HEY WORLD CHANG'E 5 DID IT!!!

 Way to go Chang'e 5!!! You did it WOW!!!  FANTASTIC !!!! MARVELOUS !!!!! I am so excited , so enthralled , so joyous!! The Chinese  National Space Agency  has accomplished something truly amazing. I waited and waited for the so called media to shout it from the rooftops to let the world know !! THERE WAS NOTHING mentioned!?? Thank goodness for the internet. I can announce to the world that Chang'e 5 left earth, landed on the moon, got some moon rocks, lifted off from the moon, transferred the rocks and came home. This was done in three weeks. WOW! WOW! WOW! I cannot get a parcel delivered on this small patch of Mother Earth in the same time.

The video above shows the thermal images of the capsule with those very precious moon rocks. This is the last step. However it had to drill on the moon for the rocks. I am thrilled looking at this because it is on the moon!!

Now that is has retrieved the moon rocks and stored them on the ascender it launches itself from the surface. It sends a chill down my spine watching it disappear!!

It has to transfer the rocks to the waiting orbiter module so they are secure for the three day journey back to earth.

Now here at this point in the mission I had to wait for days for something new. I waited and waited and I did not get any information, any videos about it leaving the moon's orbit or its passage back to earth. I wondered if it had achieved earth orbit. Then yesterday I saw the video of it landing. Now there are few real cool ones of it streaking across the sky. 

In this messed up world this is news that is happy. Mankind is accomplishing some innovative and gut wrenching great things. Here is a video of the capsule that survived re-entry being looked after carefully by the ground crew in a cold place on the good earth.

   Now the first part of this blog was a pleasure to write. What follows is my personal analysis of why, why, why and yes why the world is not taking note of this historic achievement. I find the American media completely absorbed with just the U.S. I feel they think the world revolves around them. Their space program was once supreme but they have dropped the ball, as they have done in the past. They use private enterprise at their peril to re-supply the international space station. It was because of the Americans refusal that the Chinese were not invited to join. How pathetic is that !!

    I am a proud Canadian and even though we are a small nation we have punched above our weight for decades. I am concerned at the state of affairs in our neighbour to the south. Yet our media is all excited that we will join the U.S. in a possible, maybe flight to the moon. Yes someday they will do this, someday they will do that. All I say is SHOW ME!! Do not talk the talk, instead walk the walk!! Show me concrete action, rockets and of course cold hard cash. 

The Chinese are doing great things and they are accomplishing feats of technical prowess. They have a vision and a great deal of courage. So now the ball has been passed to them, while the Americans and the Russians concentrate on the trivial, stupid and mundane and ignorant things on this planet.

Yes the world is suffering through a horrific pandemic and that is the focus of many. I am aware of this salient fact. However this expedition to the moon should be celebrated by all Mankind as a triumph for our species, a bright moment in an otherwise dark and dismal year!!

Why this story is not the first on newsflashes confounds me.

Well I care about this deeply so world hear me ROAR!!

CHANG'E 5 RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW Chang-5 WOW!!!!

 My goodness it was a week ago when I last wrote about this amazing space feat. Now Chang-5 went into orbit, landed, got the samples and just now launched the ascender to rendezvous with the orbiter to the precious moon rocks! They surely are not wasting anytime on this mission. So after making attitude adjustments then it will meet up with the orbiter and transfer the rocks. then the return to earth begins and this will take about 3 days. So it looks like I will be writing this blog again. I do not mind at all for what mankind had to endure these past few months it is an extreme pleasure to have some genuine great news to show off!!!

Here it is landing on the moon. This is tricky because the landing sight is full of rocks.

It seems like it just landed, but it just did, and sure enough it starts drilling near the lander for samples. This is fascinating to watch and it sends shivers up my spine.

Then it sure does let the moon dust settle on it, the ascender full of samples lifts off from the moon. Man it climbs very fast an disappears leaving the lander all alone on the surface.

So for now I feel like a little child, I am excited, happy, anxious and full of hope, and yet a bit scared all at the same time. It has been a great mission and the best is yet to come!!!

Lunokhod the Russian Moon Rover

Recently I became aware of some fascinating pictures of the Russian robot rover on the moon. It was launched as the answer to the Apollo 11 moon landing. It was discovered by a Canadian astronomer with data from a recent Lunar Orbiter. He found that it holds the distance record of over thirty-five kilometers traversing on the moon and now is seen beside a crater. The pictures are literally out of this world and it takes your breath away to see the tracks it made in the lunar dust all those decades ago.

Now as I look at these pictures  I wonder about the lagging space programs in the world. All going in their own directions. I think in this twenty-first century we should put our differences aside and work together. In this way we could share the high initial cost of going into space. To set things up is going to be very expensive. However as a species we can certainly afford it. We should back to the moon with the plan of setting up a permanent moon base and from there explore the planets. The moon has less gravity and we could launch ship after ship with less energy use.

Now the crews of these ships should be robotic at first, second and of course third. Robots are perfect for space. They do not need life support  and can be built for specific missions to specific planets. Also they can be built to last for decades. What wonders will we see??  What secrets will we learn ?? As we learn  these secrets the whole world can share equally. World wide interest will cause the governments to keep up the expense. We cannot afford not to do this. Hopefully we could set up a World Space Administration.  We should go into space with specific timetables and goals. We should also have a vision of the future. The great potential of space can be realized if we work as one species. What happens to one affects us all since we share the same biosphere, at least for the near term.

Sleep well loyal, hard working robot !!

I just found a new, well old video in Russian about these robots. They are filmed on Earth with some lively music. To a robot builder the movements of the robot are like a well orchestrated ballet . I hope you enjoy it as much as I love to watch this type of robot in action !

Just the Moon Please !!

What happened here??? Where are those moon bases?? Where are the moon colonies.?? They used to say that people that were a bit touched were lunatics. We are crazy if we do not exploit our nearest celestial neighbour.  We just got there and then we abandoned our grand vision. The first nation to land a man on the moon seems to be seized with an overwhelming lethargy .

However other nations are now beginning to land  robots,  and  hope to land man back on the moon. The nation that can accomplish that will be on the rise and be able to exploit that tremendous potential. They can extract and use the frozen water on the moon's surface. They can construct manufacturing plants. If they have a grand vision, build spaceships from material found on the surface and launch them with less effort and energy due to the lower gravity.

I am glad we have not given up on the dream of returning to the moon. It will mean changing the train going there but it is important to remember that we are all the same species and the man must be back on the moon for the sake of our  future as a race.

                                                   Apollo 15 Moon Rover on surface.