Chinese Lunar Lander ... Is it Lost? - Printable Version +- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com) +-- Forum: Science (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-61.html) +--- Forum: Astrophysics, Cosmology & Astronomy (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-74.html) +--- Thread: Chinese Lunar Lander ... Is it Lost? (/thread-6510.html) |
Chinese Lunar Lander ... Is it Lost? - Yazata - Dec 14, 2018 The Chinese are hoping to land a lunar lander called 'Chang'e-4' on the far side of the Moon. It was (supposedly) inserted into lunar orbit with a rocket burn yesterday. The successful execution of this maneuver was publicly announced. https://spacenews.com/change-4-spacecraft-enters-lunar-orbit-ahead-of-first-ever-far-side-landing/ But the always-interesting Jonathan McDowell alerts us to a deepening mystery by retweeting this: https://twitter.com/coastal8049/status/1073142174466764800 Ever since around the time of the lunar orbit insertion burn, amateur space trackers can no longer hear the Chang'e. Details in this blog: https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/eating-static-from-the-moon/ The blog's author suggests three possibilities: "What could be going on? 1. Nothing, the mission is proceeding normally and they just decided to turn the beacon off and/or have changed their standard operating procedures. 2. Chang'e 4 is emitting signals on a frequency that is not coordinated with the ITU. [International Telecommunications Union] 3. Something happened during or after the LOI [lunar orbit insertion] that now prevents the beacon from operating or effectively radiating toward Earth and China is figuring out how to resolve the issue before reacting publicly." Time will tell. |