moon digital elevation model and the 3D moon topographic map with high resolution and precision.

The satellite also captured data on the distribution of various chemical and mineral elements on the moon, the distribution of microwave radiation temperatures on the lunar surface and data of near-lunar space high-energy particles and solar ions.

Research work on Chang’e 1 also contributed to the preliminary establishment of the country’s standard system on moon exploration and scientific data processing, said Ouyang Ziyuan.

Early global lunar photomosaic of Chang'e-1 surveys, released by the Chinese National Space Agency [CNSA].

Chang'E-1 has blazed a new trail in China's deep space exploration

Lunar global topographic map based on Chang'E-1 Digital Elevation model (DEM) CLTM-s01.

Science in China
(Series G, Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy)

A huge amount of scientific data have been accumulated by the Chang'E-1 lunar orbiter. Using laser altimeter data, Jinsong Ping and Qian Huang et al obtained improved 3D lunar topography, and based on this, they had made new discoveries (such as impact basins and volcanic deposit highlands) of some ancient topographic characteristics on the lunar surface. Chao Chen and Qing Liang et al., found the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin as the biggest mascon on the moon and put forward a fault structure hypothesis for the Apenninus Mountains, which is significant for the study of the origin and evolution of the moon.

The above special-issue papers reporting on the Chang'E selenodesy results were jointly accomplished by experts from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO), the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and other institutions. They will appear on Vol. 39 Issue 10 of the "Science in China Series G: Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy" and Vol. 54 Issue 20 of the Chinese Science Bulletin.

Since the 1990s, there has been a new worldwide upsurge of lunar exploration missions. As did the other lunar spacecrafts launched about the same time frame, the Chang'E-1 lunar orbiter focused on selenodesy so that it could remedy the low resolution and poor coverage problems of past data and open the door to recovering lunar evolution by detecting new lunar topography, gravity fields or interior structures. Furthermore, it would prepare for future Chinese spacecraft landing on the surface of the moon.

Lunar topography, chemical composition and thickness all show obvious dichotomy. In-depth investigation into the lunar dichotomy and characteristics of basins, mascons, impact craters and volcanic highlands is the only way to throw light on the history of lunar evolution. Based on the Chang'E-1 lunar DEM model CLTM-s01 published in 2008, researchers from SHAO took a comparative planetary science approach and successfully found some impact basins (i.e. the quasi-impact basin Sternfeld-Lewis and impact basin Fitzgerald-Jackson) and one crater (i.e. the crater Wugang) on the Far Side, and one middle scale volcanic deposit highland (i.e. the 2.8 km highland Yutu) on the Near Side. Moreover, they analyzed and identified some middle scale impact basins and classified them according to their circular characteristics.

Based on the Bouguer gravity anomaly, researchers from the China University of Geosciences confirmed the SPA basin is the biggest mascon on the terrestrial planets in the solar system. Comparing the Apenninus Mountain of the moon with the Himalayas on Earth, they put forward a hypothesis about the possible existence of a big fault structure band, which would possibly change our previous knowledge that there is no motion in the interior of the moon.

Due to certain operational limitations, it is difficult to calibrate the data collected by the Chang'E-1 orbiter. The researchers tried to get around various problems with novel techniques (especially related to the interferometer spectrometer imager), and made the previously inapplicable data useful for estimating the distribution of lunar materials. Besides, Chinese astronomers creatively monitored the critical arcs of the Chang'E-1 trajectory with a VLBI measurement platform.

As forward-looking technologists, they also performed open-loop radiometric tracking of the spacecraft and other unprecedented test experiments, while further participating in same-beam observation of the Japanese SELENE spacecrafts. We believe these pioneering works would make a significant contribution to our country's future deep space exploration.

Xinhua: Chang'E map of Moon completed

(Xinhua) -- Chinese experts Monday announced that the country's space scientists had completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon.

The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, was made based on image data obtained by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera carried by the Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe. The map's spatial resolution -- measured by the distance of two features within an image that can be clearly defined -- is 500 meters.

Liu Xianlin, head of the expert team that made the accreditation, said the map could greatly help study the features, laws and creation of the moon's surface and deepen understanding of lunar geology and its evolution.

"It would also pave the way for setting scientific objectives in future lunar probe projects," said Liu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping.

The Chang'e-1 lunar probe was launched in October 2007.

Moon may light man's future

Emotive illustration by Pang Li, heading up interview by China Daily's Ma Chao with Ouyang Ziyuan, academician at China Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of China's moon exploration project.

