Oikofugic Design

Perigee Moon

October 26th, 2007

A big, bright perigee Moon. Right: A lesser apogee Moon

The Moon’s orbit is an ellipse with one side 30,000 miles closer to Earth than the other. The full Moon of Oct. 25-26 is located on the near side, making it appear as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we’ve seen earlier in 2007.

In the language of astronomy, the two ends of the Moon’s orbit are called “apogee” and “perigee.” Apogee is the farthest point, perigee the nearest: This week’s full Moon is a “perigee Moon”.

Source: Space weather

I actually wanted to talk about China’s one year Luna mission.

Chang’e-1, China’s first lunar probe, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket from the No. 3 launching tower in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center of southwestern Sichuan Province on Wednesday, October 24, 2007. [Photo: CCTV]

Chang’e-1, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who, according to legend, flew to the moon.

Will this one year expedition, providing of course nothing mysteriously goes wrong provide conclusive evidence of the much disputed landing on the lunar surface by the Americans in 1969.

The probe equipped with:

(1) An Optical Imaging System, a CCD Stereo Camera, and an Interferometer Spectrometer Imager. The CCD optical system will use a series of three, 2-dimensional original images of a target area taken before and reconfigure them into a 3-dimensional image of the lunar surface. The Interferometer Spectrometer Imager uses a special camera that is able to obtain images based on the fact that different objects have different spectrum properties. This multi-spectra, remote sensing of the lunar surface will then be integrated into the lunar terrain images obtained through the stereo camera; enabling scientists conduct researches on the properties of regional resources and materials.

(2) A Laser Altimeter will be used to provide complementary data to the elevation data of lunar surface and to refine the lunar surface digital model.

(3) Gamma/X-Ray Spectrometers will be able to obtain the distribution of different elements according to the differences of energy spectra of gamma and X rays emitted by various elements due to cosmic ray excitation, such as the gamma-ray spectra for elements of Th, U and K, and X-ray spectra for elements of Na, S and Ni. The data concerning elements of Fe, Ti, Al and Mg can be obtained through both gamma- and X-ray spectra.

(4) A Microwave Detector that will operate in four different frequency bands will allow different depths of the lunar soil to be penetrated based on the fact that microwave radiation brightness varies through the regolith soil.

(5) A Space Environment Monitoring System consisting of a High-Energy Solar Particle Detector will consist of a small probe that will be launched separately from Chang’e 1 to perform analysis of the space between the Moon and the Earth. Working in the region of 40,000 to 400,000 kilometres (25,000 to 250,000 miles) from the Earth, it will investigate the solar wind and other activities from the Sun.

Chang’e 1 is the first part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) conducted under the China National Space Administration (CNSA) — a civilian agency of the People’s Republic of China. The mission also has support from the European Space Agency (ESA), who are providing spacecraft and ground operations support services through ESTRACK (a tracking network comprising of 12 terminals sited at eight stations in five countries), and plans are that the two will work together on future Chang’e missions. The two agencies will also share data and encourage a visitors’ programme so that researchers can learn from each other.

Moonposter

So keep tabs on this one, It is going to be interesting regardless of the findings.

I expect they might pay special attention to this area.

I would like at this point to say I am a believer and expect the findings to confirm that Neil ‘one large leap’ was indeed the first to step foot on an extra terrestrial world. Who Knows..

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Entry Filed under: My planet, Science