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Moon Exploration: Unmanned Missions

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Anonymous

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Nice article here concerning a novel approach to searching for ice on the moon. NASA seem to be doing a lot of colliding with things these days (though not always intentionally).
 
Wow, they already have plans to contaminate the moon, I'm impressed by their efficiency and forethought. I am sure the military will fund putting missiles on satellites for pure testing purposes. :rolleyes:
 
siriuss said:
Wow, they already have plans to contaminate the moon, I'm impressed by their efficiency and forethought. I am sure the military will fund putting missiles on satellites for pure testing purposes. :rolleyes:

Probably got 'em already.
 
It won't contaminate the moon any more than previous landers/crashers.

Lunar impacters have already been tried, i.e. the ad-hoc end of mission for Lunar Prospector which saw NASA "fly" the satellite into a crater near to the south pole.

The nice thing about that one was that the satellite was carrying (among other things) the ashes of Gene Shoemaker, who not only was a geologist, but was also co-discover of the Shoemaker-Levy comet which went on to take part in the best observed collision between two astronomical bodies (the comet came off worst ;) )

Another aspect to this is that Gene Shoemaker narrowly missed going to the moon during the Apollo program, (IIRC due to ill-health), and hence in death he has acheived what he failed to do in life.
 
Fortis said:
Another aspect to this is that Gene Shoemaker narrowly missed going to the moon during the Apollo program, (IIRC due to ill-health), and hence in death he has acheived what he failed to do in life.

Great. I'll bet he's chuffed.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4006293.stm

Probe arrives at Moon's gateway


European spacecraft Smart 1 is at the Moon's gateway, the region beyond which the probe is tugged more strongly by lunar gravity than by the Earth's.

Dr Bernard Foing, chief scientist at the European Space Agency, said the landmark was of symbolic importance.

On the night of Monday 15 November, Smart 1 will begin delicate manoeuvres to bring it into orbit around the Moon.

Once captured by the Moon's gravity, it begins to spiral closer to the lunar surface until reaching its final orbit.


The £70m probe will begin braking on Monday when it reaches a distance of about 50,000km. The ion engine will then fire continuously for four days as the spacecraft begins its inexorable spiral in towards the Moon.

Eventually, it will reach a stable elliptical orbit where it will range between 3,000km and 300km from the Moon's surface.

Smart 1 is testing a highly efficient solar-electric propulsion system as one of its key mission objectives.

The engine works by expelling a beam of charged xenon atoms - ions - from the back of the probe.

This produces thrust in the opposite direction, pushing the spacecraft forward. The energy to feed the system comes from the solar panels, hence the term "solar-electric".

When it begins its scientific investigations in January 2005, Smart will deploy an X-ray spectrometer called D-Cixs which will comprehensively map chemical elements on the Moon's surface. This will help scientists test theories of its birth and evolution.

GIANT IMPACT THEORY

Suggests Mars-sized object crashed into early Earth
Debris thrown into space aggregated into the Moon
Supported by similar composition of Earth and Moon rocks
"We believe that the Moon is the daughter of the Earth and it was created [4.5 billion years ago] when a planetary embryo the size of Mars impacted the Earth," Dr Foing explained.

"This sent some mantle of the Earth into orbit and the debris re-condensed to form the Moon."

Conversely, studying the Moon's origins and evolution could also shed light on the composition of the early Earth.

One target for D-Cixs is the biggest impact crater in the Solar System - a massive hole in the Moon more than 2,000 miles across on its far side.

By looking down the hole, it should be possible to analyse the composition of rocks deep within the Moon's interior.

Perpetual light

Smart 1 will also survey a flat region known as the Peak of Eternal Light near the south pole, which is thought to be bathed in perpetual sunlight and also appears to be flat.

This could render it a particularly suitable spot for future manned lunar bases.

"We will look at types of future landing activities for robotic and human bases," said Dr Foing.

"Smart-1 can be used as a precursor for long-term exploration of the planets."

The temperature in this region is stable at -20C; much more acceptable than the equator where the temperature varies from 120C to -170C.