Ma Chao: Between October 2007 and March of this year, the Chang'e 1 spacecraft circled the moon for nearly 18 months. As chief scientist, what do you think has been achieved with Chang'e 1? And what has the spacecraft meant to the future of China's moon exploration project?

Ouyang: Though China's moon exploration project began much later than other countries, it is at the cutting-edge in several aspects and is unique in many ways without excessive expenditures of money.

The Chang'e 1 has successfully achieved four scientific targets. The first was to formulate a two-dimensional as well as a three-dimensional map of the entire moon. We have now formulated a two-dimensional map encompassing the surface of the entire moon without any omissions. It is a high-quality map and is available to anyone in the world.

The Chang'e 1 scanned the moon's surface with three laser beams, measuring the height or altitude of more than 9 million points on the moon. Based on our data, a stereoscopic map will be accomplished before the end of this year.

The second target is to explore the composition of the moon's surface and minerals it contains. Using instruments of remote sensing, the Chang'e 1 has obtained data of the allocation of chemical elements, as well as types of minerals and stones on the surface. We are currently processing the data and working to draw a geological map of the moon.

The third mission is to explore the soil layer on the moon, a pioneering work that has not been done by any other country. The Chang'e 1, using microwave technology, measured the depth of the soil layer across the moon.

One focus of the soil examination is to detect how much helium-3, a crucial element for nuclear fusion, is on the moon. Since the fossil energy on Earth might be exhausted in a century or less, we have to find an alternative energy source. Nuclear fusion would be an important option. There is an abundance of helium-3, perhaps millions of tons on the moon, which could be used to generate energy once the technology matures. The moon might fundamentally change the pattern of energy generation for humans.

Last but not least, the Chang'e 1 was commissioned to probe and record the environment on the moon, such as its electromagnetic features and solar wind, which are crucial for future landings.

Within these four aspects, an enormous amount of data has been collected. Before Chang'e 1, Chinese scientists had to depend on data from foreign countries. Now we have original data. In line with the international convention, Chinese scientists will study the data collected by Chang'e 1 for a year and then release the data to the world.

The Chang'e 1 is the first step in China's moon exploration project. The second step would be landing on the moon, i.e. sending a lunar lander and a lunar rover onto the moon's surface. The third step would be not only landing but also returning part of the landing apparatus with collected samples back to Earth. Only after all these steps are successfully accomplished, will it be possible to carry out a manned moon landing.

Ma Chao: When will Chinese astronauts be able to land on the moon?

Ouyang: This is what many are very eager to know. There are many speculations on when China can achieve this feat. The India media have claimed that China will be able to land its astronauts on the moon in 2024. Michael Griffin, former administrator of NASA, said China will be able to achieve a manned moon landing in 2020. Chinese scientists have many dates, too, such as 2020, 2025 or 2030. However, the State has not announced any specific schedule for the manned moon landing.

Ma Chao: Is there then a schedule for landing the lunar rover?

Ouyang: According to the State's plan, China's lunar rover will be carried by the Chang'e 3 spacecraft to the moon before the end of 2013.

Ma Chao: You have mentioned the significance of moon exploration in relation to future energy supplies for mankind. In addition to this point, what can the exploration contribute to the economic development of China, and how will it affect the lives of ordinary people?

Ouyang: The project will definitely advance our economy. For instance, the US' Project Apollo - which gathered around 400,000 people, about 20,000 firms and more than 200 universities - cost $25.6 billion. But it guided almost all the cutting-edge technologies in the 1960s and 70s, and has created an economic value amounting to 17 times the cost.

Since China's exploration project has just been a few years old, it is still too early to measure the costs and benefits. But it has already helped many Chinese firms improve their product quality. Because the environment on the moon is extremely harsh and volatile, we have set strict criteria for our component suppliers. To meet the criteria, the suppliers had to spend a great deal of effort in research and development (R&D) and consequently improve the quality of their products as well as lower costs.

Another great benefit of the Chang'e 1 is the dissemination of knowledge about the moon and space. It spurs public interest in space exploration, and is a great opportunity to raise the scientific literacy among people.

Ma Chao: Many countries, such as the US, Russia, India, and Japan, are planning to send astronauts to the moon, too. In comparison, where is the position of China in terms of technology?

