CHINA’S MISSIONS

Relevance: Prelims: Science and Technology

CHANG’E-4 MISSION

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China launched Chang’e-4, a first probe ever to explore them dark side of the Moon.

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

  • Hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.
  • The dark side’s terrain is rugged with a multitude of impact craters
  • Both sides of the Moon experience two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of night; the far side is sometimes called the “dark side of the Moon”, meaning unseen rather than lacking light.

ABOUT THE MISSION

  • The Chang’e-4 has entered a planned orbit “to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon”.
  • Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the Moon, but none has landed on it.
  • Chang’e 4 is the fourth mission in the country’s lunar mission series which is being named after the Chinese moon goddess.

OBJECTIVES OF CHANG’E-4

  • low-frequency radio astronomical observation,
  • surveying the terrain and landforms,
  • detecting the mineral composition, and
  • measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to

study the environment on the far side of the moon.

BEIDOU

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China has added new satellites to its BeiDou Constellation. BeiDou is the Navigation Satellite System of China

FACTS

  • China is currently developing the 3rd generation of BeiDou.
  • It has already launched BeiDou-1 and BeiDou-2.
  • BeiDou-1 and BeiDou-2 were regional in nature.
  • BeiDou-3 would have global coverage
  • It would be more accurate than US based Global

Positioning System (GPS)

  • BeiDou-3 would have a constellation of 35 satellites.

TIANGONG-1

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Tiangong-1, which means “celestial place-1”, was the china’s first prototype space station and it orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018.

EXPLAINED

  • The space station acted as a manned laboratory and experimental test bed for the Chinese space program.
  • The ground station lost control over the space station and

Tiangong-1 re-entered earth’s atmosphere and was destroyed.

GAOFEN 11

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China has launched an optical remote sensing satellite as part of her China High-Resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS).

EXPLAINED

  • Gaofen-11 satellite will be utilized for land survey, urban planning, road network design, agriculture and disaster relief.
  • The data provided by the Gaofen 11 will be used for China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative as well.
  • Under the Gaofen project China has planned to launch seven high definition observation satellites and these satellites will circle earth at low orbits (600 to 700 kms).

YUTU-2

IN NEWS

China has named the lunar rover, successfully deployed to carry out a string of experiments on the far side of the moon, as ‘Yutu-2’. It is part of China’s Change 3 mission to moon.

EXPLAINED

  • China’s lunar probe is part of its ‘Made in China-2025’ project, which focuses on advanced technology, including space applications.
  • The rover has been programmed to launch ground penetration radar that would help map the moon’s inner structures.
  • It would also analyse soil and rock samples for minerals, apart from activating a radio telescope to search for possible signals from deep space.
  • It follows the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System — China’s homegrown Global Positioning System that started worldwide service.
  • It is said that China is considering mining there for helium-3, a rare substance on earth that can be used as a fuel in nuclear fusion power generation.

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