The lunar orbiter of NASA captured the Chinese probe Chang-e-4 for the third time – Technology

Last updated on February 16, 2019 10:09

This view had almost the smallest pixel size possible in NASA's current LRO orbit.

(Web Desk) – NASA, the US space agency said Friday that its lunar orbiter had captured for the third time the site of the landing of the Chinese lunar probe Chang'e-4, and this time with a higher resolution .

According to NASA, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has surpassed the landing site of the Chinese lunar probe on February 1, giving an image of 0.85 meters per pixel of the landing gear and the Yutu rover. 2 or Jade Rabbit-2 of an attitude of 82 kilometers.

This view had almost the smallest pixel size possible in the current orbit of LRO.

NASA said the rover was 29 meters northwest of the LG, but that the rover had probably moved around since obtaining the image.

The space agency said the LRO would continue to image the site as the light changed and the mobile moved.

Earlier on January 30 and 31, the LRO had described the landing site for the first and second time respectively, but both in angle, according to NASA.

Chang'e-4 landed on a basalt deposit on a pond on the other side. NASA hoped that the Chinese probe could discover the composition of the basalts of the hidden face thanks to its visible near infrared spectrometer.

The Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft, launched on December 8, 2018, landed on January 3 at the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin, from the back of the moon.

NASA announced last month its intention to cooperate with Chinese space authorities to observe the signing of the landing plume of the Chang'e-4 lunar lander.