Chinanews.com, Nanjing, April 24 (Guo Chaokai) April 24, 2021 is China's sixth "China Space Day".
At present, many Chinese probes such as Tianwen-1, Chang'e-4, and Chang'e-5 are still performing missions in space. What are the new developments of these probes?
According to the China National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, the Chang'e-5 orbiter is currently performing an expansion mission on the Lissajous orbit around the Sun and Earth L1 point. According to the design results of the orbit determination and orbit control strategy, the expansion mission phase L1 point is completed. One-time track maintenance, domestic fixed release test, etc., and the development of industrial camera imaging.
Image of Mars taken by Tianwen-1 Photo courtesy of the National Space Administration
Tianwen 1 entered the orbit on February 24. During the two months of operation in the orbit, the orbiter scientific payload equipment was turned on to detect and obtain scientific data.
At present, through multiple high-resolution imaging, high-definition image data acquisition of the pre-selected landing area has been completed, and subsequent work on the topography and geomorphology of the landing area and meteorological environment analysis will be carried out as planned to prepare for landing on Mars.
Chang'e-5 wide-field surveillance camera: a group photo of the earth and the moon, courtesy of the National Space Administration
The Chang'e-4 lander and the "Yutu-2" lunar rover completed their 29th month day work on April 19 and entered a moonlit night dormancy.
During the day of this month, the "Yutu-2" lunar rover traveled 26.1 meters, with a total travel of 708.9 meters.
According to the scientific data of the Chang'e-4 mission, the team of Associate Professor Xiao Zhiyong from the Planetary Environment and Livability Research Laboratory of Sun Yat-sen University speculated that most of the sub-moon sputter detected by Yutu-2 may be the lower lunar crust excavated in the East China Sea Basin.
In addition, the pre-selection of the creative design of Chang'e-7 and asteroid exploration missions for popular science test load designs has been completed. The Chang'e-7 mission and asteroid exploration missions were shortlisted for 60 and 40 programs respectively. The list is in the National Space Administration, China Lunar Exploration and Deep Space. The detection network was officially announced.
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