I think somewhere on the South Pole, but my question is why are we the last ones to map the surface and crash something into it?????
China's First Moon Probe Crashes to Lunar Surface
By By Tariq Malik
Senior Editor
posted: 02 March 2009
01:38 pm ET
China’s first moon probe Chang’e 1 intentionally crashed into the lunar surface on Sunday after more than year of science observations, according to state media reports.
The Chang’e 1 orbiter fired its engines to leave lunar orbit Sunday afternoon and ultimately slammed into the moon’s southern region at 4:13 p.m. Beijing Time (0813 GMT), China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Launched in October 2007, the 5,180-pound (2,350-kg) satellite Chang’e 1 spacecraft orbited the moon for 16 months. During its flight, the spacecraft used eight onboard instruments to map the lunar surface, study its composition and depth, as well as analyze the space environment around the moon.
Chinese space officials said they planned to launch a follow-up mission — Chang’e 2 — by 2011. Chang’e 1’s intentional crash was slated to be a dry run for a potential moon landing, they said Sunday.
Chang’e 1 was a named after a Chinese goddess who, in a popular fairy tale, lives on the moon. The mission cost a reported 1.4 billion yuan (about $180 million), according to past Chinese media reports.
Officials with the China National Space Agency have said Chang’e 1 was the first wave in a three-phase plan to explore the moon with orbiters, landers and rovers.
http://www.space.com/aol/090302-chin...ge1-crash.html
Indian Lunar Probe Crashes On Moon Surface
By Jesus Diaz, 9:00 AM on Mon Nov 17 2008, 10,847 views
The Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon. The point of MIP’s impact was near the Moon’s South Polar Region. It may be recalled that the modern Indian space programme was initiated in 1962 when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India.
Weighing 34 kg at the time of its launch onboard Chandrayaan-1, the box shaped MIP carried three instruments – a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The video imaging system was intended to take the pictures of the moon’s surface as MIP approached it. The radar altimeter was included to measure the rate of descent of the probe to the lunar surface. Such instruments are necessary for future lunar soft landing missions. And, the mass spectrometer was for studying the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.
MIP’s 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.
The Moon Impact Probe hit the moon last November 14 at 20:31 IST near the Moon's South Polar Region.
http://gizmodo.com/5090428/indian-lu...n-moon-surface
Japan's first lunar probe ends mission
By SHINO YUASA, AP
posted: 7 DAYS 4 HOURS AGO
TOKYO -Japan's first lunar probe made a controlled crash landing on the moon Thursday, successfully completing a 19-month mission to study the Earth's nearest neighbor, Japan's space agency said.
The remotely controlled satellite, named after the folklore princess Kaguya, had been orbiting the moon to map its surface and study its mineral distribution and gravity levels. It was dropped onto the surface of the moon at 3:25 am. (1825 GMT), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said in a statement.
"The mission was a success. Thanks to Kaguya, we will have a very detailed map of the lunar surface," said JAXA spokesman Shinichi Sobue. The Japanese space agency will analyze data sent by Kaguya and plans to publish the results online in November.
The 55 billion yen ($560 million) lunar mission launched in September 2007 is the largest in scope and ambition since the U.S. Apollo program of the 1960s and 70s, Sobue said.
"With data from Kaguya, we hope to shed light on the evolution of the moon," Sobue said.
During the Kaguya project, Japan launched two other orbiters to relay data. One landed on the moon in February, while the other has been measuring gravity around the moon and is still in orbit. Japan launched a moon probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission.
http://news.aol.com/article/japans-f...n/522877?cid=7
Swedish probe crashes on moon
Published: 3 Sep 06 12:27 CET
Online:
http://www.thelocal.se/4769/20060903/
The Swedish-developed space probe SMART-1 crashed on the moon at 7.42am on Sunday - exactly as planned.
Astronomers around the world had urged to try to observe the spectacular conclusion to the probe, which was developed by the Swedish Space Corporation in Solna at the request of the European Space Agency.
The probe has been orbiting the moon since November 2004.
At 7.42 on Sunday morning Swedish time the probe collided with the moon's surface, the news agency AFP confirmed. The impact was calculated to have created a crater between three and ten metres in diameter.
Several of the world's biggest telescopes were trained on the moon on Sunday morning in the hope of observing the impact, either as a weak flash of light or a very big dust cloud.
The Swedish research satellite Odin was also expected to be in a position to capture the collision with its radio receivers.
The probe approached the moon at a very shallow angle and at a speed of around 2 kilometres per second. It was initially planned to take place on August 17th, but it was postponed until Sunday so that it would be visible from Earth.
The probe's objective was primarily to test solar energy technology for powering such devices, and the mission was said to have been a success. The probe also carried out a number of scietific studies with the help of newly-developed miniature instruments.
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=4769