In future, the Moon could host human and robotic bases


Smart 1 will also look for water-ice in very deep craters nearby which some scientists think could be used both to drink and to create oxygen for moonbase dwellers.

It will also search for possible building materials for a future moonbase.

"Another thing you need is building blocks. You need to find bits of the Moon that are good for turning into concrete for building your lunar base," said Professor Manuel Grande, lead scientist for D-Cixs, from the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in Didcot.


(c) bbc 04
 
Thanks for that Melf. Good to see Smart 1 getting to the Moon on a few pints of Xenon.

Of course, there is a puzzle about where the Mars-sized body which slammed into the proto-Earth actually came from. I read this interesting article in The Independent today on this subject.

Bill.
 
Because it's a great headline which is completely accurate.

New Scientist

Robotic space penguin to hop across the Moon 18:20 31August 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight


The first lunar colonists may not be a humans but compact robots capable of jumping more than a kilometre in a single bound.

Engineers at US defence contractor Raytheon, in Massachusetts, have developed a robot, dubbed the Lunar Penguin, that could one day bounce across perilous craters and imposing mountains on the Moon's craggy surface using a set of compact rocket boosters.

US president George W Bush has made returning to the Moon, and later reaching Mars, a crucial part of his vision for future US space exploration. But, in order for humans to make the Moon a second home, robotic scouts will need to search for safe landing spots and useful minerals for colonists to mine.

"Since we could set it down in such a precise location, the Penguin could be the delivery vehicle for the science community," Raytheon engineer Karleen Seybold, who is leading the Penguin project, told Reuters.

Jumping craters
The robot, in fact, bears no physical resemblance to a real penguin, but looks like a simple, squat, four-legged lunar lander. It is just under 1 metre tall and weighs 104 kilograms.

The design borrows technology from Raytheon's missile systems - the rockets come from a ground-based missile defence system and the guidance system is taken from a Tomahawk cruise missile. Although Raytheon has yet to receive an order to develop the Lunar Penguin further, Seybold says the bot could feasibly be launched as soon as 2009.

"The hopping penguin is an interesting concept," says Max Meerman, a researcher at UK space company Surrey Satellites. "Jumping a mile means that crater edges, like the ones that cause problems for the Mars rovers, are not a big issue."

Difficult landing
But Meerman adds that leaping such distances across the surface of the Moon could subject any instruments aboard the robot to severe stress. "Landing on the Moon is notoriously difficult," he says. "Much more so than on Mars, so doing it multiple times will be a big engineering challenge."

The Lunar Penguin was publicly demonstrated for the first time on Tuesday at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 2005 SPACE Conference and Exhibition in California, US.

The event, which takes place between 30 August and 1 September, provides a showcase for many new technologies, from supercharged jet engines to giant hot air balloons.

Leaps and bounds
For the Lunar Penguin to be a viable Moon probe, some of the prototype's features would need to be redesigned. For example, the guidance system would need to be reconfigured for navigation on the Moon rather than on Earth. It currently uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, which would not work on the surface of the Moon, as it uses Earth-orbiting satellites.

Returning to the Moon is unlikely to be straightforward process, says Ian Wright, a researcher at the UK’s Open University and one of the team behind the failed Beagle 2 Mars mission. Wright notes that the last human mission took place more than 30 years ago. But to reach out to the stars, he says scientists will need to try out novel concepts. "The robotic penguin sounds like an excellent opportunity to help us do this," he told New Scientist.

Meerman says the Lunar Penguin's unique approach to lunar locomotion could prove a useful way of exploring the Moon’s hostile landscape. "If it's successful, perhaps we could find astronauts on the next manned Moon mission using the same system to jump over hills," he says.
 
China space: 'Jade Rabbit' lunar mission blasts off
By Paul Rincon, Science editor, BBC News website

China has launched its first lunar rover mission, the next key step in the Asian superpower's ambitious space programme.
The Chang'e-3 mission blasted off from Xichang in the south at 01:30 Monday local time (17:30 GMT Sunday).
The Long March rocket's payload includes a landing module and a six-wheeled robotic rover called Yutu (or Jade Rabbit).
The mission should land in the Moon's northern hemisphere in mid-December.

