Jan 6, 2012
| By Bradley Perrett [email protected] BEIJING |
| Testing has proved the effectiveness of crucial landing technology for China's third lunar exploration mission, due to be launched in 2013, says national space contractor CAST. The mission, to be called Chang'e 3, is aimed at making advances in a wide range of technologies, CAST says. It lists them as soft landing, surveying the surface by rover, "survival on the lunar surface," communications for long-distance monitoring and control, and direct injection into a lunar transfer orbit. The landing systems that have lately completed their tests have functions such as braking and obstacle avoidance, the manufacturer says. The Chang'e 2 spacecraft, built as a spare for the pioneering Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter but sent on its own mission to the Moon in 2010, is now at the second Lagrangian point conducting observations. CAST's full name is China Science Aerospace & Technology Corp. It has separate units that build spacecraft and rockets. Key Chinese Lunar Landing System Good | AVIATION WEEK |