Ouyang: That is a tricky question, since it is impossible to evaluate exactly how big the gaps are, or to make an exact ranking. To say how many years a country is ahead or behind other countries is not scientific. What we know is that the US and Russia, with their advanced technology and rich experience, are definitely at the first tier. China, India and Japan all have distinguished features and special technological edges.

Actually it is not wise to pay too much attention to who is superior to whom. I hope all countries could succeed in moon exploration and contribute to the understanding of the moon.

Ma Chao: You have created a concept called "harmonious earth-moon relations." Could you please specify this concept?

Ouyang: The moon has been a loyal guard of Earth for billions of years. It has inspired the philosophy, thoughts and aesthetics of mankind for thousands of years. With progress in moon exploration, the moon will become a great treasure to sustain the development of mankind. It will be an ideal transshipment station if people want to explore or even migrate to another planet. In the future, Earth and the moon can develop harmoniously together.

China to finish high-resolution topographic lunar map by September - Xinhua

Global lunar surface albedo mosaic (main image reduced 90 percent) assembled from data collected by China's first lunar orbiter Chang'E-1 (2007-2009). Though the huge image was unveiled in the Great Hall of the People in November, few bought the Party line about it's unique originality. Few would want to diminish China's accomplishment, becoming the third nation, behind the U.S. and Russia (USSR) and ahead of Japan and India, to successfully place a durable remote sensing satellite in lunar orbit.

Beijing, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will complete a 3D topographic map of the moon by the end of September, according to a chief designer with the project on Wednesday, calling the map the "clearest" in the world.

"Currently, most of the lunar topographic maps were made by data acquired by laser altimeter instruments. With the large amount of highly-detailed images taken by Chang'e-1, the map we are making will be of the highest resolution in the world," Li Chunlai, chief designer of the ground application system with the project, told Xinhua Wednesday.

Chang'e-1 acquired more than 9 million pieces of valid elevation data, which enabled the country's scientists to make a topographic map with 3-kilometer resolution per pixel, said Li, also a senior official with the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The topographic map will serve as a guide for future lunar rovers to search the moon surface for geological resources.

According to an earlier report of Science Daily, an international research team published the most detailed topographic lunar map in the Feb. 13 issue of journal Science. The resolution was 15-kilometer per pixel.

In November 2008, China created the country's first full map of the lunar surface with the image data captured by the satellite-born camera on Chang'e-1.

China launched its lunar mission in 2007 by successfully sending the unmanned probe Chang'e-1, the country's first lunar probe, to the orbit.

On March 1, the probe hit the moon and ended its 16-month mission, which wrapped up the first phase of the country's three-stage moon mission.

The second stage is to land and launch a rover vehicle on the moon around 2012 and the third is to recover a spacecraft carrying samples from the moon by 2017.

Previous reports said that Chinese scientists were also considering the feasibility of a manned lunar landing mission at an appropriate time between 2025 and 2030.

Editor: Xiong Tong

After the moon, ISRO aims for the sun

Last updated September 15, 2010 1858 UT
The universe is our playground

Harsha Pramod
itexaminer.com

Bengaluru (India)

The silent space surrounding the moon could soon be busy with the movement of active satellites from different countries in its parent planet. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 is now orbiting in an elliptical orbit over the polar regions of the moon. ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 (meaning ‘moon craft’) successfully on 22 October 2008, thereby joining the space faring countries in the lunar race. Launched at a cost of about $75 million, Chandrayaan-I will remain in its orbit for about two years. This is especially significant because of the renewed interest in the Earth’s lone satellite after a lull of many decades.

The moon has always been a source of mystery to the human race. It has been associated with mythology and beauty. Being the nearest celestial body, it continues to be a source of great interest to the space scientists. The lunar mission is seen as an important milestone in the space journey.

In the early 1960s the race for the moon was between the US and the USSR. However, the USSR nearly abandoned its lunar mission in the 1970s. Russia is now planning to launch its lunar project ‘Luna-Glob’ in the next few years. The US agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) are expected to provide significant information to help plan for an advanced manned lunar mission in the next decade. LRO is scheduled for launch in April this year while GRAIL is planned for 2011.

ISRO is conscious of the fact that although other countries have undertaken space missions, the data is often not shared. So, India launched its own lunar mission. China is also moving ahead in space, with plans to send (three more) robotic explorers to the moon by 2020.

Its first lunar satellite Chang'e-1, named after (the) legendary Chinese moon goddess, impacted the moon this year. In the global scene, India has set an example of international cooperation by carrying foreign payloads on Chandrayaan-1.