Chinese state TV carried live pictures of the launch of the Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket carrying the lunar probe.
This will be the third rover mission to land on the lunar surface, but the Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.

The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour, according to its designer the Shanghai Aerospace Systems Engineering Research Institute.
[Video: David Shukman visits an exhibition in Guiyang, southern China, that explores China's obsession with the Moon]

Its name - chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters - derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.

Last week, Prof Ouyang Ziyuan told the BBC's science editor David Shukman that the mission would test key technology and carry out science, adding: "In terms of the talents, China needs its own intellectual team who can explore the whole lunar and solar system - that is also our main purpose."

The lander's target is Sinus Iridum (Latin for Bay of Rainbows) a flat volcanic plain thought to be relatively clear of large rocks. It is part of a larger feature known as Mare Imbrium that forms the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".

Other details of the mission are sketchy; the rover and lander are powered by solar panels but other sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs) containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night.

The US Apollo astronauts Eugene Cernan and "Buzz" Aldrin have also remarked in a recent article that the landing module is substantially bigger than it needs to be to carry the rover, suggesting that it could be precursor technology to a human landing.

If successful, the mission, aimed at exploring the Moon's surface and looking for natural resources such as rare metals, will be a milestone in China's long-term space exploration programme, which includes establishing a permanent space station in Earth orbit.

Chang'e 3 is "the most complicated and difficult task yet in China's exploration of space" and incorporates lots of new technology, Xinhua reported Wu Zhijian, a spokesman with the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, as saying.

But one unnamed US scientist recently told the magazine Aerospace America: "Except for a ground-penetrating radar on the rover, none of many science instruments on the lander/rover are expected to discover much new on the Moon."

The launch comes at a time when the Asian superpower is asserting itself in other areas, such as control of airspace over the East China Sea. China considers its space programme a symbol of its rising global stature and technological advancement, as well as of the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once impoverished nation.

Future lunar launches planned by China include a mission to bring back samples of lunar soil to Earth. But officials have also stated an ambitious goal of sending humans to the Moon, in what could be the first manned lunar missions since the US Apollo programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

Prof Ouyang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also highlighted the potential for exploiting the Moon's environment and natural resources. With only a very thin atmosphere, solar panels would operate far more efficiently, he believes, and a "belt" of them could "support the whole world".

He also pointed out the potential riches in terms of minerals and metals, which could eventually be mined. "The Moon is full of resources - mainly rare earth elements, titanium, and uranium, which the Earth is really short of, and these resources can be used without limitation."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25178299
 
China's Jade Rabbit rover set for moon landing today
Heather Saul Saturday 14 December 2013

China is today preparing to land its Jade Rabbit rover on the moon, in the first soft landing of a rover in nearly four decades today, the latest step in the country's ambitious space programme.

The Chang'e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, is scheduled to touch down at 9.40pm local time (1.40pm GMT), state media has reported.

The lander carries the moon rover called Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit” which was launched onboard the Chang'e 3 rocket on 1 December. After landing, the rover is slated to separate from the Chang'e and begin a three-month scientific exploration, looking for natural resources.

Its name was chosen in an online poll where 3.4 million people voted. The 120kg (260lb) rover can travel at 200m per hour and climb slopes at up to 20 degrees, according to media reports.

If the ambitious operation is successful, China will become the third nation to carry out a lunar soft landing after the United States and the former Soviet Union. The last one was in 1976.

A soft landing protects the craft and the equipment it carries from sustaining any damage. An earlier Chinese craft orbited and collected data before intentionally crash-landing on the moon.

The Chang'e mission blasted off from south-west China on 2 December on a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

China Central Television (CCT) will broadcast live footage of the landing and millions of people are expected to be watching the operation as it is carried out later today. CCT said the Chang'e will come to a stop from a speed of 1.7km (1.06 miles) per second during the sensitive landing process, which will last more than 10 minutes.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon.

China's military-backed space programme has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in space technology and experience.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 04855.html
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25356603
China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon

By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website
Moon The lander has touched down on a flat plain known as Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows


China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, a major step in its programme of space exploration.

