China's Jade Rabbit Rover May Be Doomed On The Moon

reply to post by SayonaraJupiter


Obviously, it has been pointed out about these "keep out zones" and them being nothing more than a request by NASA to try not to ruin their stuff - far less nefarious than what you're suggesting.

Secondly, the bit about National Parks was indeed suggested by two crackpot Congress persons and it has been laughed at since being brought up because there are so many things wrong with the Bill.

Thirdly, my choice of language, ie "superlaser" and "blasted" was just to inject some humour, much like my "lunacy" comment at the end. Clearly you missed this, but don't attach to much significance to them. Either way, the laser on board the spacecraft is not very powerful, with a peak power of 0.07mW. You'd have a hard time melting ice with that, much less doing any damage to another spacecraft.

reply to post by stumason

Either way, the laser on board the spacecraft is not very powerful, with a peak power of 0.07mW. You'd have a hard time melting ice with that, much less doing any damage to another spacecraft.

Which spacecraft, LRO or LADEE, are you saying has a .07mW laser? Both of those space craft are equipped with more than one laser. They both have tracking lasers and instrument lasers, but the LADEE also has the communications laser array (experimental) and it's significantly higher powered than .07mW.

The Lunar Lasercom Space Terminal is mounted on the LADEE spacecraft’s payload module and consists of an optical module, a modem module, and an electronics module. The system demands about 137 Watts of power during operation and weighs about 32 Kilograms.

LLCD Operations
Due to its high power demand, the Lasercom Terminal on LADEE will only be used during spacecraft commissioning after arriving in lunar orbit. LLCD is expected to accumulate about 16 hours of operations being used for a max of 15 minutes per orbital pass due to power limitations. Also, the system can only be used when the White Sands Ground Station or the ESA station is in view, reducing the amount of lasercom sessions to about 5 per day.

Hmmm. White Sands? They do weapons tests out there, don't they?

Thirdly, my choice of language, ie "superlaser" and "blasted" was just to inject some humour, much like my "lunacy" comment at the end.

No harm done then! I guess we will all have to wait to see if 'Yutu" can come out of it's hibernation... there is nothing else we can do because we are all just 'casual observers' to what China is really doing on the moon...

I would laugh if china landed where the americans first landed and found that the americans never reached the moon