Chang’e Ⅰ China’s Moon Exploration Program

Part Ⅰ The moon

When the moon is referred, what can you think of?

Moon cakesOf course!

Romance!I think so.

静夜思

李

白床前明月

光疑是地上

霜举头忘明

月低头思故

乡

And the famous poem.

And here we go the beauty—— chang’e!

This is the much closer moon, no moon cakes, no romance, no poem, and no Chang’e of course!

How much do you know about the moon? Do you know that the moon affects our earth a lot?

1.The moon is the only satellite of the earth

2.The moon is about 4.6 billion years old.

3.The moon is about as 3/11 big as the earth.

Of course! You know all that I have talked about .

But, do you know these?

There is a tide-generating force( 引潮力） from the moon to the earth ， which can keep the angle of cant ( 倾斜角） of the earth stable ； and set the atmosphere( 大气） in motion that affects the weather and air pressure( 气压） a lot.

When the moon moves closer to the earth, the sea on the surface of the earth begin to tide surge( 潮汐起伏）， which will produce a huge magnetic field ( 磁场）， and a powerful protection from the radiation( 辐射） begin to work.

For plants, especially for the newly born ones, moonlight can help them to grow faster, and help them to make their wound to be cured faster and better.

And these ：

we can just see only one side of the moon all the time.

There is about 1million to 5miliion ton of helium-3( 氦 -3 ） on the moon,Which is much enough for human beings to use at least 10000 years.

The helium-3 is now considered to be the perfect resource to finish nuclear fusion( 核聚变 )in the 21th Century, because it can produce a large amount of energy and without pollution.

The radiation from the sun to the moon is much bigger than that to the earth, so about 1.2 Billion kilowatt( 千瓦） energy can be produced. Besides, the special environment on the moon can help us to make special alloy( 合金 ), steels, highly pure mental and medicine, and so on.

See? The moon is so important to us, and there are still many things unknown, so for us, human beings, decided to explore the moon.

And here let’s come to our Chang’e Ⅰ—— the Moon Exploration Program

What is Chang’e Ⅰ—the moon exploration program?

Chang’e actually is a probe( 探测器）， named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon.

Chang‘e Ⅰ is China’s first lunar orbiter( 人造卫星） project. 1.The probe will map the lunar surface to get three-dimensional images. 2.The mission will also analyze the content and distribution of minerals on the lunar surface.3.measure the density of lunar soil. 4.explore the lunar space environment.

What are the purposes?

Part Ⅱ

Now let’s come to study the probe — Chang’e Ⅰ

Chang’e Ⅰ

Long march CZ-3A rocket 长城 3 号甲火箭

The structure of the rocket:

卫星整流罩 the probe is in itTo protect the probe from the disturb from the atmosphere

一子级

二子级

三子级

Orbit ( 轨道） of Chang’eⅠ

Part Ⅲ Steps:

1. Launch ( 发射）

Time : 6:05 pm October 24th 2007

Place : Launch Site in Xichang

People: Ye Peijian – the chief commander and designer of the probe system.

Cost: only costs 1 billion to 1.4 billion yuan (US$133 million to US$187 million), the same amount as the money used to construct two kilometers of subway

2. Separating the probe from the rocket:

firstly

Secondly

thirdly

fourthly

3.Flying in to the three earth orbits:

It is very important to change the orbit, our Chang’e changed its first orbit at 17:55 Oct. 25th; It changed it’s orbit at17:44 Oct. 26th; And it changed its orbits at 18:01 OCT. 29th.

4.Flying in to the three moon’s orbits:

Our Chang’e left the earth and flied to the moon at 17:28 Oct 31st; It flied to the first orbit at 11:25 Nov 5t

h; It got in to the second orbit at 11:35 Nov 6th; It moved in to the third orbit at 8:34 Nov 7th;

Then, Chang’e begins its work(200 km from the moon's surface) , starts to map the lunar surface, and then sets the information back to the earth.

Chang’e will fly around the moon for one year, and it will hit the moon at last to get more information.

Now let’s enjoy the whole course of the launch of Chang’e:

Although countries like the US and Russia have set probes to the moon, we are definitely not doing the easy repetition.

1.Our Chang’e is flying around the moon, not just flying bythe moon.

2.This the first time for human beings to use real solid( 立体的）cameras to get three-dimensional images.

Part Ⅳ

3.It will be the first time for human beings to use microwave remote control to test the exact thickness of the soil on the moon.

Our Chang’e is flying around the moon right this moment.

And as a Chinese, we should be proud of our country!

And a bigger surprise:

Scientists in our country is planning on setting another probeTo the Mars( 火星） in 2009!

I think we should think about a question:

What can we do to attribute to human beings?

What do you think?

The End