INCREDIBLE images from China's Chang’e 6 lander, which landed on the far side of the moon late on June 1 and lifted off in an ascent vehicle with the first lunar samples from the far side of the moon yesterday.
Image credit: CNSA
@skrishna I could search but I’m sure you know: was it remotely operated or (semi?) autonomous? (Given that it was on the far side, achieving reliable comms may have been challenging enough that they had to make it autonomous?).
Anyway, those picture are so good compared to what we saw recently!
@bibipov I know the rendezvous and docking in orbit will be autonomous, I don't know about the ascent! They do have communication though thanks to a relay satellite they placed in orbit.
@skrishna Thanks a lot! I knew I would get more info by asking you. So I searched a bit and their Queqiao sats are in earth’s orbit (Lagrange L2), not around the moon like I thought. I think that means days of reliable coms but now I want to know how much out of 28 days and I need to research that 😀