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Trans-Earth Injection
A trans-Earth injection (TEI) is a propulsion maneuver used to set a spacecraft on a trajectory which will intersect the Earth's sphere of influence, usually putting the spacecraft on a free return trajectory. The maneuver is performed by a rocket engine. From the Moon The spacecraft is usually in a parking orbit around the Moon at the time of TEI, in which case the burn is timed so that its midpoint is opposite the Earth's location upon arrival. Uncrewed space probes have also performed this maneuver from the Moon starting with Luna 16's direct ascent traverse from the lunar surface in 1970. On the Apollo missions, it was performed by the restartable Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine on the Service Module after the undocking of the (LM) Lunar Module if provided. An Apollo TEI burn lasted approximately 150 seconds, providing a posigrade velocity increase of 1,000 m/s (3,300 ft/s). It was first performed by the Apollo 8 mission on December 25, 1968. It was la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbital Maneuver
In spaceflight, an orbital maneuver (otherwise known as a burn) is the use of propulsion systems to change the orbit of a spacecraft. For spacecraft far from Earth, an orbital maneuver is called a ''deep-space maneuver (DSM)''. When a spacecraft is not conducting a maneuver, especially in a transfer orbit, it is said to be ''coasting''. General Rocket equation The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation, can be useful for analysis of maneuvers by vehicles using rocket propulsion. A rocket applies acceleration to itself (a thrust) by expelling part of its mass at high speed. The rocket itself moves due to the conservation of momentum. Delta-v The applied change in velocity of each maneuver is referred to as delta-v (\Delta\mathbf\,). The delta-v for all the expected maneuvers are estimated for a mission are summarized in a delta-v budget. With a good approximation of the delta-v budget designers can estimate the propellant required for planned maneuve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module Eagle, Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected of lunar material to bring back to Earth as pilot Michael Collins (astronaut), Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia, Command Module ''Columbia'' in lunar orbit, and were on the Moon's surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes, before lifting off to rejoin ''Columbia''. Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stardust (spacecraft)
''Stardust'' was a 385-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on 7 February 1999. Its primary mission was to collect dust samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, as well as samples of cosmic dust, and return them to Earth for analysis. It was the first sample return mission of its kind. En route to Comet Wild 2, it also flew by and studied the asteroid 5535 Annefrank. The primary mission was successfully completed on 15 January 2006 when the sample return capsule returned to Earth. A mission extension, codenamed ''NExT'', culminated in February 2011 with ''Stardust'' intercepting Comet Tempel 1, a small Solar System body previously visited by '' Deep Impact'' in 2005. ''Stardust'' ceased operations in March 2011. On 14 August 2014, scientists announced the identification of possible interstellar dust particles from the ''Stardust'' capsule returned to Earth in 2006. Mission background History Beginning in the 1980s, scientists began seeking a dedicate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'e 6
Chang'e 6 () was the sixth robotic lunar exploration mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the second CNSA lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e. It was the first lunar mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon; all previous samples were collected from the near side. The mission began on 3 May 2024 when the spacecraft was launched from Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. Its lander and rover touched down on the lunar far side on 1 June 2024. The lander's robotic scoop and drill took samples with a total mass of 1935.3 grams from the lunar surface; the ascender module then carried these into lunar orbit on 3 June 2024. The ascender docked with the orbiter module in lunar orbit on 6 June 2024 and transferred the samples to an atmospheric re-entry module which then returned to Earth. The mission's lander and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artemis 1
Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission that was launched in November 2022. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar exploration after the conclusion of the Apollo program five decades earlier. It was the first integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and its main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft, especially its heat shield, in preparation for subsequent Artemis missions. These missions seek to reestablish a human presence on the Moon and demonstrate technologies and business approaches needed for future scientific studies, including exploration of Mars. The Orion spacecraft for Artemis I was stacked on October 20, 2021, and on August 17, 2022, the fully stacked vehicle was rolled out for launch after a series of delays caused by difficulties in pre-flight testing. The first two launch attempts were canceled due ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'e 5
