Lunar probe in from cold
Print Edition
CHINA’S Chang’e-4 probe, having made the first soft landing on the moon’s far side, has recorded that the temperature of the lunar surface dropped to as low as minus 190 degrees centigrade, much colder than expected.
This is the first time Chinese scientists have received data about the temperatures on the surface of the moon during the lunar night.
The rover and the lander of the Chang’e-4 probe have been awakened by sunlight after a long “sleep” during their first extremely cold night on the moon, the China National Space Administration announced yesterday.
“According to the measurements of Chang’e-4, the temperature of the shallow layer of the lunar soil on the far side of the moon is lower than the data obtained by the US Apollo mission on the near side of the moon,” said Zhang He, executive director of the Chang’e-4 probe project, from the China Academy of Space Technology.
“That’s probably due to the difference in lunar soil composition between the two sides of the moon. We still need more careful analysis.”
A lunar day equals 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length. The Chang’e-4 probe switched to dormant mode during the lunar night due to a lack of solar power.
The rover and the lander carried a radioisotope heat source, which helped keep the probe warm during the lunar night.
The lander was equipped with an isotope thermoelectric cell and temperature data collectors to measure the temperatures on the surface of the moon during the lunar night.
The isotope thermoelectric generation technology to transform heat into power on Chang’e-4 is a prototype for future deep-space exploration, said Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the Chang’e-4 probe.
“It is a technology that we must master if we want to go farther than Jupiter into deep space, where solar power cannot be used as the primary power source,” he said.
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