MUMBAI: Nearly nine months after India’s Chandrayaan 3 soft-landed on moon’s south pole on Aug 23 2023 and set records, Pakistan is set to embark Friday on its maiden lunar mission on board China’s Change’6 orbiter.
Change’6 is slated for lift-off around 1.30pm (Indian time) from Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on China’s Hainan Island. According to Pakistan’s Institute Of Space Technology (IST), the moon-bound spacecraft is a lunar cubesat, designated ICube Qamar (ICUBE-Q), with a three-month mission span.
The mission is a collaborative effort of IST’s faculty and students, Pakistan’s national space agency Suparco and China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).
In 2022, China National Space Agency (CNSA) had offered member-states a unique opportunity through Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO) to send a student-built payload to the moon on board the Change’6 mission. Pakistan’s ICUBE-Q was selected.
According to IST, ICUBE-Q weighs approximately 7kg and is equipped with two optical cameras to capture the lunar surface. It features systems for attitude control, thermal management and deep-space communication.
IST lists the main mission objectives as follows — successful separation of ICUBE-Q CubeSat into lunar orbit from Change’6 Orbiter; use of Orbiter camera to record the release process of ICUBE-Q; successful reception of beacon signal from ICUBE-Q, confirming successful operation of CubeSat.
Pictures will also be taken of the orbiter, earth and the moon, apart from two to three objects (moon, earth and orbiter) together, IST said.
Change’6 will land on the far side of the moon, collect up to 2000 grams of lunar material and return to earth in a first-of-its-kind mission.
Change’6 is slated for lift-off around 1.30pm (Indian time) from Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on China’s Hainan Island. According to Pakistan’s Institute Of Space Technology (IST), the moon-bound spacecraft is a lunar cubesat, designated ICube Qamar (ICUBE-Q), with a three-month mission span.
The mission is a collaborative effort of IST’s faculty and students, Pakistan’s national space agency Suparco and China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).
In 2022, China National Space Agency (CNSA) had offered member-states a unique opportunity through Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO) to send a student-built payload to the moon on board the Change’6 mission. Pakistan’s ICUBE-Q was selected.
According to IST, ICUBE-Q weighs approximately 7kg and is equipped with two optical cameras to capture the lunar surface. It features systems for attitude control, thermal management and deep-space communication.
IST lists the main mission objectives as follows — successful separation of ICUBE-Q CubeSat into lunar orbit from Change’6 Orbiter; use of Orbiter camera to record the release process of ICUBE-Q; successful reception of beacon signal from ICUBE-Q, confirming successful operation of CubeSat.
Pictures will also be taken of the orbiter, earth and the moon, apart from two to three objects (moon, earth and orbiter) together, IST said.
Change’6 will land on the far side of the moon, collect up to 2000 grams of lunar material and return to earth in a first-of-its-kind mission.
