According to Xinhua News Agency, this is the first time that mankind has unveiled the mystery of the ancient moon back. At 10:26 on January 3, 2019, the Chang’e-4 probe landed independently in the von Carmen impact crater in the Antarctic-Aitken Basin on the back of the moon, realizing the first soft landing of the human probe from the back of the moon.
After a 26-day long flight of about 380,000 kilometers, Cinema, on January 3, Chang’e-4 entered a moon-falling orbit 15 kilometers away from the moon surface. In the lobby of the Beijing Space Flight Control Center, with the order of the on-site staff, the Chang’e-4 probe began to decelerate from 15 kilometers away from the moon, and the speed of the probe gradually dropped to zero every second 1.7 kilometers relative to the moon.
At 6 to 8 kilometers, the detector performs rapid attitude adjustment and constantly approaches the moon; starts hovering 100 meters away from the moon surface, identify obstacles and slopes, and avoid obstacles independently; after selecting a relatively flat area, it begins to slowly and vertically descend. Finally, under the “escort” of the reverse thrust engine and the Komiks land buffer mechanism, a more than one ton of detector successfully landed at the pre-located landing area near 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude on the back of the moon.
The Chang’e-4 landing area has a terrain of 6,000 meters. It is one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system and is considered to be of great value to study the early history of the moon and solar system.
After the moon set, through the “match bridge” of the “Magpie Bridge” relay star, the Chang’e-4 probe carried out a number of tasks such as the development of the solar wings and directional antennas, established a high-code rate link for directional antennas, and achieved the “small goal” of stable communication between the back of the moon and the ground.
At 11:40, the Chang’e-4 lander obtained the image of the back of the moon and sent it back to the ground. This is the first image taken by a human probe on the back of the moon.
At 15:7, staff sent instructions to Chang’e-4 through the “Queqiao” relay star at the Beijing Space Flight Control Center, and the separation of the Chang’e-4 lander and the Yutu-2 cruiser (i.e., the lunar rover) began.
On the large screen in the flight control hall, Chang’e-4 is on the BabaylanThe lander stands on the moon surface, and the sun’s wings are in an unfolded state. The Yutu 2 paratrooper stands on the top of the lander, spreads the sun’s wings and extends out the mast. Then, the paratrooper begins to move slowly towards the transfer mechanism. The transfer mechanism is unlocked normally. A slanted ladder is set up between the lander and the moon surface. The paratrooper slowly walks towards the moon surface along the inclined ladder. At 22:22, the paratrooper stepped onto the surface of the moon, and the paratrooper left the first mark on the back of the moon.
The image of the moon back taken by the Chang’e-4 probe’s power descent processKomiks aircraft
Revealed the 7 major highlights of Chang’e-4
Only landing in the mountains and ridges, exploring the origin of the universe, and “planting potatoes” on the moon…
Text/Picture Xinhua News Agency
The Chang’e-4 probe, which took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on December 8, 2018, finally waited for the destination Antarctic-Aitken Basin, the largest, deepest and oldest crater in the solar system, ushered in the dawn.
At 10:26 on January 3, 2019, the Chang’e-4 probe landed independently in the von Carmen impact crater in the Antarctic-Aitken Basin on the back of the moon, realizing the first soft landing of the human probe on the back of the moon. At 11:40, the Chang’e-4 lander obtained the first image of the back of the moon. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks and sent back to the ground.
1
How to achieve “autonomous driving”?
Use the “brain” to calculate and find the landing point
At 10:15 on January 3, with the assistance of communications about 65,000 kilometers away from the moon, orbiting the second Lagrangian point of the Earth and the moon, and the relay star “Magpie Bridge”, which can see the earth and the back of the moon at the same time, the variable thrust engine on Chang’e-4 was clicked<a The detector's speed dropped from 1.7 kilometers per second to nearly zero. The detector adjusted its posture and landed vertically towards the relatively flat bottom of the von Karmen impact crater in the Aitken Basin. When it was about two kilometers away from the moon, the projection formed by the sun from the east illuminating moon surface was captured by the camera on the detector's Cinema.The computer "brain" processed it, and it Komiks identified the large rocks and craters below and performed its first obstacle avoidance.
When it is 100 meters away from the moon, it hoveres in the air, and uses laser scanning to identify smaller obstacles and slopes on the moon. Its “brain” calculates again to find a safer location as the landing point.
When two meters away from the moon, the engine on the detector stopped working, and the golden lander holding the lunar rover fell down by its own gravity, and four legs stood firmly on the desolate gray moon surface, raising a piece of moon dust.
The entire landing process lasted about 12 minutes, and it was completed independently by the detector. There was no intervention on the earth, but the “Magpie Bridge” sent the landing back to the command and control center in the suburbs of Beijing.
2
How to land in the mountains?
The probe independently recognizes obstacles and avoids obstacles
Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration project, compared it to: Chang’e-3 is like landing on the North China Plain, while Chang’e-4 is like landing on the mountains and ridges in southwest China.
He said that the Chang’e-4 landing area is equivalent to one-eighth of the Chang’e-3 landing area, and there are mountains 10 kilometers above sea level around the landing area. The Von Carmen impact crater in the Aitken Basin is minus 6 kilometers above sea level, so unlike the smooth parabolic landing trajectory of Chang’e-3, Chang’e-4 is approaching a vertical landing.
