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It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all!
It orbits the Moon. Meaning both "sides."
China has a probe in orbit on the far side of the moon.
It orbits the Moon. Meaning both "sides."
Bolding is mine.
In May, China launched the Chang’e 4 lunar relay satellite on an unusual trajectory: a lunar swing-by that pulled the satellite in a wide arc before settling it into a “parking orbit” at Lagrangian 2 on the moon’s far side.
The Chinese government has said the mission is part of a four-stage plan to build a moon base. “We hope to start the construction of the [robot-manned] lunar base around 2025 and realize a manned landing on the moon around 2030,” Zhao Xiaojin of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group told Xinhuanet in March.
But Gossel said putting a satellite at L2 could also enable Chinese attack spacecraft to zoom past the moon — about a quarter-million miles away — and then sneak up on critical U.S. intelligence and communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit, just 28,300 miles up — as occurred in the 2011 apocalypse-themed film “Melancholia.”
L2 also lies a million miles from Earth, but in the opposite direction of the sun. At this point, with the Earth, moon and sun behind it, a spacecraft can get a clear view of deep space. NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is currently at this spot measuring the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang. The James Webb Space Telescope will move into this region in 2018.
The third Lagrange point, L3, lies behind the sun, opposite Earth's orbit. For now, science has not found a use for this spot, although science fiction has.
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: LookingAtMars
But it's not a probe. So there.
(3) : a device used to penetrate or send back information especially from outer space or a celestial body
any of various testing devices or substances: such as...
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: LookingAtMars
any of various testing devices or substances: such as...
It is not a testing device or substance. It's a communications relay. It simply relays information from the testing device on the surface.
So there.
: any of various testing devices or substances: such as
(1) : a pointed metal tip for making electrical contact with a circuit element being checked
(2) : a usually small object that is inserted into something so as to test conditions at a given point
(3) : a device used to penetrate or send back information especially from outer space or a celestial body
(4) : a device (such as an ultrasound generator) or a substance (such as radioactively labeled DNA) used to obtain specific information for diagnostic or experimental purposes