CHINA on the Moon/La CHINE sur la Lune
La sonde chinoise Chang’e 4 s’est posée sur la face cachée de la Lune.
China lunar rover, Chang’e 4, successfully touches down on far side of the moon
C’est historique. La sonde Chang’e 4, lancée par la Chine le 7 décembre, s’est posée(sans encombre à 10h26 heure de Pékin a rapporté l’agence Chine nouvelle) sur la face cachée de la Lune ce jeudi 3 janvier. Une grande première qui pourrait nous en apprendre beaucoup sur l’astre de nuit, mais aussi sur l’espace en général. Il s’agit du premier alunissage jamais réalisé sur cette face de notre satellite(La Lune). Contrairement à la face de la Lune la plus proche de la Terre, qui est toujours tournée vers notre planète, aucune sonde ni aucun module d’exploration n’avait encore jamais touché le sol de l’autre côté.
C’est la deuxième fois que la Chine envoie un engin explorer la surface lunaire après le Yutu (Lapin de jade) en 2013, qui est resté actif pendant 31 mois. Pékin prévoit déjà de lancer l’an prochain un Chang’e-5 pour recueillir des échantillons et les ramener sur Terre.
China’s Chang’e 4 lunar spacecraft touched down on the far side of the moon at 10.26am Hong Kong time on January 3, 2019. The historic landing sets the stage for exploration of a lunar region never before studied at close range.
In an historic first, China has successfully landed(China’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe soft-landed in the moon’s Antarctic-Aitken Basin and sent back the world’s close-up image from the dark side of the moon.) a rover on the far side of the moon, Chinese state media announced Thursday, a huge milestone for the nation as it attempts to position itself as a leading space power. The far side of the moon is the hemisphere that never faces earth, due to the moon’s rotation. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the “dark side of the moon,” even though it receives just as much sunlight as its earth-facing side.
China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) landed the craft, officially named Chang’e 4, at 10:26 am Beijing time on Thursday, in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon’s largest and oldest impact crater, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. The lunar craft lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province on December 8, entering the moon’s orbit four days later.
China’s Chang’e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the moon’s uncharted side never visible from Earth. The probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at the preselected landing area on the far side of the moon at 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time (0226 GMT), the China National Space Administration announced. (Xinhua)
It made its final descent from an elliptical orbit 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) above the moon’s surface, making a “smooth” and “precise” landing, according to the general designer of Chang’e 4, Sun Zezhou, who added the probe pulled off a “bulls-eye.”
The success of the mission represents a landmark in human space exploration. The area where the probe has landed faces away from earth, meaning it is free from radio frequencies. As a result, it is not possible for a lunar rover to communicate directly with ground control. To overcome this hurdle, China launched a dedicated satellite orbiting the moon earlier this year that will be able to relay information from the rover to earth.