191–200 of 248 posts
It what way is any part of the moon not "quiet and airless" ?
It is kind of surprising that the Chinese choose mystical names for their space probes, rather than names of revolutionary origin (I guess Long March, is an exception).
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Surely it's darker than the earth facing side. I'm no rocket scientist, but I reckon at least some of the light the sun sends our way gets reflected. From experience, a moonless night sure feels darker than when the full moon is up.
The amount of reflected Earthlight would depend on your location on the Moon's nearside and the phase of the Earth. The corollary of one side of the Moon always facing the Earth is that the Earth hangs in about the same place in the sky for any given point on the Moon's surface. Over a period of (earth) days the Earth's position would slightly but visibly oscillate due to libration [0]. This might slightly vary the i…
However, counterintuitively, I think you'd be better off with a full Earth and no direct sunlight than a new Earth and full direct sunlight, making the near side a slightly better place for an optical telescope. The near side of the moon even has the opportunity to experience eclipses.
FTA: "In addition to its value as a scientific exploration target, the Moon’s quiet, airless far side makes it one of the best places in the inner solar system for science applications like radio astronomy." It what way is any part of the moon not "quiet and airless" ?
The amounts are small, but scientific instruments are - by design - quite sensitive.
The headline should be "China claims to successfully land..." Given the government and business tendency in China to make claims that later turn out to be fabricated nothing they announce should be taken as true without independent verification.
FTA: "In addition to its value as a scientific exploration target, the Moon’s quiet, airless far side makes it one of the best places in the inner solar system for science applications like radio astronomy." It what way is any part of the moon not "quiet and airless" ?
Israel and India may be sending landers to the Moon too. India has sent orbiters to the Moon and Mars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission_2 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2 An Israeli group got pretty far with an entry in the lunar lander XPrize. But the prize reached its deadline dates and expired. I hear they may be shopping for a deep space launch vehicle.
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Do you know why NASA doesn't partner up with China? Because it sounds like you think those political differences are insignificant.
It's currently illegal for NASA to work with China. There's been a line in the NASA appropriations bills for the last 5 years or so saying none of the money they're receiving can be used bilaterally or in cooperation with China
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That's very interesting to hear. I wonder if it is something specific to that corporation, or perhaps your role at the corporation, though? All the Chinese-born people I know would be pretty surprised if any non-Chinese person could read Chinese.
All the Chinese-born people I know would be pretty surprised if any non-Chinese person could read Chinese. My experience is that attitudes are often quite different if you look like a Chinese person.
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The photos were originally published here: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n6758838/c6805034/content.ht... It's the original source. I chose to post the BI article because the original source is in Chinese.
I don't blame you, but next time you go to a foreign website, you can look out for icons that resemble national flags or EN. There is usually an English version of the website available for important government websites (as with this case, the button is on the top right corner).