Mission May Last Longer Due To Fuel Savings

China's inaugural lunar probe successfully entered lunar orbit this week, and by the end of the week should be in a position to begin its mission, according to the state press.

Chang'e-1 fired its braking rockets Monday to enter a high orbit over the moon. That was followed by a second braking Tuesday, and a third scheduled for later this week will place the probe into its final, working orbit, reports Agence-France Presse.

"So far, orbital transfers of the probe have all been done accurately," Bian Bingxiu of the China Aerospace and Technology Corporation told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Scientists eager to study the findings from Chang'e received another piece of good news, as well. Early indications are the probe has enough fuel remaining to extend its mission past the 12 months originally forecast.

"The precise ground maneuvers and orbital transfers have saved a lot of fuel, which may prolong the probe's working time on its final orbit by around one year," Bian said.

When place in its final orbit, Chang'e will circle the moon once every 127 minutes, from a constant altitude of 125 miles above the lunar surface. First images from the probe will be transmitted later this month.

Something those images will not show -- any sign of the footprints left by US astronauts on the lunar surface. That's not a conspiracy, one of the probe's designers said Wednesday... it's a limitation of the technology onboard the probe.

"It depends on the camera's resolution to decide the size of the things that can be shown in the pictures by the probe," said Sun Huixian, deputy chief designer for Chang'e. "If we want to see clearly from the picture a footprint with a length of 30 cm and a width of 10 cm, the camera must have a centimeter-level resolution.

"So far, no camera carried by lunar probes have reached such a resolution in the world," Sun added.

FMI: www.cnsa.gov.cn