China
Chang´e 1 gets check-up
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Source: CCTV.com | 11-11-2007 12:43
Special Report: Chang'e I -Journey to the Moon |
China's first lunar probe, the Chang'e-One, is undergoing a physical check-up. Engineers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center started maneuvers on Friday.
The test will be carried out over ten days. In the meantime, the orbiter has met with challenges from a natural phenomenon sun outage.
Engineers are testing Chang'e-One's function and monitoring devices to make sure that they're operating normally while the satellite orbits the Moon.
The check-up is to prepare the probe for the scientific exploration that is scheduled to start in a week.
Since the maneuver started on Friday, two key devices on Chang-e One have been made operational-- the star sensor and the beam antenna.
Functioning like human eyes, the sensor is mainly used to determine the orbiter's direction.
The head of Chang'e-One was facing the sun before. But since the sensor was made operational, it has been able to turn to the Moon.
