Chang'e 5-T1 () was an experimental

robotic spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which t ...

that was launched to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

on 23 October 2014, by the

China National Space Administration The China National Space Administration (CNSA) is a government agency of the People's Republic of China headquartered in Haidian District, Haidian, Beijing, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These ...

(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 Chang'e ( ; ), originally known as Heng'e (), is the goddess of the Moon and wife of Hou Yi, the great archer. Renowned for her beauty, Chang'e is also known for her ascending to the Moon with her pet Yu Tu, the Moon Rabbit and living in the Mo ...

. 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 Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of 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 Chang'e 2 (; ) is a Chinese uncrewed 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. 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 Chang'e 5 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 in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...

, 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: Siziwang Banner,

, 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 amateur radio-astronomers in late 2020.

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 federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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 (albeit referring to the later Chang'e 5 mission in his answer). 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 Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

rocket which launched NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft, but was later correctly identified as the Long March stage in February 2022. The event showed the challenges of tracking small objects in deep space, underlining the importance of sustainability in space operations going forward. In June 2022, a compatible double crater was found by the LROC team at the same location previously estimated, and later by Chandrayaan-2 OHRC.

Secondary payloads

Chang'e 5-T1 also carried 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, 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 In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction finding, direction-finding equipment to find relative Bearing (navigation), bearing. But instead of employing visible lig ...

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 the results back to LuxSpace. The second instrument, a radiation

dosimeter A radiation dosimeter is a device that measures the equivalent dose, 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 el ...

provided by the Spanish company iC-Málaga, continuously measured

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

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