Chandrayaan-1 should help ISRO improve technology for future missions (and) could provide information about the availability of Helium-3 on the moon.

Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium considered as a comparatively clean fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors.

Riding high on the success of Chandrayaan-I, ISRO plans to launch Chandrayaan-2 in 2012. Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The mission has been allocated a budget of $86.6 million (Rs 425 crore). Chandrayaan-2 will comprise a lander and a robotic rover, which will soft land on the moon. The robot will take samples from the lunar surface for analysis and will transmit the data back to the earth. ISRO has already signed a pact with the Russian federal space agency (Roscosmos) for the mission. According to the pact, Roscosmos will be responsible for the Lander/Rover.

While Chandrayaan-1 is yet to unload many of its secrets, ISRO is aggressively pursuing its future projects such as the solar mission, Aditya, a satellite to study solar emissions. With the design in place, the mission will be launched in a couple of years. Aditya is reportedly the first space based solar mission planned to study corona, the sun’s outer layer. There are limitations to studying corona from the earth as it is visible only during solar eclipses. The earth’s atmosphere also scatters sunlight. This makes a space mission to study corona even more significant.

ISRO’s study on a Mars mission is also underway. The orbiter mission to Mars aims to study the Martian atmosphere, weather and solar wind-Mars interactions. According to ISRO, setting up a base in the moon could help future space explorations. A long trip to a celestial body such as the Mars could use the moon as an intermediate base. Mission to Mars is likely to could happen around 2019. Missions to other planets could well become a reality in the long term.

India’s manned mission to space at a cost $2.3 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) could be expected before 2015. While ISRO is not averse to international cooperation, it prefers to be self-reliant. ISRO’s manned mission into space has been approved by the Space Commission and is awaiting the government’s approval.

Asteroid or comet flyby flights could also become future missions. This could study the surface and interior of comet nucleus, composition of dust and gas in the comet, solar radiations and also bring samples of comet dust for study.

NASA is currently in the news for its Kepler mission, which aims to explore outer space for alien life. If all goes well, the mission will be launched in Florida on Friday night, 6 March, local time. The Kepler mission is a $600-million mission in search of habitable planets.

China, the US and Japan are going ahead with major plans for space exploration. Everyone wants a share of the outer space. While ISRO says it is not interested in a space war, it also does not want to be lagging behind in enhancing its competence to explore space. The possibilities awaiting the space explorers could very well challenge human imagination.

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The Chang'e Enigma

1,400 kilogigs of data, fifteen months in lunar orbit, and then the unannounced controlled de-orbit of Chang'e 1 should have more to show for the effort of the largest nation of people on Earth than an essentially useless, low-contrast optical image of the lunar surface. The People's Republic may try to lay claim to that image being the first of its kind but it is just not so, and I think most who study the Moon and the half century of its exploration know.

At least Clementine, a mission with an openly military objective, visited the Moon in 1994, returned volumes of data from an array of highly sophisticated sensors (its primary mission), before being "lost and gone forever." From the portal of the U.S. Geological Service, new interpretations of this fifteen year old data continues to yield discovery. This secretive "spectacle" method of lunar exploration is all show and no blow, and precisely the sort of thing that gets people talking about ruined cities and "spires" on the Moon.

It is strange enough, as it is, without China playing up what was, by all appearances, barely a major league accomplishment.

As far as the wasted opportunities for cooperation, Chuck Wood, the day before yesterday, said it well: "The pioneering Chinese lunar orbiter Chang'e-1, following commands, crashed onto the lunar surface at 0813 GMT on March 1, 2009.

Its impact was in northeastern Mare Fecunditatis near the small crater Messier J. There was apparently no advance warning and thus no chance for observers to look for an impact flash or plume. This would have been more than just an exciting event because imaging a collisional flash from a projectile of known mass, velocity and impact point would have provided a calibration for the ongoing imaging of meteorite impact flashes on the Moon, and possibly be of use to planners preparing for the impact of LCROSS in a polar crater."

Here is a video of the spotless control room and an animation of the Chang'e-1 crash.

China: Proud of Mediocrity?

China Daily and Xinhua continue to paint a bright and shinning future for their ambitions in low Earth Orbit and, following the de-orbiting of Chang'E 1 late last week, plans for safely landing future Chang'E probes.

"China plans to land Chang'e III on the moon at the soonest in 2013, Ye Peijian, chief designer of Chang'e I, the country's first moon probe, said here Monday.

"The mission of Chang'e III is to make soft landing and probe the moon, said Ye, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.

