Discussion
China's Chang’e-7 mission is expected to launch on Sunday, Aug 23. It is an ambitious mission to land in the Shackleton crater near the South Pole and search for water and minerals, which might some day be critical for human presence on the Moon.
The mission includes an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a hopper.
The Chang'e-7 orbiter will spend several months orbiting the moon before releasing its lander near the end of the year.
Shackleton, named after Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, is an impact crater near the lunar south pole. The peaks along the crater's rim are exposed to almost continual sunlight, while the interior is perpetually in shadow, creating a cold trap that may capture and freeze volatiles such as water.
The Chang'e 7 lander is powered using solar panels; it will land in the illuminated part of the crater, while the rover and hopper will explore the shadowed areas.
Chang’e-7 is part of a new, fourth phase of Chinese lunar exploration and, together with Chang’e-8 around 2029, are part of preparations for China’s planned International Lunar Research Station with human presence.
https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/change-7
https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/humanoid-robot-may-fly-on-chinas-change-8-moon-mission-in-2028
3/n
No definite date and time yet for the launch of the Chang'e 7 mission to the moon.
https://bsky.app/profile/chinaspace.bsky.social/post/3mtox5eba7c2y
#Space
4/n
The Chang'e 7 rover is equipped with five scientific payloads, including a panoramic camera (PC), rover magnetometer (RM), the lunar raman spectrometer (LRS), the lunar penetrating radar (LPR) and the in-situ measuring system of volatiles on the lunar surface (IsMSV).
Note the use of the simple RS422 interface between most of the instruments and the processing subsystems.
https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/11/2/nwad329/7503932?login=false
5/n
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