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Chinese Lunar Orbiter Prototype On Display At Air Show
Zhuhai, China (XNA) Nov 02, 2006 A prototype of China's proposed lunar orbiter went on display at a major air show on Monday. The prototype displayed in a 50-square-meter sand pit at Airshow China 2006 in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, is a simulation of the surface of the moon and produced by China Aviation Industry Corp. The orbiter, named "Chang'e 1" after the legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, will be launched at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2007. The launch will be the first step of China's three-stage moon exploration program. The orbiter will be followed by a remote-controlled lunar rover that will carry out experiments and send data back to Earth. In the third phase, a module will drill a chunk of the moon and bring it to Earth. The Shenzhou-6 spacecraft, which China successfully launched with two astronauts last year, is also on display together with a 1:3 scale model of the original spacecraft. The parachute for Shenzhou-6, covering 1,200 square meters and capable of reducing the landing speed of the spacecraft to eight meters per second, is also on display.
Source: Xinhua News Agency Related Links China News From SinoDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
No Lunar Polar Ice Sheets Found In High Resolution Radar Images
Ithaca NY (SPX) Oct 19, 2006Using the highest resolution radar-signal images ever made of the moon - images from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo Telescope in Arecibo, P.R., and the NSF's Robert C. Byrd Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va. - planetary astronomers have found no evidence for ice in craters at the lunar south pole. Cornell University, Smithsonian Institution and Australian scientists report the findings in the latest Nature (Oct. 19, 2006). |
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