중국 달 탐사선 "Jade Rabbit" 토요일 달 착륙. 활동개시(Dec.14/2013)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/world/asia/china-moon-landing/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25393826

(CNN) -- China's first lunar rover deployed successfully from the unmanned spacecraft Chang'e-3 that landed on the moon Saturday.

카메라 4개와 두개의 다리를 장착한, 바퀴 6개 달린 중국의 Jade Rabbit달 탐사선이  지난 토요일 무사히 달표면에 착륙 했단다. 이탐사선은 지하 30미터까지 파고들어가 토양의 샘플을 채취 할수 있다고 한다.

이탐사선은 태양열을 동력원으로 하며 수수꺼끼에 싸여있는 달표면을 걸으면서 최소한 3개월정도 탐사하게 된다고 한다.  중국은 2003년 유인 우주선을 처음 발사 성공한 이후 급속도로 발전했는데, 2012년에만 18개의 우주선을 발사했다고 한다.

2010년도에 중국은 우주선을 쏘아 이번에 착륙한 탐사선의 착륙지점을 이미 탐사 했었다고 하며, 이곳은 착륙에 최적일뿐더러 경치 또한 최상의 지점이라고 한다. 이탐사선은 영하 180에서도 활동할수 있는 내구성을 지니고 있다.

10후쯤에는 달표면을 연구 탐사하기위해 지구궤도상에 영구 정거장을 건설할 계획으로 있다고 한다.

우리 인간의 지구밖의 외계세상에 대한 동경은 갈수록 더깊어 질것은 확실한것 같다.  어쩌면 우주탐사와 달탐사에 대한 연구와 발전은 앞으로 중국이 더 활발하게 진행시킬것으로 기대된다.  지금은 훨씬 앞서있는 미국의 NASA는 제도상의 예산확보면에서 넘어야할 산이 많은 대신에, 중국은 그러한 걸림돌이 거의 없이 정부의 의지만 있다면 바로 시행이 가능한 정치제도를 갖고 있는 장점(?)이 있기 때문으로 이해된다.  정말로 중국의 경제적 부가 지구상의 제2인자임이 증명되는 바로 미터이기도 한것 같다.

Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) is a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples to a depth of 30 meters.

The solar-powered rover will patrol the moon's surface, studying the structure of the lunar crust as well as soil and rocks, for at least three months. The robot's name was decided by a public online poll and comes from a Chinese myth about the pet white rabbit of a goddess, Chang'e, who is said to live on the moon.

Weighing 140 kilograms, the slow-moving rover carries an optical telescope for astronomical observations and a powerful ultraviolet camera that will monitor how solar activity affects the various layers -- troposphere, stratosphere and ionosphere -- that make up the Earth's atmosphere, China's information technology ministry said in a statement.

The Jade Rabbit is also equipped with radioisotope heater units, allowing it to function during the cold lunar nights when temperatures plunge as low as -180°C (-292°F).

The moon exploration makes China one of only three nations -- after the United States and the former Soviet Union -- to "soft-land" on the moon's surface, and the first to do so in more than three decades.

China's space program

China has rapidly built up its space program since it first sent an astronaut into space in 2003. In 2012, the country conducted 18 space launches, according to the Pentagon.

The Chang'e-3 mission constitutes the second phase of China's moon exploration program, which includes orbiting, landing and returning to Earth.

In 2010, China captured images of the landing site for the 2013 probe, the Bay of Rainbows, which is considered to be one of the most picturesque parts of the moon.

Tourist trips to the moon by 2043?

Within the next decade, China expects to open a permanent space station in the Earth's orbit.

But scientists in the United States have expressed concern that the Chang'e-3 mission could skew the results of a NASA study of the moon's dust environment.

The spacecraft's descent is likely to create a noticeable plume on the moon's surface that could interfere with research already being carried out by NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), Jeff Plescia, chair of NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group told news site Space.com in November.

The Chang'e-3 spacecraft blasted off from a Long March 3B rocket in China's Sichuan province on December 2 and reached the moon's orbit at 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) from its surface less than five days later.

On Tuesday, it descended into an elliptical orbit with its lowest point just 15 kilometers off the lunar surface, a spokesperson for China's Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense told Xinhua.

The Soviet Union's Luna 24 probe was the last space mission to land on the moon in August 1976 -- four years after the United States launched the manned Apollo 17 mission.