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Overview of Hyperspectral Sensors on Orbits
Published in Shen-En Qian, Hyperspectral Satellites and System Design, 2020
The Visible and Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) is one of the main scientific payloads of China's lunar rover Yutu (“Jade Rabbit” in Chinese) of the Chang'E 3 mission, which reached lunar orbit on December 6, 2013, and landed on the moon on December 14, 2013. The Chang'E 3 mission included a lander and a lunar rover Yutu, each of them carried scientific payloads. After soft landing on the moon, Chang'E 3 carried out a lunar survey and scientific exploration activities, including (1) survey of lunar surface for topography and geological structure, (2) lunar surface material composition and available resource exploration, and (3) detection of the Earth's plasma layer and moon-based optical astronomical observation (Ye and Peng 2006, Dai et al. 2014).
Scientific Rationale for Planetary Drilling
Published in Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Kris Zacny, Advances in Extraterrestrial Drilling, 2020
H. M. Sapers, L. W. Beegle, C. M. Caudill, E. Cloutis, J. Dickson, P. Hill
As we enter into the 21st century, a renaissance of lunar exploration has flourished as more nations began to utilize remote sensing to investigate and map the lunar surface. Missions including the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 (2003); China National Space Administration’s Chang’e 1 (2007), Chang’e 2 (2010), Chang’e 3 (2013), and Chang’e 5-T1 (2014); the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 (2008); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kaguya (2007); and NASA’S LCROSS (2009), LRO (2009), and GRAIL (2011). Before Chang’e 3 and the Yutu Rover, no mission had returned to the surface since Luna 24 in 1976. China sees their lunar exploration as a means to “improve knowledge of the Moon and improve abilities to utilize the lunar resource. It has strategic importance for China to safeguard legal rights on the Moon” (Zheng et al., 2008). Likewise, ESA’s lunar exploration is looking toward the Moon as the next target for human exploration after the International Space Station (ISS) with PILOT, SPECTRUM, and PROSPECT as three preliminary missions for hazard detection, resource investigation, and ground communication (2019). Even the Trump administration is interested “in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and use” (The United States, 2018). The Moon is now universally seen as the next target for human exploration, with drilling destined to play a predominate role as we further explore the lunar surface and subsurface. An example of this can be seen in the upcoming Chang’e 5 mission planned for 2020. Though exact details for this planned mission are still to be determined, one of Chang’e 5’s mission goals is to return a drill core sample from the Rümker region at the South Pole of the Moon (Qian et al., 2018).
Estimation of mechanical parameters of Tongji-1 lunar soil simulant based on cone penetration test
Published in European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2022
M. J. Jiang, N. Zhang, L. Cui, B. L. Xi, H. Y. Lei, X. X. Wang
China had successfully launched Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 in 2007 and 2010, respectively. They mark the success of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. In 2013, Chang’e 3 had been launched, which contains the landing of a robotic lander and a rover, ‘Yutu’ (meaning of Jade Rabbit), on the lunar surface as presented in Figure 1. However, it is just a start of the exploration of the Moon. In the near future, more explorations will be carried out and even permanent outposts may be built on the lunar surface. To ensure a safe landing on the lunar surface and a stable permanent output being built up, a strong lunar ground is required. To assess the strength and stability of a ground in geotechnical engineering, the bearing capacity and deformation modulus are key parameters for consideration (Shen, Wang, & Cheng, 2017; Shen, Wu, Cui, & Yin, 2014; Yin, Chang, & Hicher, 2010; Yin, Yin, & Huang, 2015). The bearing capacity of the ground is the maximum average contact pressure between the foundation and the soil which should not produce shear failure in the ground (Shen, Ma, Xu, & Yin, 2013), which can be used to estimate the stability of the foundation. The deformation modulus can be used to estimate the settlement of the foundation (Shen et al., 2017; Wu, Shen, Liao, & Yin, 2015; Yin, Zhao, & Hicher, 2014).