Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society blog unearthed some really cool videos taken by the Chinese Chang’E 2 spacecraft at the Moon. The five engineering videos include Chang’E 2’s solar panel deployment, orbit insertion burn, the first and second orbital trim maneuvers, and low lunar orbit. They are all especially unique in that the video not only includes images from the Moon’s surface, but also the spacecraft itself can be seen, providing a perspective that is not often seen. The video above is of Chang’E 2’s second orbit trim maneuver. Check out Emily’s post to see all five, plus she provides great insights into the video clips, as well.
10 Replies to “Cool Chang’E 2 Videos”
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I’m impressed! Chinese white hot rocket engines in lunar orbit! The Lunar Goddess must be pleased…. and flattered~
These images look very similar to lunar views captured by Apollo astronauts in lunar orbit (specifically Apollos 8,10-17), especially some of the LM ascent-descent film footage(you could see some of the thruster nozzles out the window of the LM IIRC). Quite breathtaking.
What are the landmasses visible in the first video showing the unfurling of the solar arrays?
Hey Crumb, here is some more of this chinese space junk to turn you on, but too late Hanford already compared it to Apollo. Opps this is going to be to be a problem for you since we’ve “Been there, done that” 40 years ago.
@ Tripleclean
This is the highest act of a coward. Too chicken to take me on where I made the comment, but instead you slide in with your derogatory comments in into another UT story.
Fun. When Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon he said; “One giant step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Yet, like most narrow minded insular Americans, if it either “your way or the highway”, being unable to stomach that others might or can do equal to you past glories. Sometimes the rest of us can achieve even better accomplishments! This is an grand example of how fast China has grasped the leaning curve — and so quickly!.
As to “Chinese space junk”, at least it is better than having NO space junk to launch at all! This seems to be the only future of America in space in the coming decades. Moreover, at least I’m not an American, so I don’t have such problems with such clear paranoid inadequacies; especially within such an absolutely stuffed economy.
Congratulations to China for reaching the milestone. May the technological and scientific future for her continuing to rise! Bless ’em all!
We’ll be dragging our feet on these last few(We’ll be adding more) STS launchs for about 18 months so we can run this current guy out of office and go back to the way we like things run over here like the last guy did(1/2way there). It’s just how our system works. BTW why would anyone want to fly to space in anything other than a shuttle? returning from space with wings so you can land at the airport of your choice. Also lets make it big so we can haul alot of mail up or downhill and lets have our friends build a really cool arm that can grab or hold onto things or other friends build maybe a lab or something to fit in its cavernous payload bay. So maybe in 5 years their might be the Tibet arm? or the Nork Module LOL you can go ahead and ride on that.
Tripleclean, be careful. Crumb has a razor sharp wit and he’s not afraid to use it. See the Hubble Dark Matter Map article comments section for a great example!
Can we delete tripleclean’s comments please? The rest of us here have the decency not to hurl childish insults – American or otherwise.
I will love anyone that sends up more spacecraft to the Moon!
I love new pictures of the Moon it is my life’s goal!
My big whislist is a webcam accessible through the Internet right next to an apollo landers. And once in a while see the the Earth from the Moon.
One cool thing is actually have a Lunar robot to explore the Apollo landing site because they have a reference now to compare the robotic science with what we do know. And the let the robot explore and see what the astronauts missed because of lack of time.
I think a lot of research can be done by observing the lunar landers, see how the materials aged, see how the dust settled,… paint changed, the regolith altered because of the foot steps.
Also the location where the lunar landers crashed on the moon would be interesting to visit since it probably created some crater.
The coolest show of power would be to show that the Chinese can put a lunar robot next to the Apollo 11 lander can claim the ground where the lander is standing for future tourist attractions.
A bit off topic but this guy: GoneToPlaid has created a very impressive resolution image taken by the LRO, does processing on it t increase the resolution.
Search for “Ultra Close-Up Views of the Apollo 11 Landing Site ” in the YouTube search.