"Before the mission, Chang'e II will be launched at the latest in 2011 to test key technologies of soft landing and lower technical risks, he said.

"The timetable was revealed as China concluded the first phase of its three-stage moon mission with a controlled impact of Chang'e I on the moon Sunday.

"Ye said China's three-stage moon mission could be defined as "orbiting", "landing" and "returning".

"A Chang'e IV will also be launched during the second phase, which will be concluded before 2017, said Ye. But he didn't detail the task of the fourth probe.

"Ye said the third phase will last from 2017 to 2020, during which China will launch recoverable moon rovers.

"Chang'e" is named after a legendary moon goddess. But Ye said the recoverable moon rovers may not continue to be named after the goddess. The name hasn't been decided yet," he said.

"China's space program claimed a new landmark with its first space walk last year. It is the third nation, after the US and Russia, to launch people into space."

Time will tell how hard and fast Chang'E 1 plowed into Mare Fecunditatis, 150 miles east of the central Messier crater group.

The Moon is a notoriously difficult place to maintain a low orbit, with it's dishomogenity of mass.

Japan has already announced plans to de-orbit Kaguya late this summer, taking the route followed by Lunar Prospector in 1999, by first stabilizing the vehicle in a much closer and more unstable orbit where, like Prospector, it has been announced JAXA's first lunar orbiter can more closely study lunar magnetic anomalies.

It is still hoped things can be timed well enough precision that Kaguya and/or Chandrayaan to view the impact of the LCROSS and it's shepherd craft, if LRO/LCROSS can ever regain the priority it lost late last year, when it was announced that it gave up its December launch window in favor of tests of the secretive USAF X-37.

Chang'E arrived a few weeks before Kaguya, in 2007, and the Chinese National Space Agency has been downright stingy with photographs and data.

JAXA's Kaguya and ISRO's Chandrayaan have, at times, been sometime frustrating in more general releases of new data, blaming personnel shortages. JAXA vastly improved on that situation late last year, though they are still making new releases of HDTV photographs, etc., first, and in some cases almost exclusively in Japanese.

American amateurs have learned to scope the Japanese Kaguya Image Gallery to discover new data sometimes weeks before when its availability has been generally announced.

While not wanting to make light of China's engineering achievement, perhaps I hope I am not the first to suggest that the "first time total moon photograph," proudly introduced in the Great Hall of the People late last year, is neither the first nor is it particularly well done.

Unless there is some deeper resolution not yet been made available, 59 percent of the lunar surface is better photographed by amateur observers on Earth.

Dennis Wingo and the crowd at LOIRP are getting better data out of 42 year old telemetry from the Lunar Orbiter series.

Everyone apologizes for the Chinese National Space Agency, for their "outstanding achievements" but that big 1-25000 scale photograph was just plain lousy. Ed White and Alexi Leonov walked in space more than forty years ago. It is not as though they are required to re-invent the wheel.

Some of the best cosmological science is coming out of the Chinese universities, some really outstanding work on lunar morphology that simply would not have been possible without Clementine, for example, and the gigabytes of data from that mission and others freely available on the web. They sure didn't waste much time learning how to build fission and then fusion bombs, or the ICBM's to carry them, and they are not wasting time building a deep water navy that could project force in the Gulf of Mexico as easily as the United States does the Persian Gulf.

It's not a matter or pride or resources. It's a matter of priorities. Some days it seems as though the Americans will suffer the fate of Spain in the Americas, destined to make the European discovery (and to loot the local wealth) only to have that empire gradually diminish until a final and unnecessary war with America lost them their Empire. (They did have a good three century run, though.)

And then this new President surprises me completely, deciding NASA should not be thrown out with the bath water. Maybe someone over at the White House actually read the National Academies' Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon.

CNSA Change'E 1 "lands" in Sea of Fertility

Hat Tip to Svetoslav Alexandrov for alerting this late sleeper to the news that China's first lunar orbiter Chang'E 1 was brought down or "landed" (if crashed or impacted is not to your liking) according to news sources close to 52.36 east, 1.5 degrees south of the lunar equator.

The impact sight is within seven kilometers east of Messier J, a secondary crater among the wide and scattered Messier group, in north central Mare Fecunditatis, or "Sea of Fertility"

Telescopic observers can spot Messier J, with it's neighbor Messier L, a few kilometers northwest. Both are located 150 kilometer east of Messier proper, and its more familiar oblong neighbor with the westward pointing ray, Messier A.

