November 5 - China's First Lunar Satellite Orbits the Moon!

Posted on November 5, 2021

Key Points

This is an update of my post published on November 5, 2010:

Chang’e 1 is an unmanned spacecraft that was launched on October 24, 2007. Today is the anniversary of the day that Chang’e 1 successfully reached lunar orbit. It began transmitting photos and 3-D images that were later used to create maps. Other goals reached included analyzing and mapping the abundance and distribution of various chemical elements that may be useful resources in the future.

The satellite was deliberately crashed into the Moon at the end of its mission, in March, 2009.

In 2010, China successfully launched Chang’e 2. On October 6, 2010, it reached its working orbit. This spacecraft had a better camera than that of Chang’e 1 – and it reached the Moon in half the time needed by its predecessor. In 2013 Chang’e 3 landed on the Moon and deployed a rover, and in 2018 Chang’e 4 landed on the far side of the Moon with yet another rover. In 2020 Chang’e 5 did a sample-return mission.

All of these Chinese missions to the Moon were robotic (unmanned) missions. In other words, no human astronauts went to the Moon on these various spacecraft. However, China has plans for eventual crewed missions – perhaps in the 2030s. The plans for this decade (2020s) include setting up a robotic research station on the Moon.

Also – huge news – this year China and Russia announced plans to build a Moon base together and invited other nations to participate.

I can’t help wondering if the U.S. will return to the Moon with all of these pressures from other nations?

Who has been to the Moon?

The name of the spacecraft, Chang’e, is the name of the Chinese goddess of the Moon. Of course, Chang’e doesn’t really live on the Moon (any more than the Western “man in the Moon” does).

So far, only 12 male astronauts – all of them American – have ever walked on the Moon – no women, and no one from any other country. None of the astronauts stayed very long, so at this point we can say that, so far, nobody has ever lived on the Moon.

So, how many other countries have sent unmanned satellites there?

The Soviet Union was first, with Luna 2 impacting the Moon in 1959.

At this point, only the U.S., U.S.S.R., and China have landed successfully on the Moon. Both India and Israel have sent spacecraft classified as “landers” to the Moon – but both crashed instead of landing.

However, several nations have sent fly-bys and orbiters to the Moon:

US, USSR, Russia, and China (of course),

Europe,

India,

Japan,

and (randomly!) Luxembourg – but this is actually LuxSpace, which is apparently a private company that is headquartered in Luxembourg.

And what about in the future?

Some people may dream of becoming the first man or woman from their country on the Moon. There are plans to send spacecraft to the Moon from all of the nations that have in the past (except for U.S.S.R., which no longer exists), plus Australia, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom. And maybe from other nations as well!

Build a Moon habitat.

Read If You Had a Birthday Party on the Moon.