Pictures transmitted back by Chang'e 1, China's first lunar probe, will
not show US astronauts' footprints on the moon due to insufficient resolution,
said a scientist yesterday afternoon.
"It depends on the camera's resolution to decide the size of the things that
can be shown in the pictures by the probe," said Sun Huixian, deputy chief
designer of the satellite system, at a press conference.
"If we want to see clearly from the picture a footprint with a length of 30
cm and a width of 10 cm, the camera must have a centimeter-level resolution. So
far, no camera carried by lunar probes have reached such a resolution in the
world," Sun said.
"Therefore, I'm sure that pictures by Chang'e 1 will not show footprints left
by US astronauts on the moon," he said.
Chang'e 1 completed its nearly two-million-km journey to the moon and entered
its final orbit yesterday morning. It is expected to relay the first picture of
the moon in late November.
In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission, the world's first manned mission for moon
landing, sent US astronauts to the moon.