The Messier J and L secondaries are located where the wrinkle ridges Dorsa Geike from southward meet those ridges winding south associated with Dorsum Cateux.

If the skies are clear where you are tonight, the phase angle of the sun at the location of the Change'E impact area, Messier A and its ray might be an excellent place to start looking eastward, halfway between the terminator and rim, more of less. The ray of Messier A points back to its crater of origin, and immediately to its east is Messier proper. Continue east and the meeting of the ridge groupings and the secondaries might just be a good opportunity for historic observation. Though the evenings of February 27 and 28 would have been perfect

Phil Stooke reminds us that this, among nearly seventy locations of human activity over the lunar surface since 1959, is "another point on the map" ... about 140 kilometers west (by southwest) of the (September 1970) Luna 16 landing site."

Kaguya English Image Gallery Restored

With the appointment of Susumu Kasaki as the new Kaguya Lunar Orbiter Project Director, Japan announced two weeks ago their plans for de-orbiting Kaguya, mapping the ghostly lunar crustal magnetic anomalies from its last lower altitude passes over the entire Moon next year.

Now, after what seemed an interminably long wait, JAXA has redesigned its Flash Kaguya Image Gallery, going live in English on Christmas Day.

New Kaguya Image Gallery

At first glance any renewed attentions played by JAXA to the Kaguya public gallery is excellent news. Those who have gone so far as to extrapolate image names stored on "less than public" Internet servers, and downloaded all that was available from more than one website on the Home Islands may now have the most complete Kaguya collections available.

The images posted to this newest official JAXA site, however, are not anywhere close to being the more comprehensive "complete" collection of Kaguya images and videos that were formally available. Using the new site's search function, for example, areas on the Moon that were once announced by JAXA as their standards for instrument calibration in the years prior to the beginning of the Kaguya mission are just unavailable. It is not credible to believe that JAXA has not taken, by now, HDTV images of the entire Moon, of magnetometer measurements, etc. The improved release of a second improved topographical map of the entire Moon from laser altimetry is a delightful hint of what Japan has yet to make public. As delightful as that may be, however, any perfecting improvements the more detailed information that could be made to the large scale relief maps painstakenly maintained by the USGS in Flagstaff would be welcome.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has better not be holding out for international DVD sales, as Japan appears to be. If so, JAXA should release that collection soon because LRO will eventually be launched, and its a superior spacecraft with a more powerful camera. As tentative as the hold may still be on a twenty year or so advantage in space technology on the part of the U.S., that advantage still remains dominant, at least for now.

But with LRO will the United States be also as apparently determined to ignore the spirit, if not the exact letter, of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, as is China, Japan and India?

In Japan, the distractions may be a dropping of the ball on the part of their private "copyright" partner NHK, the national television network.

In India, it may be no shortage of public relations partners with access to raw data from Changdrayaan but perhaps a lack in the ability on the part of their press and to make heads or tails of floods of new data, in the context of what is already known about the Moon.

Tails of proprietary information being hidden, regarding the locations of precious minerals and resources for example, makes little sense, and if true, such efforts are misguided. The promise of Helium-3 in fueling post-2050 world-wide economic growth is clear but some decades away. No part of the Moon can hide itself exclusively from any of the nations analysing the surface from orbit. Lower orbit, as will be the case soon for Kaguya, will reveal more diversity, beyond the imaginations of those who mistakenly dismissed the Moon as essentially worthless after the Apollo Era.

More likely each of these newly energized national space authorities are making the same mistake NASA once made, one hopefully unnecessary in the Internet age.

NASA set the standards for openness originally as a contrast with the secretive Soviet Bloc, with very public launches of manned vehicles from the U.S. in very experimental, complex spacecraft, during the Cold War. That sharing of information with the public was widespread but sparcer than many Americans can imagine in the present time. Data prepared for the level of public interest was prepared for the lowest common denominator among the taxpayers.

Photography from the Apollo missions appeared in brief, poorly printed highlights and in only slightly better collections printed often six months after each of those lunar missions in National Geographic and Life.

Often little provision is made for those, many of them students and scholars,with far more knowledge of these remarkable achievements, but possessing less "context" or "real interest" than the straight-arrow engineers and scientists.

Ironically, today the continuing restoration and digitization of that forty year old data and photographs is underway blowing off the dust from data collected during the Apollo landings, and are now seemingly more vivid and immediate (and to a far larger segment of the world's population. The channels of information, the media connecting NASA and the public, were far more narrow and few, being printed or televised before the practical use of digital video technology made possible by Apollo's innovative engineers.

