A small Chinese satellite in lunar orbit captured incredible images of a Total solar eclipse in South America last year, thanks to commands from radio enthusiasts.
The images were taken on July 2, 2019, with the small ‘Inory eye‘camera, installed in Longjiang 2, a microsatellite developed by a team at the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in northeast China.
Longjiang 2, also known as DSLWP-B, launched with a twin in May 2018. The two small satellites launched on a mission to launch Queqiao, a communications relay satellite that later facilitated the Chang’e 4 landing on the other side of the moon. The Longjiang program was designed to test a type of interferometric technique for astronomical observations.
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While Queqiao continued beyond the moon to fulfill his role, the diminutive 99 pounds. (45 kilograms) Longjiang 2 used its own propulsion to slow down and enter lunar orbit.
Here, the small satellite received commands sent by students at HIT by radio enthusiasts in Europe, instruct the spacecraft to represent the moon, Earth, and stars.
For the images of the eclipse of July 2019, Reinhard Kühn, an amateur radio astronomer from Sörup, Germany, issued Commands time the eclipse image using an antenna in your garden.
Longjiang 2 also carried a remote sensing payload built by Saudi Arabia as part of the international cooperations surrounding the Chang’e 4 mission. The small satellite also returned striking images of Earth and the moon.
Some of the images taken to the moon by DSLWP-B using the Saudi moon remote sensing payload https://t.co/24rxnqFOjv pic.twitter.com/YDXZbHXD8NAugust 1, 2019
Longjiang 2 ended its mission in August 2019 when it was deliberately crashed into the moon to eliminate any danger for future lunar missions.
Earlier this month, the team released a animated short film detailing the large returns of the small satellite.
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