India, China send probes out of this world

Xinhua/Li Gang

Over the weekend, two separate pieces of hardware left Earth for other worlds. India's Mars Orbiter, its first mission to another planet, was placed into a Mars transfer orbit after several weeks of maneuvers near Earth. Separately, China's first lunar lander, the Chang'e 3, was both launched and sent into a Moon transfer orbit.

The Mars Orbiter was launched in early November and placed in Earth orbit. Over the last few weeks, a series of boosts stretched its orbit into a highly elliptical one. Finally, over the weekend, a final boost allowed the probe to escape Earth's gravity and enter a heliocentric orbit that's elliptical enough to take it out to Mars. Assuming that future course corrections go off without a hitch, the Mars Orbiter will arrive at the red planet in September 2014. The probe has already passed beyond the orbit of the Moon. It should arrive less than two months after the American MAVEN mission, which was launched later but on a more powerful rocket that sent it directly on its way to Mars.

Also over the weekend, China launched an ambitious mission to the Moon. The Chang'e 3 is China's first attempt at landing hardware on a different body. Assuming that the probe comes down gently, it will examine the lunar surface and interior with its own instruments but also release Yutu (Jade Rabbit), a rover that can examine areas beyond the immediate landing site. Chang'e 3 has already been boosted into a lunar transfer orbit and separated from its boost stages.