China Makes Further Progress in Lunar, Mars Exploration

China is making smooth progress in lunar and Mars exploration.

The rover Yutu-2 of the Chang'e-4 probe woke up on Sept 12 and resumed work for the 22nd lunar day on the far side of the moon. By that date the lander and the rover of the Chang'e 4 probe had worked for 618 days.

Yutu-2 will move to the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity during the 22nd lunar day. Its movement is based on such data as images collected by the panoramic camera and digital orthophoto map (DOM) images.

The rover will carry out scientific investigation of two impact craters with instruments including a panoramic camera, an infrared imaging spectrometer, a neutral atom detector and lunar radar.

The Tianwen 1 Mars probe has also been of great interest as it is the first mission by China of its kind, conducting the country's first independent Mars exploration.

The probe had traveled 137 million kilometers by 9:00 am on Sept 11. By then, the probe was about 15.3 million kilometers away from the Earth and was showing stable performance and balanced energy consumption. All related work is also stable.

The probe took a photo of the Earth and the Moon by optical navigation sensor on July 27 when it was about 1.2 million km from the Earth.

Later on Aug 2, the probe made its first mid-course correction and the second mid-course correction was done on Sept 20.

Both the Chang'e 4 and Tianwen 1 probes were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

China is making progress in space exploration. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)