On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module underwent a powered descent, using thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon in 37 years.

Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".

The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.

The mission launched on a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket on 1 December from Xichang in the country's south.

China's space mission team celebrate after the landing

The Chang'e-3 craft began its descent just after 1300 GMT (2100 Beijing time), with state television showing pictures of the moon's surface as the lander touched down.

Staff at mission control in Beijing were shown clapping and celebrating after confirmation came through. The official Xinhua news service reported that the spacecraft reached the surface at 1312 GMT after hovering above the surface for several minutes finding an appropriate place to land.

The probe's soft-landing was the most difficult task during the mission, Wu Weiren, the lunar programme's chief designer, told Xinhua.

It is the third robotic rover mission to land on the lunar surface, but the Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.

China is saying: 'We are doing something that only two other countries have done before - the US and the Soviet Union”

"It's still a significant technological challenge to land on another world," said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane's Space Systems and Industry told the AP news agency.

"You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don't end up in a crater on top of a large rock."

According to translated documents, the landing module was to actively reduce its speed at about 15km from the Moon's surface.

When it reached a distance of 100m from the surface, the craft fired thrusters to slow its descent.

At a distance of 4m, the lander switched off the thrusters and fell to the lunar surface.

The Jade Rabbit was expected to be deployed several hours after touchdown, driving down a ramp lowered by the landing module.
Infographic

Reports suggest the lander and rover will photograph each other at some point on Sunday.

According to Chinese space scientists, the mission is designed to test new technologies, gather scientific data and build intellectual expertise.

"China's lunar program is an important component of mankind's activities to explore [the] peaceful use of space," said Sun Huixian, a space engineer with the Chinese lunar programme.

The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour.


No humans have set foot on the lunar surface since America's Apollo missions ended in 1972

Its name - chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters - derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e.

The rover and lander are powered by solar panels but some sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs), containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night.

Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington DC, said China's space programme was a good fit with China's concept of "comprehensive national power". This might be described as a measure of a state's all-round capabilities.

Space exploration was, he told BBC News, "a reflection of your economic power, because you need spare resources to have a space programme. It clearly has military implications because so much space technology is dual use".

He added: "It reflects your scientific and technological capabilities, it supports your diplomacy by making you appear strong.

"China is saying: 'We are doing something that only two other countries have done before - the US and the Soviet Union."

The Chang'e-3 mission launches from Xichang, south China

Mr Cheng explained that the mission would also advertise the country as a destination for commercial space launches, as well as providing an opportunity to test China's deep-space tracking and communications.

"The rover will reportedly be under Earth control at various points of its manoeuvres on the lunar surface," Mr Cheng wrote in a blog post.

"Such a space observation and tracking system has implications not only for space exploration but for national security, as it can be used to maintain space surveillance, keeping watch over Chinese and other nations' space assets."

China has been methodically and patiently building up the key elements needed for an advanced space programme - from launchers to manned missions in Earth orbit to unmanned planetary craft - and it is investing heavily.

Moon The Jade Rabbit, seen in this artist's impression, is the first wheeled vehicle on the Moon since the 1970s

"China wants to go to the Moon for geostrategic reasons and domestic legitimacy," Prof Joan Johnson-Freese, of the US Naval War College in Rhode Island, told the AFP news agency.

"With the US exploration moribund at best, that opens a window for China to be perceived as the global technology leader - though the US still has more, and more advanced, assets in space."

The lander's target is Sinus Iridum (Latin for Bay of Rainbows) a flat volcanic plain thought to be relatively clear of large rocks. It is part of a larger feature known as Mare Imbrium that forms the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".

After this, a mission to bring samples of lunar soil back to Earth is planned for 2017. And this may set the stage for further robotic missions, and - perhaps - a crewed lunar mission in the 2020s.

"[Chang'e-3] is probably laying some of the groundwork for a manned mission," said Mr Cheng.
 
There'll be a conspiracy theory along in a minute, claiming that the landing was hoaxed! ;)
 
rynner2 said:
There'll be a conspiracy theory along in a minute, claiming that the landing was hoaxed! ;)

Those shadows aren't convincing and look at the landing: obviously a breeze blowing.
 
