The first privately funded lunar mission launched today. The mission involves sending a 31-pound spacecraft called 4M, fitted with an antenna, small computer, and radiation sensor, on a Chinese rocket to Earth's satellite. Funded by private company LuxSpace, the craft will fly by the moon transmitting a signal back to Earth that can be picked up by amateur radio enthusiasts. The project is hitchhiking on a Chinese rocket transporting China's latest lunar spacecraft, which is also scheduled to fly by the moon -- another step in their moon exploration program.
4M began broadcasting exactly 77.8 minutes after it's launch at 1:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. LuxSpace is hosting a contest to see who can recieve the most messages from the private payload before the mission ends (You can compete either as an individual or as a team.). The messages sent from the payload will be sequences of tones broadcast at different frequencies. Even if you don't want to participate in the contest, you can track the mission's progress online.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @02:48AM
I seem to recall a few years ago there was a botched launch of a communications satellite. Hughes was able to put the thing in a useful orbit (although I don't think it was the original intended one) by flying it around the moon.
Ah, yes. Here [wikipedia.org] it is.
(Score: 1) by CirclesInSand on Friday October 24 2014, @06:52AM
...privately funded lunar mission launched today
The project is hitchhiking on a Chinese rocket transporting China's latest lunar spacecraft
So which is it? If the Chinese treasury is paying for the trip up, then it isn't privately funded.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday October 24 2014, @03:53PM
Rockets can have a primary payload, along with a secondary fare-paying payload in addition.
Even if they were flying on a SpaceX rocket, they probably would be sharing the launch with other payloads.