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Peter1469
05-21-2018, 12:12 PM
China to explore the dark side of the moon (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-space/china-launches-satellite-to-explore-dark-side-of-moon-xinhua-idUSKCN1IL0XP)

I am interested to see if they share their data from their exploration.


China launched a relay satellite early on Monday designed to establish a communication link between earth and a planned lunar probe that will explore the dark side of the moon, the official Xinhua news agency said.


Citing the China National Space Administration, Xinhua said the satellite was launched at 5:28 a.m. (2128 GMT Sunday) on a Long March-4C rocket from the Xichang launch center in the southwest of the country.






“The launch is a key step for China to realize its goal of being the first country to send a probe to soft-land on and rove the far side of the moon,” Xinhua quoted Zhang Lihua, manager of the relay satellite project, as saying.






It said the satellite, known as Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge, will settle in an orbit about 455,000 km (282,555 miles) from earth and will be the world’s first communication satellite operating there.

Read the rest at the link.

Lummy
05-21-2018, 02:09 PM
Their problem doing that will be in lost communications with Earth while on the dark side, won't it? So, seems it will have to be a completely autonomous exercise while on the surface. Kinda interestin'.

Peter1469
05-21-2018, 02:21 PM
Their problem doing that will be in lost communications with Earth while on the dark side, won't it? So, seems it will have to be a completely autonomous exercise while on the surface. Kinda interestin'.

Perhaps they have satellites in place to act as repeaters to get signals back and forth.