China's Jade Rabbit rover rolls on to Moon's surface
By Paul Rincon, Science editor, BBC News website

China's Jade Rabbit robot rover has driven off its landing module and on to the Moon's surface.
The robotic vehicle rolled down a ramp lowered by the lander and on to the volcanic plain known as Sinus Iridum.

Earlier on Saturday, the landing module containing the rover fired its thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976.
The touchdown in the Moon's northern hemisphere marks the latest step in China's ambitious space programme.
The lander will operate there for a year, while the rover is expected to work for some three months.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25384057
 
'Remarkable' rocks within reach of Jade Rabbit rover

Some of the youngest lava flows on the Moon are within reach of China's Jade Rabbit rover, says a leading US lunar scientist.
The Chang'e-3 mission touched down on Saturday at the eastern edge of its designated landing box.
Dr Paul Spudis said the landing area was more interesting than its original destination and could fill in gaps in our knowledge of lunar history.

Meanwhile, officials have said that the rover's instruments are now working.
Five of the eight pieces of scientific equipment on Chang'e-3 had begun their observations, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The telescopes and cameras are producing clear images, Zou Yongliao, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference.
The lander and rover photographed each other on Sunday evening.

The Chinese craft performed the first "soft" landing (non-crash landing) on the Moon since 1976. And Jade Rabbit, or Yutu, is the first rover mission since the Soviet Union's Lunokhod-2 trundled through the grey soil 40 years ago.

A touch down had been planned in the Moon's Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows). But the spacecraft actually landed on the northern edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) - visible on Earth as the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".

In a blog entry for the Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine, Dr Spudis, from the Lunar and Planetary Insitute in Houston, said: "Whether by design or fortuitous accident, this site is actually more interesting geologically than the spacecraft's original destination."
Chang'e 3 landed at the extreme northern end of a sequence of lava flows, which are estimated - by counting the number of impact craters on them - to be very young in lunar terms.

Dr Spudis said two major terrain types dominated lunar geology: the bright rugged highlands dating from the Moon's formation 4.5 billion years ago, and the younger "maria", dark volcanic plains made up of iron-rich lava flows.
The lavas began to erupt around 3.9 billion years ago, but it is unclear when this volcanic activity ended. The Mare Imbrium lavas appear to be between one and 2.5 billion years old, making them much younger than any of the rock samples returned from the Moon thus far.

Dr Spudis said the Imbrium lavas were "not only remarkable for their physical properties but are also compositionally interesting".
"Because the rover will examine several different individual areas during its traverse, we will obtain new "ground truth" data to better understand the meaning of data obtained remotely from orbit," he explained.
"At a minimum, Yutu will examine the composition of the surface lava flow."

Data gathered from orbit show the lavas to be high in the metal titanium. Volcanic flows to the north of the landing site seem to have a lower titanium content and appear to underlie the ones that Chang'e-3 sits on.
But some of these underlying rocks may have been excavated by impacts, allowing Jade Rabbit to look for them among the debris around craters.

"With data from the rover, we might be able to reconstruct the volcanic stratigraphy of this region of the Moon," said Dr Spudis.
"The Chang'e-3 lander and Yutu rover can provide many answers to our questions regarding the geological history of this region of the Moon and about lunar history in general."

China said it would launch Chang'e-5, a mission to return samples of rock and soil from the Moon, in 2017.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25402455
 
China celebrates successful Moon probe
Beijing commemorates return of its 'Little Flyer' lunar orbiter but insists it is not seeking a 'space race' with India
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai
9:20AM GMT 01 Nov 2014

China has taken one more step in its ambitious plans to become a global space power by completing the successful re-entry and landing of an unmanned space probe.
The “Xiaofei” or "Little Flyer" lunar orbiter began re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere at 6.13am on Saturday and subsequently landed in Inner Mongolia, state media reported.

