Epigraph:
He (Allah) it is Who made the sun radiate a brilliant light and the moon reflect a lustre, and ordained for it stages, that you might know the number of years and the reckoning of time. Allah has not created this but in truth. He details the Signs for a people who have knowledge. (Al Quran 10:6)
RT:
China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Saturday, according to state media. The event marks the first soft-landing on the moon in three decades, joining the USA and former USSR in achieving the feat.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the spacecraft touched down in the Sinus Iridum, known as the Bay of Rainbows, at 9:11 p.m. after hovering over the moon’s surface for an unspecified few minutes, scouting out a suitable place to land. The subsequent soft-landing did not damage the craft, unlike a previous mission in 2007 when China sent a lunar probe to conduct a controlled crash into the moon’s surface.
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Categories: Asia, Astronomy, China, Physics, Science, Science and Technology, Space Exploration
Congratulations to Chinese scientists.
Quoting BBC
China’s Jade Rabbit robot rover has driven off its landing module and on to the Moon’s surface.
The robotic vehicle rolled down a ramp lowered by the lander and on to the volcanic plain known as Sinus Iridum.
Earlier on Saturday, the landing module containing the rover fired its thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976.
The touchdown in the Moon’s northern hemisphere marks the latest step in China’s ambitious space programme.
The lander will operate there for a year, while the rover is expected to work for some three months.
The Chang’e-3 mission landed some 12 days after being launched atop a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket from Xichang in the country’s south.
China’s space mission team celebrate after the landing
The official Xinhua news service reported that the craft began its descent just after 1300 GMT (2100 Beijing time), touching down in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) 11 minutes later.
“I was lucky enough to see a prototype rover in Shanghai a few years ago – it’s a wonderful technological achievement to have landed,” Prof Andrew Coates, from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25384057
It is a greate achievement of the Chinese scientists to soft landing the space craft on moon. I wish them all the success in this technology.