China Launches Chang’e-2 Lunar Orbiter; ‘Asian Space Race’ in Full Swing? October 2, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Asian Space Race, Chang'e, Chang'e-2, China , trackbackChina has launched their secondo lunar orbiter, the Chang’e-2!
Coming a year and a half after the end of the successful Chang’e-1 orbiter mission, China’s new orbiter adds muscle as the CNSA scouts future landing sites, including the Bay of Rainbows.
While similar to the Chang’e-1, this mission will be more “sophisticated“:
“We started assembling Chang’e 2 at the end of 2008. The equipment and payloads on the satellite are combination of the old, the renovated and the new. This has raised challenges for us to ensure all equipment reaches the same standard.”- Tai Ping, ‘Vice Chief Director Chang’e Satellite System’,”New Scientific Targets for Chang’e-2“, People’s Daily Online
Those landing sites the orbiter will be scouting are for the Chang’e-3 lander, set for touchdown in 2013. Also set for landing in 2013 is the Indian-Russian Chandrayaan-2, not to mention landers from the Google Lunar X PRIZE…it’ll be busy up there come the end of ’13! :)
This brings up an interesting assertion by the Wall Street Journal last week—that this is the throes of an “Asian Space Race”, with China, India and Japan beginning to duke it out.
The idea of a new, regional ‘race’ could be backed up by the recent announcement that India’s Chandrayaan-2 will have all Indian payloads, contrasted with its predecessor, which carried (very successful) international payloads.
Regardless, the Chinese program is rolling along nicely, and it should be fun to watch as the Chang’e-2 starts to deliver results and India’s Chandrayaan-2 warms up.
For a neat video from Chinese media on the mission, click here, and here’s video of the launch itself:
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