Further, today "amateur" astronomers are better able to create using unimagined consumer computer power, the kinds of full mosaic photographs of the Moon than were professionals working at university observatories a half-century ago.

JAXA's Kaguya Selene lunar orbiter has been engaged in some serious surface investigation, recently, even as plans to eventually deorbit in 2009 were announced December 15. Before decommissioning Kaguya with her twin attendant gravity and relay subsatellites are to be brought down into a much closer orbit, as was Lunar Prospector before being intentionally impacted into the depths of a dark Lunar South Pole crater in a final but apparently fruitless effort to expose detectable water-borne ejecta. NASA's combined launch of a MRO-class HiRES camera and impactor, the LRO and LCROSS as early as late April, will add to the unfinished business exposed by the invaluable Lunar Prospector. Even without a camera, LP's data are still unveiling new information about the Moon, a decade after its obliteration.

LRO and LCROSS will soon join China, Japan and India (Chang'e 1, Kaguya (Selene) and Chandrayaan 1, respectively) in a new and almost fevered demonstration of sudden renewed interest in the Moon and her more obviously undiscovered secrets that began in earnest with the NASA/DOD sensor platform Clementine in 1994.

Much has been made in comparing the sharing of raw images by NASA JPL and partners from Mars, Mars orbit and from the vicinity of Saturn, against what can only be called a secretive, glacially slow clear reluctance to share similar data from the Moon by China and Japan, and now perhaps India as well. Unintentionally, the agencies are neglecting one of their greatest links to the grass roots support of the nominally interested general public: The Very Interested minority who constitute their greatest weapon in securing public will and public funding.

Indian's Chandrayaan science team has begun it weeks-old lunar survey by releasing an impressive assortment of images and video, and are now slowly backing away to devote more resources to gathering data they believe the general public is not capable of appreciating the breathtaking and entertaining images that are barely better in quality than the photography delivered by NASA and the Soviet Union four decades ago.

Of course, it's hard to get those ultimate close-ups without actually landing or, better still, engaging in ultimate Geology field trips experienced so far only by Senator Harrison Schmitt ithirty-six years ago this month.

China's Chang'e, first in the growing fleet of Lunar Orbiters presently examining the Moon, was quick to deliver an impressive brief examply of photography after arrival in lunar orbit in 2007, but afterward was followed by more than a year of near silence, aside from reports of the solar powered probe's survival after drops in available voltage during two lunar eclipses.

Finally, in November, China proudly took the wrappings off of a Full Moon mosaic slightly different and, in someways, slightly better and also slightly poorer than lunar albedo mosaics collected by Clementine. Since then, more silence from the world's most populated nation, with more hints , like India, of the shape of lunar missions to come.

After arriving in lunar orbit soon after Chang'e, Japan's Kaguya delivered a flood of the first high definition television videos and stills, along with mere tastes of the data collected from all but two of its instruments. From late 2007 until last spring JAXA could be counted on to deliver up spectacular new results at least once a month.

Among a few of the results delivered by JAXA were the best images of Far Side features in better contextural detail than when human eyes surveyed the Moon directly from orbit.

During the summer, however, aside from an occassional image sifted from earlier data and posted (usually two weeks after posting them first to the Japanese language version of Kaguya's Flash Gallery. Then new postings to the English website dribbled until the latter was permanently "disabled," intentionally or as a result of some "accident," the detail of which have remained cloudy.

Those of us who depend upon Charles Wood and friends, or our own regular visits to the Japanese language Kaguya Image Gallery were increasingly being disappointed.

While professional scholars and observers, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of others patiently wait for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (unlikely to be in position to use the same HiRES camera over the Moon before late summer) high hopes are fueled the United States will deliver images and preliminary details almost instantly, raw or otherwise.

Any camera able to spot the tracks, shadows and detail of Spirit and Opportunity as they continue to roam through the Martian countryside much further below, should be able to unmistakably identify the artifacts of Apollo, Surveyor, Lunokhod, as well as impacts and final resting places of over 67 sites of manned and unmanned missions to the Moon between 1965 and 1976.

Putting to rest for all but the most obdurate skeptic's ridiculous conspiracy theories about the accomplished engineering demonstrated by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would be a great service and a demonstration of NASA's commitment to transparency, and it would further NASA's well-earned reputation for showing the taxpayers results of very Open Source science.

