China’s Second Moon Mission

The Chang’e-2 mission was launched on Oct 1, 2010, and has finished its all pre-set goals within its designed life span of 6 months by April 1, 2011. This mission is designed to get as close as 15 km above the Moon’s surface and take high – resolution imagery. The basic aim behind this mission was to test key technologies and collect data for future landings. Chang’e-2 has provided close-up pictures of Moon’s Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows[246]), the proposed landing site for Chang’e-3 planned for 2013.[247]

This satellite has been set off from the Moon in remote outer space. Moon exploration involves travelling a distance of about 400,000 km away from the Earth. But, the outer space exploration involves a travel of 1.5 million km. After a travel of approximately 80 days from the region close to the Moon, this craft has arrived at a Lagrangian point (L2)[248] where it is expected to stay till the end of 2012 to conduct scientific observations and test deep space tracking and control capability for future possible explorations of Jupiter and the poles of the Sun. The satellite is also expected to monitor in 2012 the testing of two large antennas being built for deep space exploration.[249] On Feb 6, 2012, China has released a very detailed map of the Moon, marking the best view yet of the lunar surface as seen by a Chinese spacecraft. This map is based on the inputs received from the Chang’e-2 mission.