Chang'e 5 () was the fifth lunar exploration mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of CNSA, and China's first lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e. It launched at 20:30 UTC on 23 November 2020, from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, landed on the Moon on 1 December 2020, collected ~ of lunar samples (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned to the Earth at 17:59 UTC on 16 December 2020. Chang'e 5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. New lunar minerals, including Changesite-(Y) and two different structures of the titanium compound Ti2O, were identified from the samples returned from the mission, making China the third country to discover a new lunar mineral. The mission also made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union. Overview The Chinese Lunar Expl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'e 5-T1
Chang'e 5-T1 () was an experimental robotic spacecraft that was launched to the Moon on 23 October 2014, by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the Chang'e 5 mission. As part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chang'e 5, launched in 2020, was a Moon sample return mission. 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, Inner Mongolia, 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 a period of 8 hours. Characteristics It consisted of a DFH-3A " Chang'e 2 type" spacecraft with a mass of approximately 2,215 kg (including 1,065 kg of fuel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clementine (spacecraft)
''Clementine'' (officially called the Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE)) was a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (previously the Strategic Defense Initiative, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization) and NASA, launched on January 25, 1994. Its objective was to test sensors and spacecraft components in long-term exposure to space and to make scientific observations of both the Moon and the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos. Its lunar observations included imaging at various wavelengths in the visible as well as in ultraviolet and infrared, laser ranging Altimeter, altimetry, gravimetry, and charged particle measurements. These observations were for the purposes of obtaining multi-spectral imaging of the entire lunar surface, assessing the surface mineralogy of the Moon, obtaining altimetry from 60°N to 60°S latitude, and obtaining gravity data for the near side. There were also plans to image and determine the size, shape, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luna 24
''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The 24th mission of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sample return missions were '' Luna 16'' and '' Luna 20''). The probe landed in Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). The mission returned of lunar samples to the Earth on 22 August 1976. Spacecraft Luna 24 was based on the Ye-8-5 spacecraft body, consisting of two attached stages, an ascent stage mounted on top of a descent stage. The lander stood 3.96 meters tall and had an unfueled landed mass of 1880 kg. With a full load of fuel its launch mass was between 5600 and 5750 kg. The descent stage was the same as the Ye-8 lower stage for the Lunokhod rovers, a cylindrical body with four protruding landing legs, fuel tanks, a landing radar altimeter, and a dual descent engine complex. The main descent rocket, the KTDU-417, was a throttleabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans (astronaut), Ronald Evans orbited above. Schmitt was the only professional geologist to land on the Moon; he was selected in place of Joe Engle, as NASA had been under pressure to send a scientist to the Moon. The mission's heavy emphasis on science meant the inclusion of a number of new experiments, including a Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey, biological experiment containing five mice that was carried in the command module. Mission planners had two primary goals in deciding on the landing site: to sample Lunar highlands, lunar highland material older than that at Mare Imbrium and to investigate the possibility of relatively recent Volcano, volcanic activity. They therefore selected Taurus–Littrow, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollo 16
Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth human spaceflight, crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the second of Apollo's "List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J missions", with an extended stay on the Geology of the Moon#Lunar landscape, lunar surface, a focus on science, and the use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The landing and Exploration of the Moon, exploration were in the Descartes Highlands, a site chosen because some scientists expected it to be an area formed by volcanic action, though this proved not to be the case. The mission was crewed by Astronaut ranks and positions, Commander John Young (astronaut), John Young, Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 16, 1972, Apollo 16 experienced a number of minor glitches en route to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luna 20
''Luna 20'' was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions. ''Luna 20'' was placed in an intermediate Earth parking orbit and from this orbit was sent towards the Moon. It entered lunar orbit on 18 February 1972. On 21 February 1972, ''Luna 20'' soft landed on the Moon in a mountainous area known as the Terra Apollonius (or Apollonius highlands) near Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility), 120 km from where '' Luna 16'' had landed. While on the lunar surface, the panoramic television system was operated. Lunar samples were obtained by means of an extendable drilling apparatus. The ascent stage of ''Luna 20'' was launched from the lunar surface on 22 February 1972 carrying 1.9 ounces (55 grams) of collected lunar samples in a sealed capsule. It landed in the Soviet Union on 25 February 1972. The lunar samples were recovered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
