67
votes
Why did the Chinese send flies and plants to the far side of the moon?
Right now, almost 100% of existing research on growth in gravity fields is basically at 0g (ISS/Mir/Skylab/whatever) or 1g.
There are a lot of questions of what happens at 1/6g or 2/3g? No good ...
- 78.9k
44
votes
Accepted
How did humans grow plants on the Moon despite the harsh conditions?
While it's still cool, it's not as tricky as it may sound at first:
The seeds, including water, are stored in a sealed, heated and shielded container. The container also includes fruit flies and ...
- 12.5k
32
votes
Accepted
Why did China land a rover on the moon?
The mission objectives are:
The main scientific objective of CE-4 is to provide scientific data
for lunar far side research, including: 1) general spatial
environmental study of lunar far side；...
- 174k
28
votes
Is it ethical for Chang'e-4 to bring an entire ecosystem to the moon?
tl;dr: There are "96 bags of poop, pee, and puke" on the Moon already!
The bags of waste are ecosystems for sure, but like the ones you mentioned, they are not going to remain alive for very ...
- 149k
13
votes
Why did China land a rover on the moon?
Why did China land a rover on the moon? (Chang'e-3)
Hover cursor above to reveal answer.
(Hint: analogous to Why did the chicken cross the road?)
But seriously folks, here is a one hour English ...
- 149k
12
votes
Is it ethical for Chang'e-4 to bring an entire ecosystem to the moon?
According to Jainism and some forms of Buddhism, the concept of Ahisma tell us that it not ethical to bring an ecosystem of living creatures to an environment that will almost assuredly kill them as a ...
- 237
12
votes
Actual mass of Chang'e 5 samples
The given value (2kg) is approximate and won't be known exactly until the container is recovered. Knowing the typical composition (including density) of Moon rocks and the volume of the container, one ...
- 54.3k
11
votes
Why did the Chinese send flies and plants to the far side of the moon?
They did it for propaganda or pride mostly. What sprouted quickly died because it froze. They did not have a method to protect the biosphere from the temperature swings. This is what they expected ...
- 111
11
votes
Accepted
When Chang'e-3 landed on the moon, did LADEE notice?
It did perform the observations, but nothing was detected. Here is an article that covers this
Surprisingly, the LADEE science teams' preliminary evaluation of the
data has not revealed any ...
- 1,320
11
votes
Accepted
How did Chang'e-4 hover, rotate, and then descend so gracefully? (Video)
The view is horizontal as the spacecraft seems to stop and hover over the chosen site, and then the view pitches forward until it is looking straight down.
According to the graph linked by @...
- 165k
10
votes
Is it ethical for Chang'e-4 to bring an entire ecosystem to the moon?
Humans have already been to the Moon, and pretty much verified it is completely sterile. It isn't really an issue bringing plants to the Moon, it couldn't contaminate anything, as there is nothing ...
- 121k
7
votes
Accepted
How many docking operations have taken place beyond GEO?
I don't think there are any more beyond those you listed.
There would be three reasons to perform a docking:
Demonstrate capability
Bringing something back
Assembling a larger structure
As no ...
7
votes
Accepted
Where is that lunar-grown cotton seed sprout?
The announcement was first made by the vice principle of Chongqing University (the primary designer of the growth module) on the 15th of January and you can find the original article summary from ...
- 276
6
votes
Accepted
Will Chang'e-4 really take a month to "get to the Moon"? With what trajectory?
According to Spaceflight Now (emphasis mine):
Chang’e 4 is expected to enter lunar orbit Tuesday [Dec 11 2018] after a series of course-correction maneuvers, then use braking rockets to descend to ...
- 9,904
5
votes
Accepted
Where/how do I view the Chang'e 2 lunar map?
Here's the link: http://moon.bao.ac.cn/searchOrder_dataSearch.search
You may need to create an account.
Scientific Data -> Search -> find your data and download.
