China plans to land lunar probe on far side of moon

[muriel_volestrangler]

China’s increasingly ambitious space programme plans to attempt the first-ever landing of a lunar probe on the moon’s far side, a leading engineer said.

The Chang’e 4 mission is planned for sometime before 2020, Zou Yongliao, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ moon exploration department, told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Zou said the mission’s objective would be to study geological conditions on the moon’s far side.

That could eventually lead to the placement of a radio telescope for use by astronomers, something that would help “fill a void” in man’s knowledge of the universe, Zou said.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/09/china-plans-to-land-lunar-probe-on-far-side-of-moon

Presumably they'd use an orbiter to relay signals.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. I wonder how they intend to communicate with the lander

Unless they have a lunar orbiter to relay data any radio signals are going to be blocked by the moon. I'm not an engineer, but... No wait, I'm really not an engineer -- there's no way I have the education or training to evaluate a solution to the problem. (This is my tongue-in-cheek take on climate deniers.)

Having a permanent radio telescope on the far side of the moon would be awesome, no matter which country does it.

Aren't the Chinese planning a manned lunar landing in the next few years?

[Wounded Bear]

2. yes there would need to be some kind of satellite relay...

I am an engineer (or at least i was) and kind of know some of this stuff.

It's still the same as it was during Apollo. When on the far side of the moon, no comm. For continuous comm, would need either several satellites, or one strategically placed in a geo-synchronous location that is in view of Earth.

[Ghost Dog]

3. A series or a flock of micro-satellites

In lunar orbit, autonomous solar-powered for systems & propulsion (to maintain position). Nodes in a net; signals shared between them, dark/earth-side irrelevant.

[Wounded Bear]

4. That would work...

All you have to do is design them and get them up there.

[Ghost Dog]

6. Oh, I'd organise a team,

then kick back and let it go to work.

Design (& finance) could be crowd-sourced, open-source.

[lastlib]

5. maybe they could just use this guy:

(I'm so helpful!)