“The landing time is short, difficult and high risk is a great test for us,” said Wu Weiren. Sun Zezhou, chief designer of Chang’e-4 probe of the Fifth Academy of Space Science and Technology Group, said: “Our information on the lunar terrain mainly comes from the previous remote sensing data around the moon, including Chang’e-1, Chang’e-2 and remote sensing data of some foreign satellites. But none of these data can be given to me. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan provide sufficiently accurate terrain information. It is impossible for us to know where there are big stones. It is more of the overall macro information and statistical probability. In the end, the landing still depends on the detector to independently identify obstacles and avoid obstacles. “
Fifth Academy Chang’e 4 probe projectBabaylan Director of the Chang’e 4 project, said that Chang’e 4 has considered the system design.How to improve the accuracy of landing, orbit correction was added during the lunar cycle, and adjustments were made to the power decline control strategy. The detector must reach above the landing area when it is relatively high from the lunar surface and then descend vertically, so that the complex and rugged terrain on the track will not have an impact on the landing.
3
What is the importance of exploring the back of the moon?
Glance to the origin of the universe after the Big Bang
“The risk of going to the back of the moon is much greater than that of the front. The rugged terrain brings us the questions we must face, but a higher precision landing on the moon is needed in the future. Solving the challenges facing this mission can lay the foundation for subsequent deep space exploration and asteroid exploration. We hope to have the ability to reach the entire moon and even the entire solar system in the future.” Sun Zezhou said.
Zou Yongliao, director of the General Department of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the back of the moon has unique properties. Chang’e-4 landed on a virgin land that had never been explored on the spot, and perhaps important discoveries could be made.
For astronomers, the back of the moon is a rare place of tranquility, because the moon itself blocks various radio interference signals from the earth, where it may see how the universe escapes from the darkness and lights up the first generation of stars after the Big Bang.
4
Why did it land at the Von Carmen crater?
The pits here are still “mysteries”. Due to tidal locking, the moon’s orbit around the earth is the same period of rotation, and the “view” of the moon seen from the earth is always the same. In the era without space probes, the back of the moon has always been a mysterious unknown world.
It was not until about 60 years ago that the Soviet Union’s Moon 3 probe sent back the first image on the back of the moon. About 50 years ago, three astronauts from the United States, Apollo 8, became the first human to witness the back of the moon while flying around the moon.
More and more probes around the moon have made people discover that the back and front of the moon are so different: the front is relatively flat, while the back is rugged and full of bumpy impact craters; the lunar crust on the back of the moon is much thicker than the front. Why is this happening? It is still a mystery now, and only landing detection can reveal this mystery.
The detection of von Carmen impact craters has another meaning, which is named after von Carmen, a 20th-century Hungarian-American aerospace engineer. The founders of China’s aerospace industry, Qian Xuesen and Guo Yonghuai, are both personal disciples of this “science genius in the aerospace era”.
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What surprises will this detection bring?
Add to prepare for humans to return to the moon
It has been 50 years since humans first landed on the moon. Can humans return to the moon? How much impact will radiation on the moon have on astronauts? How much water is there on the moon? How does the water on the moon come from? Chinese Surgery scientists will find answers through Chang’e-4 to prepare for humans to return to the moon. Wen Mu, chief engineer of the Institute of Physics Experimental and Applications at Kiel University in Germany, said: “When astronauts return to Earth, the radiation caused by the moon remains in their bodies. This is a persistent danger, so we must understand these radiation.” “The childhood experiences of the moon have also happened on Earth. However, due to geological activities, traces of the earth’s early years have been erased. In order to understand the long-standing past of the earth, the moon may be able to give us an answer.” Lin Yangting, a researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
6
What scientific research tasks are there?
Test the “body temperature” for the moon “planting flowers”
The Chang’e-4 mission carried a low-frequency radio detector developed by Chinese and Dutch scientists. “It is a dream for astronomers to conduct low-frequency radio astronomical observations on the back of the moon, and can fill the gap in the low-frequency observation segment in the field of radio astronomy.” Zou Yongliao said.
Chang’e-4 also brought six organisms, cotton, rapeseed, potatoes, Arabidopsis, yeast and fruit flies to the inanimate moon, forming a microbiosphere. People look forward to the first flower blooming on the moon.
Chinese scientists have no exact data on how cold the moon’s night is. The Chang’e-4 mission also includes measuring the “body temperature” of the moon.
Shen Zhenrong, the overall chief designer of the Chang’e-4 paratrooper of the Fifth Academy, said that going to the back of the moon is China’s contribution to the world. “Although we still don’t know what we can detect in the end, this detection may affect generations.”
7
What international cooperation projects are there?
Enables scientific loads from four countries
In order to enhance international exchanges and cooperation and expand openness and sharing, Chang’e-4 not only carries China’s experimental Babaylan project, but also carries scientific loads from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
Korel, director of the Department of Solar Systems Science of the Swedish Space Agency, said the first soft landing on the back of the moon was a huge achievement for China.com/”>Komiks, “We are very happy to be part of this mission.” He said: “There is a theory that water on the moon is generated by the interaction of solar wind with the weathered layer on the moon’s surface, a question that Swedish and Chinese scientists want to answer through exploration.” ”
The Chang’e-4 probe is also equipped with a lunar neutron and radiation dose detector developed by Kiel University in Germany. The total weight of the instrument is about 3 kg and can conduct comprehensive measurements of the radiation environment of neutrons and other particles on the surface of the moon.
The Chang’e-4 German scientific payload project team and professor at Kiel University said: “China is cooperating with many international partners, and cooperation is increasing.” I don’t agree with the practice of Babaylan‘s refusal to cooperate because of fear of technology outflow. In my opinion, technology will only die out because of refusal to share. ”