The website is extremely slow, ...
- 166
5
votes
Will Chang'e-4 really take a month to "get to the Moon"? With what trajectory?
I don't know the exact path, but I do know there's a path to the moon that takes about a month. The reason it's used is that it takes less energy.
The Apollo missions got there in three days but ...
- 11.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What was the first piece of wood to reach the far side of the Moon? Or the first spacecraft?
Due to several requests (1, 2), I will answer my own question.
I have found the following...
Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE blogpost Farside Science: The Saga of Ranger 4’s Moon Journey
There’s ...
- 149k
5
votes
Accepted
Why is Queqiao's dish antenna so big? (Chang'e-4 relay satellite) Largest ever on/near the Moon?
Several factors contribute to needing a large antenna:
it is used to communicate with the rover, which weighs only 100 kg so can't carry a large dish
it'll be in orbit at the Earth-Moon L2 ...
- 123k
5
votes
How many docking operations have taken place beyond GEO?
This answers the question as originally asked:
How many docking operations have taken place beyond Earth orbit?
Zero. All of the examples listed took place in Earth orbit. The moon orbits the Earth, ...
- 4,575
5
votes
Accepted
Did the US hide 4179 Toutatis orbital data after China announced intentions of going there?
Just checked from the JPL Horizons website. It seems that it is in fact still there. I also looked at the JPL Small-Body Database. Looking up Toutatis, it says it was last updated in 2003. It seems ...
- 121k
5
votes
How did Argentina, Namibia, and Pakistan help China monitor and communicate with Chang'e 5?
There is a Chinese run ground station in Swakopmund, Namibia.
Image source
This station is part of the "Chinese Tracking, Telemetry, Command and Communications System", which has similar ...
5
votes
How did Argentina, Namibia, and Pakistan help China monitor and communicate with Chang'e 5?
In 2014 China and Argentina signed an agreement that allowed China to establish and operate a deep space station in Argentina.
According to Reuters, the Chinese military runs the station in Argentina. ...
- 12.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Chang'e 4 lunar rover movement
I grabbed a couple pix from SkyAndTelescope which may help.
On a macro scale, you can see that the path is chosen to avoid craters and whatnot:
This next one is a better version of what you posted, ...
- 2,087
4
votes
Could a radio telescope orbit Earth-Moon L2 so that it is in the Moon's radio shadow?
The Earth-Moon L2 is located about 1.16 times as far from the Earth as the centre of the Moon (wikipedia, so the Earth is about 7 times as from L2 as the Moon is. Since the Earth is less than 7 times ...
- 19.3k
4
votes
Accepted
What will China's new "space station" in Argentinian Patagonia be used for?
Question: What are the stated or otherwise likely future uses for this space station beyond servicing China's upcoming Chang'e 4 mission and Queqiao satellite on it's way to the Moon?
The article "...
- 3,246
3
votes
Can Chang'e 3 take photos of the stars from the moon
Looking through this image archive, they haven't taken photos where stars are the main subject. All photos in that archive were done in daylight.
I've removed the processed photo - I found 2 ...
- 123k
2
votes
Accepted
Where to look for newest images from Chang'e 3?
Here is a source in English, it can be tricky with the translation but essentially you can create a log in and go through a ton of pictures and data :)
The original source (in Chinese): http://moon....
- 36
2
votes
What is this red gas at the exhaust of the Long March 3B rocket during liftoff?
From to @TildalWave's comment
So the color at the exhaust actually shows how well it is mixed with hydrazine at fuel / oxidizer injectors and the efficiency of the engine? I don't mean these first ...
- 149k
2
votes
Chang'e 4, what is planned during December 12 and January 3?
The Planetary Society article Chang’e-4 Successfully Enters Lunar Orbit - Next stop: the Lunar Farside speculates that they are waiting for sunrise!
Waiting for the morning
Now that Chang’e-4 has ...
- 149k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible