A China National Space Administration programme to explore the Moon in at least three phases: 1) lunar orbiter missions, 2) soft lunar landing missions with rovers, and 3) a sample-return mission. Also known as the Chang’e Programme, after the Chinese goddess of the Moon, it has successfully completed several of its missions.
Four Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter views of China’s Chang’e 3 landing site: A) before landing, 30 June 2013; B) after landing, 25 December 2013; C) 21 January 2014; D) 17 February 2014. The width of each image is 200 metres. Follow Yutu’s path clockwise around the lander in ‘D’.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
Chang’e 1 (Phase 1)
China’s first lunar mission and spacecraft. The lunar orbiter launched on 24 October 2007 aboard a Long March 3A rocket. It mapped the Moon in high-definition 3D and recorded the abundance and distribution of various chemical elements on the lunar surface as part of an evaluation of potentially useful resources.
Chang’e 2 (Phase 1)
A lunar orbiter launched on 1 October 2010 aboard a Long March 3C rocket to act as a technical test satellite for future Chinese lunar missions. After achieving its principal objective—to return high-resolution images of the lunar surface to aid in selection of a landing site for the Chang’e 3 lander and rover mission—it left lunar orbit and flew to the Earth–Sun L2 Lagrangian point before completing a fly-by of asteroid 4179 Toutatis on 13 December 2012 and heading out to deep space.
Chang’e 3 (Phase 2)
China’s first and successful lander/rover mission. Launched on 2 December 2013, Chang’e 3 landed on the Moon in northwestern Mare Imbrium 12 days later. On 14 December, the Yutu rover separated from the lander and traversed for a total of 0.114 km. The lander and rover each carried four science instruments to investigate the geology, morphology, and chemical composition of the landing area. The instruments were also designed to explore the terrestrial-lunar space environment and to make lunar-based astronomical observations.