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China’s National Space Administration released images on Friday showing the Chinese national flag deployed by the Chang’e-5 probe on the moon.
The images were taken by a panoramic camera installed on the spacecraft’s lander-ascender combination, before the elevator departed from the moon with lunar samples late Thursday.
In one of the images, a robotic arm to collect lunar samples can be seen next to the flag.
On December 15, 2013, color images showed the Chinese flag on the country’s first Yutu lunar rover, the first time the five-star red flag had been depicted on an extraterrestrial body.
Unlike flags from China’s previous moon missions, the flag on Chang’e-5 was made of real fabric, rather than a spray coating. Chinese engineers and technicians revealed the advanced engineering behind the special flag.
A flag made from traditional fabrics would most likely lose color and disintegrate in the harsh lunar environment of abrasive dust, unfiltered cosmic rays and solar flares.
The flag also needs to be as light and compact as possible, as the spacecraft has very little room for anything more than science equipment.
Last but not least, how to make the flag stay perfect on course to the moon and look good on camera?
The flag team of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Ltd. chose a spiral design, so that the flag unfolds smooth and flat and not wrinkled and drooping.
It took more than a year to find a new composite material that could withstand the hostile environment and be dyed with China’s vibrant national colors. After being rolled up, the fabric will not stick in temperatures between 150 degrees Celsius and 150 degrees below zero. The flag made with the fabric weighs only 12 grams.
Li Yunfeng, director of the flag system, said the flag system used a mechanical structure that was applied to the deployment of solar panels on satellites and spacecraft. The structure also makes the system weighing no more than 1 kg.
At the top there is a hollow sphere structure to fix the flag. Engineer Huang Min and lathe operator Liao Guangheng were inspired by the Gashapon capsule toys to make them so light.
A flag represents the dignity and honor of a country, Huang and Liao said: “We have to make sure it is spotless and infallible.”
A detonator opens the flag. To make sure it unfolded in a second, the team simulated the lunar environment with a huge temperature difference between day and night and ran dozens of tests.
Liu Haigang, a veteran milling machine operator, said the parts he was responsible for were the toughest challenge of his career.
He said he felt so proud when he finally put the finished pieces in the box because it was like looking at a work of art.
“When he lands on the moon, I’ll tell my grandson ‘Grandpa did this’.”
China’s Chang’e-5 probe was launched on November 24, and its lander-ascender combination landed north of Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1.
After the samples were collected and sealed, the Chang’e-5 elevator took off from the lunar surface late Thursday and is expected to carry out the unmanned rendezvous and dock with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit, a unprecedented feat.
Chang’e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history and the world’s first lunar champion mission in more than 40 years.
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