Chang'e-6 is still flying in space, and it is expected that by May 8, it will be captured by the moon's gravity and enter lunar orbit, when Chang'e-6 will complete the first mission of the plan, which is to release Pakistan's CubeSat.
The CubeSat, which can be seen as a symbol of China-Pakistan friendship, is Pakistan's first lunar probe and, in Pakistan's parlance, a historic moment.
Therefore, after the successful launch of Chang'e-6, it is the Pakistanis who are the happiest, and without Chang'e-6, or China's help, Pakistan may have to wait a long time before it can go to the moon.
After releasing Pakistan's CubeSat, Chang'e-6 will remain in lunar orbit for about 20 days, which will be used as an adjustment time.
The reason why it has been adjusted for so long is because this time Chang'e-6 is challenging the far side of the moon, and all the signals sent to Luna 2 are blocked by the front side of the moon, relying on Queqiao-2 to act as a communication bridge.
This greatly increases the difficulty of landing on the moon, and in the process of landing on the moon, it is very difficult to test the autonomous control ability of Chang'e-6 and the "stability" of the bridge of Queqiao 2.
After 20 days in lunar orbit, Chang'e-6 began landing on the lunar surface for its most important mission, which was to dig on the far side of the moon.
After Chang'e-6 finishes digging the earth, the ascender will ignite and ascend, rendezvous and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit, and then return to Earth, perhaps in the same process as Chang'e-5.
But unlike Chang'e-5, the Chang'e-5 lander was abandoned on the surface of the moon and became a "relic" on the moon.
After completing the mission, the Chang'e-6 lander will continue to stay on the surface of the moon to complete the follow-up mission, which is to act as a support for a "mirror" in Italy.
This time, Chang'e-6 carried four international payloads, and the other three were all lunar probes, but Italy carried a special payload, which was a "mirror".
This makes it difficult to understand that Chang'e-6 flew 380,000 kilometers, took 53 days, and traveled all the way to the moon, and Italy actually let it carry a mirror to the far side of the moon.
It would be understandable if this mirror was mounted on the front side of the Earth, and the laser light emitted from the Earth could be received by the front mirror, but if it was mounted on the far side of the Moon with its back to the Earth forever, who was it for?
In fact, there were already 5 mirrors on the moon, and the last one was placed by Apollo 11 in the moon's tranquil sea. It is this reflector that allows humans to accurately measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon, which can be accurate to centimeters.
In the course of the subsequent Apollo mission, three mirrors were placed at different locations on the front side of the moon, and the Soviet lunar probe placed one, and in the last century, humans placed a total of five mirrors on the moon.
In addition to measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon, these mirrors can also monitor the Moon with high precision, and it is under high-precision monitoring that humans have discovered that the Moon is not in a fixed orbit, but is moving away from the Earth at a speed of 3.8 centimeters per year.
In 2009, scientists discovered a practical problem, that is, the five-sided mirrors placed on the surface of the moon in the last century were of little use to the laser ranging stations on the earth, except for accurately measuring the distance between the earth and the moon, and the moon moving away from the earth at a speed of 3.8 kilometers per year.
In fact, the reflector placed on the surface of the moon, in addition to accurately measuring the distance between the Earth and the Moon, also has an invisible effect, that is, many people question the authenticity of the Apollo 11 moon landing and think that the Apollo moon landing is fake, but these reflectors placed on the surface of the moon provide strong evidence for the Apollo moon landing.
If the reflector is placed on the front side of the moon, at least it can measure the distance between the Earth and the moon, then what is the purpose of the mirror carried by Chang'e-6 to Italy this time, but it is placed on the far side of the moon?
In fact, the mirror on the moon has no effect on the laser ranging station on the earth, and with today's science and technology, even without the help of the mirror, human beings can accurately calculate the distance between the earth and the moon and its orbit information.
Therefore, these mirrors do not have much effect on the earth. But for the Moon, it's very important. These mirrors have an important role to play, providing navigation for probes and satellites in lunar orbit. It's like the lighthouses in the sea in the early years, guiding the ships that are moving forward.
We are all familiar with the navigation system, which is the joint positioning of multiple satellites in space to accurately obtain geographic information. For satellites on the moon, if you want to rely on the reflectors on the surface of the moon to "navigate" them, then you need many mirrors to locate them.
Many people may wonder if the probes in lunar orbit also need to be located? Yes, especially in the future, as humans accelerate the pace of lunar exploration, more and more probes will be launched into lunar orbit.
Originally, the moon is much smaller than the earth, and the orbit above it is much narrower, and there have been space accidents in which a lunar probe almost "crashed" in orbit.
With these mirrors, especially after installing the reflectors on the far side of the moon, the satellite can locate the altitude and orbital distance according to these mirrors, and correct it in time if there is a deviation to avoid a space "crash".
Therefore, although the reflector carried by Chang'e-6 for Italy cannot be seen on Earth, it is very necessary for a probe in lunar orbit.
Although Chang'e-6 carried a reflector to the far side of the moon this time, with the increasing number of probes in lunar orbit, one is obviously not enough, and more mirrors will be installed on the back side of the moon in the future, so that the lunar probe will no longer be "lost", and then the precious lunar probe will crash.
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