The National Space Administration of China released a new set of photographs from their recent moon landing. All the images were captured by the cameras on the Chang’e 3 lander, named after the goddess of the Moon in Chinese mythology, and Yutu rover, a few years ago. China became the third country in the world after landing on the lunar surface and the country achieved this after joining the the ranks of Russia and the United States in December 2013. However, the high definition and never-seen-before images are a cynosure of all eyes.
Interestingly, once can download the pictures after creating a user account on China’s Science and Application Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration website. The process is slightly complicated if the user is accessing it from outside of the country.
The key role of Chang’e 3 mission was to demonstrate the technologies required for a soft moon landing and rover exploration and it was equipped with a telescope and instruments to perform geologic analysis of the surface.
After reaching the surface, the 1,200 kg Chang’e lander deployed the 140 kg Yutu rover, equipped with a radar instrument, 6 wheels and x-ray, visible and near-infrared spectrometers. According to geologic analysis of Yutu,the lunar surface is less homogeneous than originally thought and it provided the mission capability of sending and receiving Earth transmissions.
At present, the Yutu lander is no longer operational and Chang’e 4, the Country’s follow-up mission is slated for a launch in 2018. If everything falls in place, China will become the first nation to land a probe on the lunar far side.
