China's Moon Probe intentionally crashed into the moon

Well, the Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter has finally "completed" its mission. And, quite a mission it was.

We saw one picture in November 2007 which was originally suspected to be a duplicate from the Clementine mission, but later determined to be an error in pasting sections of the photo together. No problem... rookie error

First Photo

A second photo was released in December of 2007 of the moon's polar regions...

Second Photo

No other photos were released from this mission as far as I know... just two photos for the entire mission until the completion announced yesterday. No photos in 2008 at all.

Now, we hear that the orbiter was crashed intentionally onto the surface of the moon.

Source

China's first moon probe Chang'e 1 intentionally crashed into the lunar surface on Sunday after more than year of science observations, according to state media reports.

The Chang'e 1 orbiter fired its engines to leave lunar orbit Sunday afternoon and ultimately slammed into the moon's southern region at 4:13 p.m. Beijing Time (0813 GMT), China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

And that they have photographically mapped the ENTIRE lunar surface

lunar surface map

Wow!. Talk about sand-bagging. These guys are the best!!!

I'd sure like to see some of the photos between the two released in 2007 and the mapping of the entire lunar surface

That would be sweet to see...to bad it isn't showing anything...unless the surface of the Moon likes like a Box with a Red X in it...



[edit on 3/4/2009 by Hx3_1963]

Of course it crashed. There was a little tag underneath the probe that said "Made In China".

IRM

reply to post by InfaRedMan




NO offence to Chinise people! but lol!

by the way:
The lounar map in the link provided doesn show...
i was inrerested.

Was that a chinise ....link?

guess it wasn't "Top Rack Dishwasher Safe"?
or was washed in warm water instead of cold?

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
Of course it crashed. There was a little tag underneath the probe that said "Made In China".

IRM

Hehehe nice one, but thinking about that US would proberly crash to, since all the goods in US are "Made in China"... ohhhh wait!!! US is crashing...


Best regards.

Loke

[edit on 4-3-2009 by Loke.]

Just one stupid question and you can all flame me for my naiveness...

Why would anyone, much less the Chinese deliberately crash a multi-million dollar probe into the side of a large orbiting body. Are they that confident in themselves that they think that they can get someone up there to retrieve the wreckage before some alien comes down and eats it?

I swear I will never understand the actions that some governments take to protect their supposed secrets.

reply to post by vkey08


In the past, probes have been crashed into the moon for the purpose of using earth based scopes to detect the chemical composition of any plume that the crash may kick up (in one case, an amateur even caught an image of the impact flash). Plus the incredible velocity of impact vaporizes the probe completely, erasing any chance of contamination.

Originally posted by ngchunter
reply to post by vkey08

 

In the past, probes have been crashed into the moon for the purpose of using earth based scopes to detect the chemical composition of any plume that the crash may kick up (in one case, an amateur even caught an image of the impact flash). Plus the incredible velocity of impact vaporizes the probe completely, erasing any chance of contamination.

I did not know that.

That explains the crashing intentionally and it does make sense, thank you

Why?

Leaving it in orbit might give gravity information.

It will crash in time or will it?

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
Leaving it in orbit might give gravity information.

Well crashing it gives you plenty of information as well. Getting good density or gravity information from the probe's orbit requires equally good telemetry data, which can only last as long as the probe's systems, power, and fuel are designed to last. If you're at the end of the mission you may as well do a controlled crash so you know where to look for a plume.

For some reason, my original link to the lunar map broke.

Here's another try...

lunar map

If that doesn't work, go to the article and the map is on the right hand side of the page

www.space.com...



It is my opinion that Chang'e 1 crashed onto the lunar surface about a year ago, shortly after the first couple of pictures. If they had good stuff to show in 2008, I think they certainly would have. They have never been shy in the past. But there was nothing at all in 2008.

I'm still trying to figure out where they bought the map

note to self...

No one cares that the Chinese space program is constantly telling lies to the world.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


Just pointing out FWIW, that the crash was supposedly

... a dry run for a potential moon landing....

(From the previous link)

China's proposed second 'phase' will be a soft landing by 2013 and recoverable rovers by 2017.

Your second link doesn't seem to be working either , Z' .

I know this one works.

images.spaceref.com...

Seems to be the entire moon.

Are you looking for individual high rez close ups ?

Thanks for the new link jbird. I don't know why the one I posted keeps failing. Oh, well, yours is a better pic anyway.

Originally posted by Jbird

Are you looking for individual high rez close ups ?

Precisely... I was hoping to see more photos like the first one CNSA released so I could compare with old NASA mission photos. It doesn't appear that was a mission goal, though. Gotta wait for LRO I guess.