Following a trio of braking maneuvers, China’s Chang’E-2 orbiter is circling the Moon in a 100 kilometer by 100 kilometer orbit.
The Moon probe has been transmitting science data to two ground stations back here on Earth, in Beijing and Yunnan Province. In the last few days, a high-speed data link has been tested – attaining a transmission speed which is four times that of China’s first Moon orbiter, Chang’E-1.
That high-speed data link will be used in China’s future lunar exploration plans that include deploying a lunar rover and returning to Earth specimens of the Moon.
According to experts at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), the fate of Chang’E-2 at the end of its six month mission has yet to be determined.
The spacecraft has enough fuel to fly back to Earth, a possibility under consideration. At mission’s end the probe could also be de-orbited to impact the Moon or perhaps sent into deep space to further evaluate spacecraft hardware.
A decision on what Chinese scientists will do once Chang’e-2’s data-gathering is over will depend on overall health of the spacecraft at that time.
Sea of Rainbows
One scientific objective of the lunar orbiter is to gather high-resolution imagery of future robotic landing sites – particularly the Sea of Rainbows, a site that will be visited by a Chang’e 3 lander before 2013, according to Chinese space officials.
Chang’e-2 was rocketed to the Moon from southwest China on October 1st.
Also circling the Moon is NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The first images from the U.S. spacecraft were released in early July of 2009. LRO continues to churn out impressive data sets, making use of an array of scientific gear.
NASA’s LRO has imaged Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) enabling the production of a wide angle camera topographic map of the area.
LRO shows the area to be very flat and nearly featureless, says Mark Robinson Principal Investigator of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. “However as the LROC Narrow Angle Camera keeps showing us, there are no featureless spots on the Moon…everywhere on the Moon is fascinating!”
By Leonard David