William Atkins
Monday, 02 March 2009 19:39
Science -
Space
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On Sunday, March 1, 2009, the Chinese Chang'e 1 space probe ended a 16-month mission when ground controllers remotely performed a maneuver to direct it toward the lunar surface. They were successful and the probe made a controlled crash into the Moon. Wham! Boom! Ting!
Chinese ground controllers at two observation and control stations in Qingdao (in eastern China) and Kashgar (in northwesern China) transmitted directions at 3:36 p.m. Beijing time Sunday, March 1.
The commands directed the 2,350-kilogram
Chang’e 1 satellite to start reducing its orbital speed (decelerating) around the Moon.
Such an action caused the satellite, China’s first lunar probe, to reduce the altitude of its orbit above the lunar surface.
Just over thirty minutes later, at 4:13 p.m. local Beijing time (0813 Greenwich Mean Time [GMT]), the satellite hit the lunar surface as it was directed to do.
China Daily reported on March 2, 2009, that sources within the Chinese State Administration of craft had completed its mission of 494 days (approximately sixteen months) in space.
Part of its mission, which was performed by eight surveying instruments, was to produce a comprehensive three-dimensional map of the lunar surface.
That part of the mission was completed in November 2007.
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