CHINA’S MISSIONS

Relevance: Prelims: Science and Technology

CHANG’E-4 MISSION

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

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

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

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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