WENCHANG, China (AP) – Chinese technicians on Monday were making final preparations for a mission to retrieve material from the lunar surface for the first time in nearly half a century – an undertaking that could accelerate human understanding of the moon and solar system, more commonly.
Chang 5 – Named after the Chinese moon goddess – is the country’s most ambitious lunar mission. If successful, it would be a major breakthrough for China’s space program, and some experts say it could pave the way for bringing samples from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.
According to NASA’s description of the mission, four modules of the Chang5 spacecraft will be sent into space on Tuesday as part of a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang launch center off the coast of Henan in the southern island province.
The secret Chinese National Space Administration said only that a launch was scheduled for the end of November, although the lunar exploration project said in a statement Monday that success in rotation, landing and return would “lay a solid foundation for future missions.”
The main task of the mission is to drill 2 meters (about 7 feet) below the surface of the moon and bring back about 2 kilograms (4..4 pounds) of rocks and other debris to Earth, according to NASA. It will give scientists the first opportunity to study newly acquired lunar material since American and Russian missions in the 1960s and 1970s.
After a three-day voyage from Earth, Chang’s 5 landers’ time on the moon will be shorter and sweeter. It can only last one lunar day or about 14 Earth days, as it lacks radioisotope heating units to cope with the lunar night.
The lander will dig for the material with his drill and robotic arm and transfer it to the so-called climbing place, which will lift it out of the moon and dock it with a “service capsule”. The material will then be moved to the return capsule for a trip to Earth.
The technical complexity of the Change 5, along with its four components, makes it “remarkable in many ways”. Said John Johnson-Fries, a space expert at Naval War College College.
He said China is proving itself capable of developing and successfully implementing high-tech programs, critical to its influence in the region and potential for global partnership.
In particular, the ability to collect samples from space is increasing in value, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Other countries that plan to get material from asteroids or even Mars could draw attention to China’s experience, he said.
While the mission is “really challenging,” McDowell said China has already landed twice on the moon with its Chang 3 and Chang 4 missions, and 2014 Chang with 5 test missions showed it could return to Earth. , Re-insert and unload a capsule. The rest is to show that it can collect specimens and re-emerge from the moon.
“As a result, I’m very optimistic that China can pull this off,” he said.
The mission is one of China’s most courageous since it first launched a man into space in 2003, becoming the third nation to do so after the US and Russia.
Many of China’s crude spaceflight achievements, including building an experimental space station and running a space walk, reproduce other countries from the past, including the CNSA. Now moving into a new field.
Changi 4 – which was the first soft lander from a relatively distant side of the moon about two years ago – is currently collecting complete measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, important information for any country that plans to send astronauts to the moon.
In July China became one of three countries to launch a mission to Mars, in the case of China an orbiter and a rover that will detect water signs on the red planet. CNSA Says the spacecraft Tianwen is due to arrive on Mars around February 1st.
China is increasingly engaged on missions with foreign countries, and the European Space Agency will provide information on important ground stations for Changi 5.
U.S. The law still prevents most cooperation with NASA, except for China partnering with the International Space Station. Which has encouraged China to start work on its own space station and launch its own programs in Asian countries that are in constant competition with Japan and India to achieve new achievements in space.
With relatively few shocks in recent years, China’s space program has proceeded cautiously. The Long March 5 rocket, nicknamed “Fat 5” because of its large size, failed in a previous launch attempt, but then performed without error, including launching the Chang 4.
China does a lot of extra work and develops building blocks for long-term use for a variety of missions, Freeze-Johnson said. China’s one-party authoritarian system also “allows for difficult political will, often in democracies.”
U.S. Closely following China’s success, experts say China is unlikely to cooperate in space amid political suspicions, military hostilities and allegations of theft of Chinese technology.
“The U.S. is committed to space cooperation,” Johnson Frees said. The change in policy is not likely to attract the attention of the government in the near future.
