Just a decade after entering the space backwash , China is headed to the moon . With the successful launching of a Long March rocket carrying the Chang’e 3 lunar lander earlier this morning , China is attempting to become the third nation in chronicle to land ( rather than crash ) a space vehicle on the lunar surface .
identify for the mythical Formosan goddess of the moon , the Chang’e lunar investigation mark China ’s first attempt at an extra - mundane “ soft landing”—a feat so far only accomplished by the US and the former Soviet Union . If all go as planned , China will be the first land to land on the moon since 1976 .
The probe is ask to get in at the synodic month ’s Bay of Rainbows by mid - December and , following a successful landing , the Chang’e 3 will deploy a six - wheeled , solar - power roamer knight the “ Yutu ” ( or “ Jade Rabbit ” ) . The Yutu will spend three months traversing the lunar landscape painting , studying the geologic physical composition of the moon ’s freshness using basis - penetrating radar as well as set up up a telescope to read the Earth ’s little - translate plasmasphere .
Though China is relatively Modern to the space exploration biz , its military machine - backed space program has progress rapidly over the past decennary . Barring any cataclysm with the Chang’e 3 mission , China contrive to launch another lunar investigation by the end of the tenner — this sentence to pull together soil sample distribution — before a potential man charge in the early 2020s . [ R&D Mag , USA Today – Image : AP Images ]
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