One of the biggest problems with landing a mission on the lunar far side is that spacecraft can\u2019t communicate directly with Earth from the surface, as the Moon itself blocks radio signals.<\/p>
To resolve this, China uses relay satellites to convey signals from the surface back to Earth.\u00a0<\/p> The first of these, Queqiao, launched on 20 May 2018.<\/p> It is in a halo orbit around the Earth\u2013Moon L2 Legrange point, which is directly behind the Moon with respect to Earth.<\/p> Queqiao helped support the Chang\u2019e 4 mission, the first ever to land on the lunar far side when it touched down within the Von K\u00e1rm\u00e1n crater in January 2019.<\/p> The Queqiao-2 relay satellite, launched in March 2024, is a larger craft weighing 1,200kg (2,645lb).<\/p> Queqiao-2 was placed in frozen elliptical lunar orbit, meaning it can support missions across the whole of the Moon.<\/p> A future constellation of Queqiao satellites has also been proposed, which could provide not just communications but also navigation and remote-sensing services.<\/p> Details are still largely unknown, but it\u2019s thought the first phase, Queqiao v1.0, could be in place by 2030.<\/p> It would consist of Queqiao-2 and the future Queqiao-3, as well as the Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 test satellites which would fly in formation to test lunar satnav and communication technologies.\u00a0<\/p> Queqiao v2.0, comprising 16 satellites, would then be deployed between 2030 and 2040, and would enable improved remote-sensing capabilities, higher bandwidth (1\u201310 GB\/s) and better positioning resolution.<\/p> The final generation, deployed in the 2040s, would have even higher performance and could also act as interplanetary relay stations.<\/p> This article appeared in the May 2024 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n How do you communicate with a spacecraft when the Moon is in the way? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":58786,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/how-does-china-communicate-with-change-6-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon-with-a-satellite-constellation.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"How do you communicate with a spacecraft when the Moon is in the way?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/58785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Queqiao lunar constellation<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Launch](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2097880342.jpg\")
The next step<\/strong><\/h2>
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