The latest "new" announcements of the "discovery" of Iron, Thorium and Uranium on the Moon can be humored with a self-confidence NASA retains from having mapped the abundance of these elements and others, as well as reserves of volatiles like Hydrogen. Openness will be celebrated next March when the NASA-chartered Lunar and Planetary Science Institute holds its 40th annual conference, open to the hard-work shown in thousands of abstracts, Posters, and lectures prepared by both professionals and laymen "lunatics."

The space programs of the world should learn NASA has not lost out its advantage in space exploration by secrecy, and has won and maintained that advantage by innovation built on necessity. With LRO, let us hope NASA itself hasn't forgotten its strongest boosters.

Macau: New Lunar Lab for Chang'e Data

Anni La, Macau Daily Times

The Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) yesterday held a launching ceremony to unveil the laboratory which is set to study the data collected by the satellite Chang'e 1.

Jointly established by the National Astronomical Observatory and MUST, the lunar and planet exploring collaborative laboratory is going to fulfill three assignments in the coming two years.

Tong Chi Kin, president of Administrative Committee of the Science and Technology Fund, said that establishing such a laboratory in Macau will upgrade the overall science and technology development in the SAR.

He added that the establishment of the laboratory was shown as a remark to make contributions to the motherland and also help rearing the local scientific academics.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's Lunar Exploration Program said that “we hope to develop a lab which is open, sustainable while having a close connection with the outcome of the lunar exploration, so that it can conduct a high quality research.”

He also went on to say that since the lab was being supported by the Science and Technology Fund, it actually had already laid a “very good” platform to set up the research here in Macau.

According to Tong, the Chang'e 1 's lunar exploration program has been running for over a year and hasn't had any big impediments.

“We also had obtained adequate amount of data and materials that the research needs,” told the chief scientist.

The laboratory will study and analyse data collected from the Chang'e 1 and also establish a close connection with other international laboratories to exchange experiences on the lunar and planet software technology.

Following the launching ceremony, MUST also held a seminar which discussed the “Chang'e lunar exploration data analysis, appliance and study.”

Chang'e 1's Lonely First Year

As much as we tease JAXA about its slow but, admittedly spectacular "dribble" of data, the challenge to at least the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and open access to datasets from scientific space exploration, nothing can compare with the absolute block on data, if any, being shared by the Chinese National Space Agency of results from over a year of Lunar orbital survey just completed by Chang'e 1.

A television video was released yesterday highlighting animated notions of the mission, along with news that the probe's consumables allow for at least a one-year extention of the secretive mission. CNSA has reported twice that Chang'e survived the shadowed periods of two terrestrial eclipses, along with their intention to send a lander to the Moon in 2012. So far, though CNSA has also claimed it is their intention to "map every inch" of the Lunar surface, they have released only one or two photographs.

While the Japanese have at least released spectacular value-added Terrain Camera tours of Tycho and orbital imagery from Kaguya's on-board HDTV camera, said by a man who should know, Senator Harrison Schmitt, to be "the closest thing to being in orbit since I was in orbit," JAXA's refusal to release raw data has been frustrating.

Compared to China, however, JAXA's open access has been positively breathtaking. The most noted photograph reportedly taken by Chang'e was proven authentic, despite some controversy that it was merely a reproduction of images taken by NASA's Lunar Orbiters. Nevertheless, the year of silence, amidst happy reports of the probes determined activity, has lead me to speculate that Chang'e may have suffered a breakdown.

Either Chang'e is disabled, or China simply refuses to show off more than the first configuration glimpses. Their continued bragging of the probes excellent health is falling on deaf ears. It might as well not exist at all.

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.

A Peep from Chang'E 1

With the drip, drip, drip of data and images coming in monthly from JAXA and Kaguya (Selene 1), first in Japanese and long afterward in English, we had nearly forgotten that the People's Republic also is rumored to have in orbit around Earth's Moon an orbiter of their own.

Chang'E 1, the People's Daily confidently reports from Beijing, is still in orbit and is soon to have completed its first map of the lunar surface. Without any images or data getting past the Middle Kingdom's Firewall since November, however, CNSA is unconcerned with continued rumors they lifted their few photographic releases from NASA, ran them through Photoshop, and hoped no one would notice that they haven't said a word about Chang'E 1 since.

We can hardly wait for the flood of data from their Rover, slated for 2014. Perhaps we'll get the first data from that future mission in the middle 2020's.

Read more HERE.