The spacecraft is expected to enter orbit about the Moon on November 15, 2007. For its one-year scientific mission, the Change’e 1 will carry a 280-pound (125-kilogram) scientific payload that includes eight primary instruments. Some of them include charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera, x-ray and gamma spectrometers, high-energy solar particle detector, low-energy ion detector, laser altimeter, and microwave detector to provide various types of images of the surface composition and the regions above and below it.

Chang’e 1 is part of the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP). The first phase is called “Milestone 1: Orbiting (Chang’e 1). The Chinese lunar orbiter will be launched from a Long March 3A rocket. The name “Chang’e” is taken from a popular Chinese fairly tale in which the goddess (Chang’e) lives on the Moon.

Its trajectory is expected to take it three times around the Earth. At perigee (its nearest spot in its orbit to the Earth) a burn will take place, on each orbit, to make its apogee (its furthest point from Earth) a larger distance from the Earth. Another burn will place it in orbit about the Moon. Three more burns will place the Chang'e 1 spacecraft in a circular orbit about the Moon. It is expected to circle the Moon in a polar orbit somewhere between 62 and 124 miles (100 and 200 kilometers) above the lunar surface.

The NASA site for Chang’e 1 is: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=CHANGE1.

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China  Long March  Moon  Research  Science  William Atkins