The award ceremony of Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) 2019 was held in London, Britain, on Nov 25, 2019. The Chang’e-4 lunar mission team received the only Team Gold Medal of the year awarded by RAeS of the UK, which is also the first award given to a Chinese project by the RAeS since its establishment 153 years ago.

▲CCTV news: The Chang’e-4 mission team wins the only Team Gold Medal worldwide at the 2019 award ceremony of the RAeS.

The Chinese delegation led by academician Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China’s lunar exploration project, took part in the award ceremony. On behalf of Chang’e-4 mission team, Wu thanked the society and the award committee for the medal, and welcomed more countries or organizations to carry out international aerospace exchange and cooperation with China, and jointly contribute to space exploration and scientific discovery of human beings.

The Chang’e 4 robotic probe consisting of a lander and the Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit-2) rover, the Queqiao relay satellite and carrier rockets used in engineering were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.Awakened by sunlight, the lander and Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) rover of the Chang’e-4 probe have switched from dormant mode during the lunar night and resumed work for the 12th lunar day on the far side of the moon.

▲This photo shows the lander and rover of the Chang’e-4 probe.

The lander has worked for more than 300 days on the far side of the moon, far beyond its design life, while the rover has traveled more than 300 metersdespite the complexity of the topography on the far side of the moon, achieving a double-300breakthrough.

During the new lunar day working period, the scientific payloads such as neutrons on the lunar surface, radiation dose detector and low-frequency radio spectrum instrument carried by the lander will continue to carry out scientific exploration of the lunar surface environment;the rover will continue to follow the planned route, and scientific payloads such as panoramic cameras, lunar exploration radars, infrared imaging spectrometers, and neutral atom detectors will also implement scientific exploration at different probe points.

▲This photo shows the award certificate awarded to Chang’e-4 team

The Chang’e-4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.With the support of the Queqiao relay satellite launched and deployed at the the Earth-moon second Lagrange Point in 2018, the lander and Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) rover of the Chang’e-4 probe respectively conducted in-situ detection and patrol survey, accomplishing a series of important scientific discoveriesand publishing more than 20 papers in academic journals such as Nature.

According to the data obtained by the scientific payload, the scientific research team has reconstructed the descent track of chang’e-4 on the far side of the moon and located the land point accurately; acquired geographic information on, among others, the topography, structure and composition of the landing area. It has also found the rock mainly composed of mineral components such as olivine and low calcium pyroxene, and made a preliminary judgment on its source, which are of great scientific value for revealing the scientific problems, on among others, the geographic evolution of the South Pole-Aitken Basin and early evolutionary history of the lunar crust, as well as the material structure and formation mechanism of the deep moon. In addition, the mission has collected a lot of data and initial findings in areas such as neutral atoms, neutrons on the lunar surface and radiation dose, and low-frequency radio spectrums.

▲The photo shows the gold medal awarded to Chang’e-4 mission team.

Widely praised by the international community, the Chang’e-4 probe has made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moonand the first relay communication between the far side of the moon and the earth,created a new milestone in the history of lunar exploration worldwide, and practiced the Chinese lunar exploration spirit of “chasing dreams, being brave in exploration, tackling tough problems cooperatively and achieving win-win cooperation”.

Founded in 1866, the RAeS was originally called the “British Aeronautical Society” and is the oldest and most influential aeronautical societies in the world, which is committed to the popularization and development of aerospace knowledge and technology globally. At present, the RAeS has branches in many countries and regions. It is an international and interdisciplinary professional organization, under which there are a number of subcommittees of experts, such as aerodynamics, flight simulation, aerodynamics, space, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc. The RAeS awards Gold Medal, Silver Medal and Bronze Medal to honor outstanding individuals worldwide every year. Since 2004, it has awarded Gold Medal, Silver Medal or Bronze Medal to honor teams that have made outstanding and pioneering contributions in the field of aerospace research and development.

Source: China Aerospace Science and Technology Group’s WeChat public account