Chang'e 5-T1 () was an experimental robotic spacecraft that was launched to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

on 23 October 2014 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to conduct

atmospheric re-entry Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the

Chang'e 5 Chang'e 5 () was the fifth lunar exploration mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and China's first lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e. It launched ...

mission. As part of the

Chinese Lunar Exploration Program The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; ), also known as the Chang'e Project () after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program incorpor ...

, Chang'e 5, launched in 2020, was a Moon

sample return mission A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...

. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e. The craft consisted of a return vehicle capsule and a service module orbiter. The return capsule of Chang'e 5-T1, named ''Xiaofei'' () meaning "little flyer" in Chinese, landed in

Siziwang Banner Dorbod (Siziwang) Banner ( mn, , , ; ) is a banner (county equivalent) in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, China, bordering Mongolia's Dornogovi Province to the northwest. It is located about north of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. The ban ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

on 31 October 2014, 22:42 UTC. The CE-5-T1 Service Module entered lunar orbit on 13 January 2015. Its initial orbit was 200 x 5,300 km with period of 8 hours.

Characteristics

It consisted of a DFH-3A "

Chang'e 2 Chang'e 2 (; ) is a Chinese unmanned lunar probe that was launched on 1 October 2010. It was a follow-up to the Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched in 2007. Chang'e 2 was part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, ...

type" spacecraft with a mass of approximately 2,215 kg (including 1,065 kg of fuel) carrying the Chang'e 5 return capsule with a mass of under 335 kg. The craft was launched by a

Long March 3C The Long March 3C (), also known as the Changzheng 3C, CZ-3C and LM-3C, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. It is launched from Launch Complex 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC). A three-stage rocket with two strapon liquid ...

rocket into a lunar

free return trajectory In orbital mechanics, a free-return trajectory is a trajectory of a spacecraft traveling away from a primary body (for example, the Earth) where gravity due to a secondary body (for example, the Moon) causes the spacecraft to return to the primar ...

. It looped behind the Moon and returned to Earth, with the return capsule testing the high speed atmospheric skip reentry. The DFH-3A "service module" remained in orbit around the Earth before being relocated via Earth-Moon L₂ to lunar Lissajous orbit by 13 January 2015, where it will use its remaining 800 kg of fuel to test maneuvers key to future lunar missions. In February and March 2015 the DFH-3A "service module" performed two "virtual target" rendezvous tests for the future

mission. In April 2015 the small monitoring camera was used to obtain higher resolution photos of Chang'e 5's landing zone.

Mission profile

Main Mission

*Launch:

Xichang Satellite Launch Center The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport of China. It is located in Zeyuan Town (), approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. The facility bec ...

, 23 October 2014, 18:00 UTC *Nominal mission duration: Chang'e 5 return capsule: 196 hours (8.17 days) *Nominal mission duration: DFH-3A: Ongoing *Lunar fly-by: 97 hours after final orbit insertion (4.04 days) *Periselenium: ≈13,000 km from Moon surface *Distance of Moon from Earth at closest fly-by: ≈373,000 km *Landing:

, 31 October 2014, 22:42 UTC

Lunar Orbiter

In January 2015, the service module transitioned to lunar orbit, orbiting at 200x5300 km. It was still active in early 2018 and was last heard by amateurs radio-astronomers in late 2020. Hertzsprung (LRO)

Third stage disposal

The

third stage booster, left in orbit between the Earth and the Moon, was predicted to hit, and did hit, the Moon on March 4, 2022, impacting near the Hertzsprung crater. Independent spectral analysis from the University of Arizona confirmed its Chinese origin.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

has published a note on the event. China's foreign ministry has denied this identification, stating that the booster had already burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. The US Space Command confirmed the third stage never reentered in Earth's atmosphere, and a compatible item is now present on the Space-Track catalogue as object 85900. The impactor object was previously misidentified as 2015-007B, the second stage of the

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

rocket which launched NASA's

Deep Space Climate Observatory Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by Sp ...

(DSCOVR) spacecraft, but was later correctly identified as the Long March stage in February 2022. The event showed how hard it is to track small objects in deep space. In June 2022, a compatible double crater was found by the LROC team at the same location previously estimated.

Secondary payloads

Chang'e 5-T1 also carries the first commercial payload to the Moon called the 4M mission (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission) for the German space technology company OHB System, in honor of the company's founder,

Manfred Fuchs Manfred Fuchs (25 July 1938 in Latsch, Italy – 26 April 2014 in Kaltern an der Weinstraße) was an Italian-German entrepreneur and space pioneer who was the founder of the German space company OHB. Life Fuchs' family owned distilleries i ...

, who died in 2014. Technical management of the 4M mission was performed by LuxSpace. The payload weighs 14 kilograms and contains two scientific instruments. The first instrument is a radio beacon to test a new approach for locating spacecraft.

Amateur radio operator An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators ...

s were encouraged via prize incentives to receive the transmissions and send results back to LuxSpace. The second instrument, a radiation

dosimeter A radiation dosimeter is a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. It is worn by the person being monitored when used as a personal dosimeter, and is a record of the radiation dose received. Modern electronic personal d ...

provided by the Spanish company iC-Málaga, continuously measured radiation levels throughout the satellite's circumlunar path. The spacecraft also carries a radiation exposure experiment with bacteria and plants.

References

External links

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M)
– Official website for secondary payload at Chang'e 5-T1
Pocket Spacecraft – Space exploration for everyone
– Official website for another secondary payload at Chang'e 5-T1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang'e 5 2014 in China Chinese Lunar Exploration Program Chinese space probes Missions to the Moon Space probes launched in 2014 Spacecraft launched by Long March rockets