china's moon rover:

China to send 'jade rabbit' to Moon:


China will launch its first ever moon rover early next month, state media said Tuesday, with the vehicle named "Jade Rabbit" in a nod to Chinese folklore.


The rocket carrying the probe will be launched in early December, China's official Xinhua news agency said, citing the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
It did not give a specific date. China has previously sent two probes to orbit the moon, with controllers sending the first of them crashing into the lunar surface at the end of its mission.



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-china-jade-rabbit-moon-state.html#jCp

 

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It's a real shame that we do not hear of the efforts by other countries such as India and China, as much as we should.

All the best to China in this endeavour, and India in its mars orbital probe.

 

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first they have to accomplish the deed, and than we will hear about them. Its hard to accomplish the deed thought when there are no programs to copy and no back engineering to do.

 

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Oh what does this remind me of?

Let me see, maybe Spirit and Opportunity rover wheels?

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and Spirit's drilling arm?

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Wow, how come I never heard of this? I'm excited to know what it will discover there on the Moon. We will be 1 step closer to colonize the Moon one day, who knows?

 

I believe we will in time have a permanently inhabited outpost/s on the Moon, similar to the ISS and Antarctic outposts.

 

Except that the ISS is habitated

 

That's what I said...And has been habitated every day of every year for more then 11 years.
Yet, to this day it still has its detractors. *shrug*

 

UPDATE:

China launched its first moon rover mission early Monday, state TV showed, the latest step in an ambitious space programme seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.

The Chang'e-3 rocket carrying the Jade Rabbit rover blasted off around 1:30 am (Sunday 1730 GMT), the CCTV official broadcaster showed in live footage from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country's southwest.
As it shot into the dark sky, mission observers could be heard reporting at regular intervals that things were proceeding "normally".
Within an hour the director of the launch centre Zhang Zhenzhong appeared before staff and declared the mission a "success", CCTV showed.
The probe is due to land on the moon in mid-December to explore its surface and look for natural resources. It is the world's third lunar rover mission following the United States and former Soviet Union decades earlier.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-china-moon-rover.html#jCp

 

China moon rover enters lunar orbit

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-china-moon-rover-lunar-orbit.html

 

So far, so good.......

 

if anything that will test this entire mission, its the landing. Quite many missions have crash landed on moon, prior.

 

Update: The chinese moon rover has landed successfuly today.

http://www.space.com/23968-china-moon-rover-historic-lunar-landing.html

 

Great stuff!
Thanks Number 9 Bus Shelter!

 

That's correct, but all is going very well:
See photo of the rover after it first maneuver on the the moon (and tracks left in the moon dust) taken by the lander here: http://www.sciforums.com/showthread...l-Superpower&p=3145093&viewfull=1#post3145093

Also there is a less clear photo of Jack Rabbit's back side as it descends down the two metal ramps to surface of the moon. "Less clear" as it is photo of a computer screen in the Beijing control center, not high resolution digital photo sent back to earth for the historical record, but one of rapid / low resolution photos used for movement control, I would guess.

BTW, one (US, I think) just "orbit the moon" taking photos from relatively low altitude (~100 miles or so, I forget) unexpectedly crashed too. That was caused by mass concentration in the near surface - remains of iron meteor impacts probably that drove the low orbit unstable. They were not even planning to land.

 

so are they planning to have a moon colony? if so, why? or will they try for Mars like russia/usa?

 

Why not?
Our first off Earth colony, will be our first real efforts to go to the stars.

Sure they will in time, and like any other nation into space exploration, I hope all goes well with A1 success.

 

There won't be any moon colony or martian colony. There just isn't enough interest in those things and it's too expensive. You would be sending human beings to live in dangerous conditions where they could easily die. Furthermore, the laws of physics don't allow quick transport to and from earth. What transport is permitted by the laws of physics is incredibly expensive. Since UFO's don't exist, there really is no reason to go into space at all.

 

One step at a time - yes they plan to put men on the moon and return them safely to earth (by 2020, as I recall). I think the CCP is too rational, to go to Mars as there is little to gain by that and much greater expense. I have noted before in several posts over the years that most have a very poor understanding of how a colony on the moon would be established.

First point is only very carefully selected fertile young women will go, and along with them, several millions of male sperm in two or more Liquid N2 tanks to start to populate the colony. Secondly they will live under ground and get their energy from two, or more as they grow, solar thermal energy systems. I gave its design too years ago. Basically two working fluid loops buried a meter or more as the "hot and cold sinks" of a sterling engine which are shaded and then exposed by a light weight moveable screen. It covers cold sink during the 14 earth 24 hour days solar day and then the hot sink for same time to reflect IR back into the soil instead of letting it escape in to the very cold sky. Underground living is essential as there is no magnetic field shielding from solar particle storms and provides at little cost the needed stable thermal environment.

The main reason for the colony is to be a "Noah's Arc" or "life boat" for the Chinese race to return from and repopulate the Earth after life on earth is possible again following some people killing disaster. They will do a little astronomy with 14 Earth days long very black nights and can grow food with sunlight for 14 earth days, light-piped down to the temperature stable green house level and then with plenty of "cold" available make some lower intensity artificial light just to keep plants, probably mainly algae, from dying.

This is at least 100 years from now and probably another 100 before no more support from earth is needed so technology may make some of these ideas invalid.

 

good luck on getting fertile young women to go to the cold, sterile moon without any men for company.