The probe was launched eight days ago and travelled more than 520,000 miles during its mission around the Moon.
The mission to the Moon was “another step forward for China's ambition that could eventually land a Chinese citizen there,” Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said. It was “the world's first mission to the Moon and back for some 40 years”.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... probe.html
 
Private plan to send Moon rover to Apollo 17 site
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_92730860_mediaitem92730859.jpg
Image copyrightNASA
Image captionApollo 17 was Nasa's last crewed mission to the Moon
A proposed private space mission is planning to visit Apollo 17's landing site on the Moon.

A German team wants to land a pair of rovers on the lunar surface to inspect the buggy left behind in 1972 on the last crewed mission to the Moon.

The group, called PT Scientists, is one of 16 teams vying for the $30m Google Lunar X-Prize.

It has signed a deal with launch broker Spaceflight Inc. to secure a ride on a commercial launcher.

_92776952_a1612425_large.jpg
Image copyrightAUDI
Image captionThe rovers should be able to transmit high-definition video from the lunar surface
The XPrize will award the first privately funded teams to land a robot on the Moon that travels more than 500 metres (1,640 ft) and transmits back high-definition images and video.

Spaceflight Inc will place the mission with a commercial launcher, but it is not yet known which one.

The PT Scientists team has been working with German car manufacturer Audi on the solar-powered rovers, which will be capable of sending back high-definition video.

The rovers are expected to touch down 3-5km from the Apollo 17 landing site in the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley. It will then drive to within 200m of the lunar rover and inspect it remotely.

Nasa guidelines stipulate that missions should land at least 2km away from US space agency heritage sites and not approach closer than 200m in order to avoid the risk of damage to these historic locations.

The rover's cameras should be able to assess the condition of the Apollo buggy and how it has fared in the Moon's harsh environment - including damage from micro-meteorites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38163327
 
Apollo II didn't have a Rover vehicle, which seems to be the centre of interest of this project.
 
Correct.
I fear once this sort of contact is under way the landing sites will be pillaged and all components e-bayed before you can say Michael Collins.
 
Correct.
I fear once this sort of contact is under way the landing sites will be pillaged and all components e-bayed before you can say Michael Collins.
...and said components will thereafter appear as items on 'Flog it!' or 'Bargain Hunt'! :D
 
China's Chang'e-4 lunar rover has discovered an unusually colored, 'gel-like' substance during its exploration activities on the far side of the moon.

The mission's rover, Yutu-2, stumbled on that surprise during lunar day 8. The discovery prompted scientists on the mission to postpone other driving plans for the rover, and instead focus its instruments on trying to figure out what the strange material is.

GsexE8dZJkeZPCadNGHRJX-650-80.jpg


Yutu-2 found a strangely-colored substance in a crater on the far side of the moon.

So far, mission scientists haven't offered any indication as to the nature of the colored substance and have said only that it is "gel-like" and has an "unusual color." One possible explanation, outside researchers suggested, is that the substance is melt glass created from meteorites striking the surface of the moon.

https://www.space.com/china-far-side-moon-rover-strange-substance.html

maximus otter
 
The melt glass hypothesis makes the most sense, considering the dark side is more heavily bombarded than the visible side.

I'm still a bit confused as to what the allusion to "gel-like" is supposed to mean. My guess is that it means translucent with embedded bits or apparent bubbles.
 
Not a clear photo. I can't see anything remotely 'gel-like'.
 
Question: how can they tell it's 'strangely coloured' if they can only take black and white photos? Or, if they can take coloured photos, why don't they show us?
 
Question: how can they tell it's 'strangely coloured' if they can only take black and white photos? Or, if they can take coloured photos, why don't they show us?

The same thing occurred to me. Here's the explanation from the Space.com article cited above:

With the help of obstacle-avoidance cameras, Yutu-2 carefully approached the crater and then targeted the unusually colored material and its surroundings. The rover examined both areas with its Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS), which detects light that is scattered or reflected off materials to reveal their makeup.

The data from the spectrometer would indicate what visible light color is being reflected off the mystery substance, even though the B&W images can't portray it.
 
This is coming out of the state-run media in China and there are no confirming details. So, I'm a bit skeptical that this is "gel" as claimed (which makes me think of "star jelly/pwdre ser) and would guess it's more of an overreach for publicity to get people to follow the mission.
 
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